It’s been almost a year now since Bandai Namco soft-launched a free to play version of the updated take on their classic Pac-Man franchise Pac-Man Championship Edition DX ($2.99), but at long last the game has finally gone worldwide as of earlier today. What took so long? Well, the version that soft-launched last year was built with all the typical free to play trappings, like in-game currencies and timers, and was met with plenty of criticism from fans, especially those who have enjoyed the various premium Pac-Man Championship games on consoles and even right here on iOS over the years.

So Bandai Namco took that to heart and, as we learned at their Global Gamers Day back in April, they’ve reworked the entire game as a buy-once, premium product. So, as of this newest release of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, you can slap your five bucks down and get your Pac-Man on to your heart’s content. I’m just diving into the new release myself, but the old free to play version was quite awesome gameplay- and control-wise, so I expect this to be similar. Check it out, especially if you’re not a big fan of free to play and want to support these types of premium games, and don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the game’s forum thread as well.