I have some history with Pac-Man. More so than most gamers. I was five years old when the first Pac-Man arcade machine hit the U.S. shores and it certainly had me hooked as soon as I put my hands on its arcade joystick. Much like my attention, Pac-Man took the world by storm and hasn’t looked back since.
Over the last 40 years and some change, publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment has made an absolute living off different iterations of their famous IP, in hopes of keeping people engaged and interested. I think for the most part they have done a fantastic job, as multiple generations can identify their little yellow Pac fella, and it appears that the publisher is still finding new ways to use him.
In their latest idea, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs, the publisher has made him a competitive figure that puts the player against the player across multiple Pac-Man mazes. Dozens of players compete in a TRON-esque elimination scenario to try and hang on to be the last Pac standing. While this latest edition of the Pac-Man IP is somewhat a mixture of the four-player arcade Pac-Man game and a sprinkle of Fall Guys, it may not have the moxie that most of its brethren came within prior iterations.
So, sit back and relax, strategize your pellets and power-ups, and let’s get this review started.
Modes and mundane mayhem
Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs felt like an extension of previous Pac-Man competitive games but wasn’t as fast and furious as the others that came before it. It was sorta dumbed down but in a thoughtful way. Developer Amber Studios stuck their creation somewhere between the four-player arcade Pac-Man and Pac-Man 99. Not a bad place to be stuck but it could have used the urgency and competitive push from the former to ignite the gameplay and keep it interesting.
Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs’ key gameplay elements revolved around a competitive game of you against other Pac people and how to strategically screw over them over directly or indirectly. I know that seems like a simplistic gameplay explanation but only because it is that simple.
The competitive element of the game is having Pac-Men go against each other across one another’s mazes. You start the game in your own maze, but doorways open at specific times that allow you to shift over to another player’s maze. The purpose? To disrupt them and force them to lose their lives. The methods? By either forcing them into a strategy via power-ups that put them in harms way or by eating a power pellet and consuming them directly…if they haven’t eaten a power pellet prior.
Strategy that isn’t shabby
Starting with the strategic complication, the game feeds your Pac person random power-ups during your travels on every maze, yes, even ones that aren’t yours, and they come in a variety of flavors. Those power-up flavors are:
- Shield – This power-up protects you a certain number of times against ghosts. You bump into them and push them back.
- Ghost repellent – This power-up keeps ghosts away from you in a defined circular area around your Pac-Man.
- Speed Boost – This power-up speeds your Pac-Man up, which is a nice change of pace because they start out going so darn slow.
- Dizzy – There is a power-up that makes everyone in the maze dizzy, both ghosts and other players alike. Out of all the power-ups, this might be the most valuable, especially if you’re trying to win a match by chomping down the competition.
- Heart+1 – This is an extra Pac-Man. Equally as valuable as the dizzy power-up, especially toward the end of a level. The longer you can survive, the better chance you have of winning.
Beyond player power-ups, there are also negative power-ups that are marked in red. These power-ups can be used by the ghosts to gain an advantage. That advantage could be speeding a ghost up or pointing all ghosts in your direction. These are interesting power-ups that do add some strategy to the game, especially if you’re trying to turn ghosts on your opponent.
Overall, the power-ups might be the most engaging part of Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs. They add so much value to the game and strategically screwing over your opponent. They help keep the game competitive, which is great because the more connection you can have with wanting to win a match, the better the MP experience is going to be.
Hazy Mazy
The other part of the game that separates it from other Pac-Man IPs out there is having the ability to invade another player’s maze. The game will open doorways to other mazes periodically as you play. You can go into these mazes, which are owned by other players, or simply ignore them. The choice is yours and no choice is wrong, though I will say that I have had more success sticking with my own maze than not.
