If you've been honing your Pac-Man skills recently (and you've had 20-odd years to practice) you might raise an eyebrow at Namco's newly-announced Pac-Man World Championship, which is offering the XBLA Pac-Man champ some truly scrumptious prizes.

First place wins you a trip to New York to meet Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani, 26 years of Quiznos toasted sandwiches (that'd take care of our lunch until retirement), 100,000 Microsoft points (about $1,250) and a special Pac-Man Xbox 360. Better than three games and a t-shirt, we're sure you'll agree.

The contest will run between April 25 and May 9 on Xbox Live Arcade, and two leaderboard toppers from both North America and Europe, as well as one from Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Japan and Mexico, will be shipped off to New York for the final.

Uber ghost-munchers will also be joined by a random nutter from the North America-only Pac-Man FANatic competition, which asks the public to send in videos to prove their devotion to the fat yellow chap.

"The success of Pac-Man stems from its fun gameplay and host of characters that have been enjoyed by families for generations," said Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man. "It will be exciting to see Pac-Man fans from around the world compete on Xbox Live Arcade to become the first-ever Pac-Man World Champion."

You can see the full list of rules on the XBL tournament website.

April 18, 2007