Going into E3 I would never have guessed that my favorite experience of the show would involve a thirty year old arcade franchise, but thus far Pac-Man Battle Royale has proven me dead wrong. Touchgen went hands-on with Namco’s newest arcade title, and had an astoundingly good time.
Pac-Man Battle Royale is a four player arcade cabinet that takes the classic and familiar game of Pac-Man and adds a social element. At the start of each round, each of the four players is spawned at one of the corners of the screen. In this stage, all players can do is collect pellets and bounce off of each other. Once every pellet is collected, a new set of pellets is spawned, and this set includes power pellets that increase the size of any Pac-Man that consumes them. In the “Super Pac-Man” state, larger Pac-Men can eat both ghosts and players that are not powered up. Logically, if two powered up characters run into each other they will bounce off one another. While the bouncing mechanic may seem like a throwaway feature, bumping a friend into a ghost or a powered up Pac-Man are both necessary at times to save oneself. Each round ends when only one Pac-Man is left alive, and the game ends after a number of rounds determined by the cabinet owner. Playing Pac-Man Battle Royale with friends is a treat, and the experience takes my mind back to the days of GoldenEye and Mario Kart 64.
Touchgen was only able to go hands-on with the full cabinet arcade version of the game, but Namco’s General Manager of Apple Games, Jonathan Kromrey, confirmed that the title will be available on both iPhone and iPad later this year. Interestingly enough, Pac-Man Battle Royale for iPhone and iPad will support Namco’s UniteSDK™ technology that allows for cross-platform multiplayer. This technology has already been used in Namco’s Pool Pro Online 3, a game that received 4.5/5 stars from Nigel in his review.
Our hands on with Pac-Man Battle Royale was filled with spirited and friendly- except for Dave – competition. The fact that we played the game for nearly one hour indicates that we enjoyed our time with it immensely. Look forward to seeing the iPhone and iPad adaptations of what so far has been my favorite game of the show.
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