A snake of ghosts trailing behind you, neon everywhere, and the game speeding up past all reason.

On gut choice, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX stays below the middle, ahead of roughly a third of games. But look at the breakdown and the picture flips. Art style goes off, ahead of 92% of titles, with controller feel right behind at 87%. Two very high marks, on few votes, but pointing the same way. Fun and the desert island question hold above average, the soundtrack lands dead centre. What slips is attachment, low. And there is the tension, plain as day: the community recognises an insanely precise machine to play, and does not bond with it. Admired, not quite loved.

That is the usual fate of score games. No character here, no story, just an acceleration curve and a clock. Its greatness lives in the gesture, not in the memory.

So, who is it for? For you if you like hunting the perfect line, restarting to shave three seconds, feeling your reflexes lock onto the music. Much less so if you want a game to leave you something once the run is over.