Pac-Man may be the scary side of 40 years old now, but the gaming icon has never stopped trying to be relevant. From Pac-Man 256 to Pac-Man Kart Rally and Pac-Man Museum+, it’s a series that has seen countless reinventions and ideas as it fights to cater to the ever-changing tastes of gamers. Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is the latest game in the series and a textbook example of this hunger to say on the pulse of current trends.
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This is an online-only Pac-Man offering that bills itself as an eating competition. But, look between the lines and what we have here is a Battle Royale game, based around the Pac-Man series.
Pac-Battle
Though even more interesting, this isn’t the first Battle Royale for the brand. Pac-Man 99 on the Switch can claim that title. Which was a well-received title across the board, but then killed off some two and a half years after its launch.
Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is also an interesting title as it started life on Google Stadia as an exclusive. Before being lost to the sands of time when Google canned the platform. So, in a way Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is a re-release with a few little tweaks, but on the whole it’s a port.
You must eat your way through multiple interconnected mazes, while finding and using Power Pellets and other classic Power Items to dispatch the pesky Ghosts, as well as well as other players. There are another 64 players in the mix, all so you can be the last standing Pac at the end of each match.
In reality this plays just like any other Pac-Man game, where you navigate around thinking of the best ways to build up combos by eating as many Ghosts in one go. But the curve ball is that other players can, and will, come after you, adding an interesting spin in the age-old formula.
New Formula
You can stay and clear your maze or be a bit of a dick and jump maze to maze, eating the Ghost killing Power Pellets from other players mazes, so they don’t have them to take care of them. You can also bank a power up to use where and when you want, which is a life saver in a lot of ways.
Though clear your maze and it will level up becoming a bit bigger and with a fresh batch of pellets and dots, as well as the Ghosts getting a bit faster and more aggressive. This adds just enough strategy to the gameplay to get you to play around with how best to play. Bearing in mind the overall goal is to be the last standing player.
The game has a few modes like ranked, unranked and training – with ranked being the main mode, which sees you scoring a win if you finish in the top 32 and oddly even if you crash and burn, there’s no way of losing your points. So, it’s less like a flowing ranked mode and more just a grind to the top.
Plus, I think I have spotted more than a few bots in the ranged matches I have played, clearly to make up the 64-player quota, but it’s a bit of a cheeky move.
Look of Pac
Visually, the game looks like Pac-Man just with some flashy neon fuelled elements, plus you can customise your maze and even Pac-Man to your own taste, adding a nice level of personalisation to the game.
Sound is a techno affair, but with the legendry Pac-Man theme being shoehorned into the track and these overall can become very repetitive after a bit.
Being a mainly online title there are also a few issues we found like Ghost not loading, or just being invisible or lag just killing your flow. Though this one is best fixed by playing in your own region.
Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is a title that is fun, but it’s very light on modes and features which for a standalone priced title is a bit of a killer. Plus, with it bringing online only…really, it’s going to live and die by its player base and to have a strong enough one it should have been offered as a free to play game, with the standard season pass or paid for cosmetics, to bring in the cash beyond its £15.99/€19.99/$19.99 price tag.