Ars plays Pac-Man Championship Edition 2. (video link)

Long after arcades faded from the height of pop culture, but well before cheap apps and microtransactions ruled the gaming world, there was a pretty amazing transitional period for cheap, quick-blast gaming: the world of Xbox Live Arcade. Microsoft’s service launched on the Xbox 360 with low-priced apps and a reliance on arcade classics, and shortly after its debut, Pac-Man proved it out as a great place for new, arcade-inspired experiences.

Pac-Man Championship Edition garnered praise and sales in equal measure in 2007 for putting a lovely “modern-retro” spin on the series, and in 2010, that game’s tweaks got their own tweaks in a “DX” update of the game. Six years later, Namco has returned with one more pass in the form of Tuesday’s Pac-Man Championship Edition 2.