Anyway, once you invade another player’s maze, you use the above power-ups to disrupt and hopefully take out your opponent through strategically placed mistakes, or you simply eat them. The eating part is just snatching a power pellet before they do and eating them up like a ghost, if they don’t eat a power pellet prior. Once they are eaten or they are taken out by ghosts, they lose a life, just like in the regular game. Once they lose all their lives, they’re eliminated from the overall game.
During my time with Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs, I spent a good portion of the gameplay not invading others’ mazes. When I did, it was because I wanted to keep the game interesting and engaging, but if I did not, I usually won the match. Outlasting your opponent typically worked better than taking them out. While there should have been motivation to enter other mazes and be a complete a-hole, the game just didn’t provide enough reason other than to be cruel. I’ve played Battlefield and Call of Duty enough to know being cruel during MP matches is fun, but this one seemed a bit too easy when it came to snagging a victory by not being a-hole.
That’s a bit of a problem with this game and what drove it to a more mundane competitive personality. There just isn’t enough reason to leave your maze. There’s no motivation beyond just ending the match as soon as possible. And you never want that to be the motivation, as you want to give a competitive reason for people to keep hanging on in a match. I love the idea, but I’m not sure that it was completely drawn out in a motivating way.
Players need a competitive reason to do something in an MP game. For example, Battlefield gives you a lot of maps to traverse in hopes of getting the best advantage to get the most kills. It gives you a little space, hiding spots, and plenty of elbow room to be the best. It challenges you in so many ways and pushes you to be the best. For Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs, it just says that you can get into another maze but doesn’t really provide you with a competitive advantage or motivation when you choose that way to win. It’s weird to feel that way about this game because I know the devs are one gameplay design step away from nailing it, but I don’t think they achieved that competitive push that makes MP games work so well. Again, there just isn’t enough reason or competitive advantage to go into another player’s maze, which is half the fun of the game.
Now, having said all the above, the game tries to provide you with a variety of ways to play – or at least two. There is a ranked and unranked mode. The ranked mode provides you with some push toward being competitive and driven to win, win, and win some more. It’s nice to see stats and feel like you’re doing better than the other player when you’re riding the ranked wave. As much as I love data, it’s not a good reason to keep playing.
The unranked mode is just non-competitive entertainment but doesn’t change things up too much. It is short stints of the same type of entertainment. It is just not competitive entertainment. Just quick battles.
For both modes, they do come with mini-goals that crop up. Those goals can be eating a certain number of goals, eating pellets, or invading several spaces in a span of time. The goals are there to give the player some gameplay variety and provide some methods for gaining XP and coins, but nothing beyond that type of variety. Most of the time, you won’t pay attention to the goals because they are located in the upper-center part of the screen, which is a portion of the screen you won’t actually keep your eyes on. Anyway, the mini-goals are there but not huge game-changers.
Overall, the gameplay isn’t deep or motivating when it comes to bringing out the competitive nature of players. It’s just a more complicated version of Pac-Man but not so much that it separates itself from better iterations of the IP.
Fall Guys Lite
A couple of things crossed my mind when I was playing this and they all pointed towards Fall Guys. The multiplayer team aspect is very much like Fall Guys, where you can have up to four people on a team and the team can be cross-platform. Yep, you can have a PC player, Xbox Player, and Switch player all taking part in the same game. Not too bad and not complicated like FG.
The customization is also very FG. The more XP and coins you gather, the more you can unlock and/or purchase to dress your Pac-Man up in clothes, give them a new maze, or provide them with a unique emote. It’s nothing too wild, but it’s a nice set of customization options that keep pushing you to keep playing. That helps when the gameplay is a bit lite on the entertainment side of things.
You can see in these two aspects how much influence came from Fall Guys. Even the icons and interface look similar. There’s nothing wrong with that, as it feels familiar, but it’s just not enough to make up for some underwhelming gameplay.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs from Amber Studio and Bandai Namco Entertainment is light on the competitive entertainment that the game seemingly promises. While it does have spurts of fun and some solid customization options, it just doesn’t create enough competitive motivation to keep the game engaging or interesting.
