"Kenta Chou?" I slowly nipped at my pipe, staring off into the distance. 'Haven't heard that name in a long time. Back when I was into 2D simulation games, I used to tell anyone with ears to check out Kenta Chou's amazing games. Perhaps his best known game is "rRootage" (now available in a remastered version), but honestly, every game the man makes is worth your time.

So I went to play "Paku Paku," which was released last year and has only recently come to my attention, and noticed with pleasure that it is another game specially made by Cho. Cho's game is about table flipping, that is, one mechanism or idea around which everything else in the game revolves, and "Pac-Man" is also based on the table-flipping mechanism of running away from ghosts and chasing them once they power up. It is based on the flip mechanism. [Pac-Man is a genius game, but a fairly simple one. Pacman is a genius game, but a fairly simple one. Pacman narrows it down even further, giving you one pathway, one ghost, one power pill, and the end of the screen to go around. All you have to do is turn Pac-Man around as the ghosts come home in, a one-button game. You can play it here.

You'll be surprised how much Cho pulls out of this game, thanks to a simple application of momentum and some smart ideas about the rhythm of the ghosts chasing and being chased. First, and most obviously, the game speeds up as you munch your way through waves of pills (once you've eaten them all, a new row is created, and every row has one power pill). Ghost is slightly faster than Pac-Man, so as your score goes up, you too will be violently changing directions and going back and forth (Ghost can't use the edge of the screen like you can.)

And the ghost changes more quickly, so much so that eating the ghost can be a major risk. Add to that changes like a frightened ghost instantly reverting to a hunter ghost when you complete the medicine line, and suddenly these simple ideas are overlaid with an incredible one-more-go, what-happened-at-my-lunchtime quality.

Paku Paku is one of hundreds of games on Cho's ABA Games label, alongside his own open-source Crisp Game Lib engine (dedicated to developing stripped-back designs like this game). 'Every little game has its own unique charm,' he says. I believe so." His work proves it, and while I'm sure there are plenty more "crunchy" games to be found on the ABA Games site (try "Torus Trooper"), for now I'll head back to update my high score.