Namco announces Cube Pac-Man bundle plans

The multiplayer GameCube adaptation of arcade classic Pac-Man, which Shigeru Miyamoto demonstrated prior to this year's E3 (and, in a silly skit involving the yellow blob's creator Toru Iwatani, begged to be allowed to release), will be made available for free to punters who buy any of three upcoming Namco releases for Nintendo GameCube, the two companies have announced.

Starting this December at US retail, gamers purchasing Pac-Man World 2, R: Racing Evolution or I-Ninja (the latter is a PS2 exclusive in Europe) will be given a free copy of Pac-Man Vs. With Pac-Man World 2 joining the budget Player's Choice label on December 2nd, this will mean the game is available for a mere $19.95, which should please those commentators who questioned the value of the game, even though they all confessed to loving it. R: Racing Evolution and I-Ninja will both cost $49.95.

Although Nintendo UK has yet to comment on the offer, the firm hasn't previously shied away from bonus and demo disc promotions in this country.

"Pac-Man vs.", to give the game its official name, strays from the classic formula of yellow blob collecting dots by giving three other players control of Pac's "ghost" adversaries. While the player controlling Pac-Man sees the game as we're used to it - a full screen maze with dots, ghosts and Pac - he does so only thanks to the privacy of the Game Boy Advance. Each of the three ghosts sees only a small chunk of the playing area on a TV screen split three ways. Having played it for hours at E3 in May, we declared that "Even your missus and the kids will be interested".