Development of Championship Edition was headed by director Tadashi Iguchi, alongside producer Nobutaka Nakajima and designer and the father of Pac-Man, Toru Iwatani, the original creator of Pac-Man — Championship Edition was the final game he designed.

Unhappy with earlier attempts to remake Pac-Man for removing many of the common elements present in the original, the development team focused on taking the original concept and expanding on two core features: the game speed and new mazes, which they felt would be the best way to "modernize" it.

Backed by a large marketing campaign orchestrated by Microsoft and Namco Bandai, Pac-Man Championship Edition was well-received by critics.

[5] Namco Bandai Games producer Nobutaka Nakajima noticed how the classic Pac-Man gameplay took place on a tall, vertical screen, in drastic comparison to the widescreen HD television sets most consumers have, alongside its "very low-resolution, old-school gameplay.

"[5] With next generation video game consoles posing much more powerful hardware, the idea of a modernized remake of Pac-Man for HD televisions came into fruition.

[5] Nakajima became the project's producer, assisted by director Tadashi Iguchi and designer Toru Iwatani, the original creator of Pac-Man.

"[5] With Championship Edition, he went back to the roots of the original to expand on its concept, while still keeping the game's core mechanics intact.

[5] When the development team was discussing with Iwatani about the idea of the game, Namco Bandai was approached by Microsoft about a crossover promotional event centered around Pac-Man;[5] with this in mind, the team focused on making the idea of players playing together a focal point for the game, wanting it to be full of excitement and action.

[5] Iguchi claimed that the original Pac-Man was a success because of its "compelling" gameplay experience, and said that trying to improve on it was a difficult task.

[5] The development team also wanted Championship Edition to be appealing towards more "modern" players, those who had never played Pac-Man during its heyday.

The top two scorers, Robert Glashuettner of Austria and Carlos Daniel Borrego Romero of Mexico, competed for the championship in a single five-minute round.

[11][12] A "demastered" version of Pac-Man Championship Edition that runs on real Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System hardware is included in the game compilation Namco Museum Archives Vol.

Critics felt that Namco Bandai successfully brought the core idea of the original into the modern era of video games.

[30] IGN criticised the PSP mini version due to the absence of online leaderboards and its inferiority to its sequel.