This Week in Defunct Games - January 20, 2012

What Is It? Do you like Pac-Man and really into robbing banks? Then boy do I have a game for you. It's called Lock 'N Chase and it is this week's Virtual Console release. Imagine Namco's yellow pellet-muncher as a bank robber. You're tasked with picking up dots symbolizing money (instead of, you know, dots) and dodging police men. By picking up a diamond you will turn invincible and eliminate the cops from the board, not unlike Pac-Man's power pellet. There's also a big bag of money, which takes the place of Pac-Man's fruit.

Think the similarities end there? Think again, because both of these games are based on arcade hits from the early 1980s. Lock 'N Chase was Data East's response to the success of Pac-Man, which certainly explains why this feels so familiar. Thankfully Data East did bring some originality to the table. Your bank-robbing hero is able to set up temporary walls that block the cops, giving you the opportunity to escape with all your riches. Outside of that slight variation, this is Pac-Man with a new set of clothes.

Does It Still Hold Up? Lock 'N Chase was hardly a visual tour de force in the arcades and the same is definitely true here. Your character is cute in a simple way and the action is easy to control. Each level has a different layout, which certainly adds to the charm. Unfortunately, much like the Game Boy version of Pac-Man, the portable screen is too small to display the full map. The scrolling gets annoying and really shows the limitations of the older hardware.

Is It Worth The Money? It's hard not to be disappointed with Lock 'N Chase. After taking two weeks off, it's frustrating to start the year with a Pac-Man clone. It's easy to see why people loved this Data East arcade game in the 1980s, but it's just not worth the money in 2012. The scrolling levels and slow speed makes Lock 'N Chase difficult to recommend.