Pac-Man Battle Royale (パックマンバトルロイヤル Pakkuman Batoru Roiyaru) is a multiplayer maze arcade game in the Pac-Man series, developed and manufactured by Namco Bandai Games in 2010, in commemoration of Pac-Man's 30th anniversary. The game features a competitive-based take on the Pac-Man maze gameplay,
Pac-Man Battle Royale would inspire several related Pac-Man battle-royale themed sequels and games, such as Pac-Man Party Royale, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle and Pac-Man Battle Royale CHOMPionship.
Gameplay[]
Gameplay screenshot with four players.
Pac-Man Battle Royale is a multiplayer-focused competitive version of Pac-Man maze gameplay, where two to four Pac-Men (colored yellow, blue, pink and red respectively) fight for survival in the maze in order to be the last Pac-Man surviving. Up to four players can play simultaneously, though the game can also be played in single player. If the game is played in single player, the player will play with a computer-controlled Pac-Man. The game features three speed levels (fast, normal and slow), which depend based on the arcade operators' active setting.
Basic gameplay features a set up inspired by Pac-Man Championship Edition. Each Pac-Man spawns in a respective area in the maze, and eat Pac-Dots. Ghosts Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde also appear in the maze, periodically appearing one by one as the game progresses. Once all the Pac-Dots in the maze are eaten or one of the periodically appearing fruits are eaten, the maze will be refreshed with a new set of Pac-Dots and potentially Power Pellets.
With the main focus on competitive play, the main goal of Pac-Man Battle Royale is to eliminate all other opponents by eating rival Pac-Man players or by having rival Pac-Man players be caught by the ghosts. Each Pac-Man can bump into opponents' Pac-Man and push both Pac-Men backwards in order to push them away from specific areas or to push them into ghosts. If a Pac-Man eats a Power Pellet, their Pac-Man will grow double their size for a short period of time and will be able to eat opponents' Pac-Men in addition to being able to eat scared ghosts. The time length of the Power Pellet will vary depending on the Pac-Man's position between other rival Pac-Men, and a powered-up Pac-Man that bumps into another powered-up Pac-Man will simply bump into each other. As the game progresses, the speed of the game will periodically begin increasing after Clyde exits the Ghost House.
Screenshot at the end of the final round, where the winning title is given to a player; from Pac-Man Museum +.
The last Pac-Man player surviving at the end of a game is declared the winner of the round; if the round progresses for a very long time however, the round will end by timeout (the length of this depends on the game's selected setting via the arcade operator). By default, each game consists of 5 rounds (this can range between 3 and 9 rounds depending on the game's selected setting via the arcade operator), with each round featuring a different maze layout, noticeably becoming larger each round. On the winning screen for each round, eliminated players can press the Start button to throw paint balls on the winning player as a taunt. Upon completion of the final round, a shining title is given to the winning player (usually determined by the player who defeated/ate the most Pac-Men), though other players are also given achievements based on their statistics for the current game (most fruit collected, most ghosts eaten, and etc.)
Machine types[]
Three different arcade machine types are known to have been produced:
- "Cocktail" model: The first model produced, based on the classic "cocktail" tabletop machines of the 80s. It has two joysticks on opposing ends of the cabinet.
- "Deluxe" model: The Deluxe machine model features four pedestals for each player, with a large, flat-screen monitor. This model is likely the most common of the three cabinets, being widely distributed in the United States.
- "Pedestal only" model: Towards the later 2010s, the Deluxe cabinet model was no longer sold with a screen. Vendors could only buy the joystick pedestal, which could then be connected to a separate (generic) monitor or a projector.
Home Ports[]
- iOS (iPhone, iPad, etc; now defunct)
- An iOS "demo" version of Pac-Man Battle Royale was released in 2011, which allows up to four players to play the first round of a game. The iOS version was promoted as a demo version of for the arcade game; showing a picture of the machine on the title screen, while stating "Before you go to the arcade, give it a try!!".[1]
- Two selection modes were available: Local Battle, in which all players would use the same device, and Linked Battle, which allowed multiple devices to connect via Bluetooth.[1]
- Nintendo Switch
- Included in Pac-Man Museum +.
- PlayStation 3
- Included in Pac-Man Museum.
- PlayStation 4
- Included in Pac-Man Museum +.
- Windows PC
- Included in Pac-Man Museum and Pac-Man Museum +.
- Xbox 360
- Included in Pac-Man Museum.
- Xbox One/Xbox Series
- Included in Pac-Man Museum +.
Trivia[]
- Pac-Man doubles in size when he eats a Power Pellet in this game, acting similar to the Super Pellet's Super Pac-Man transformation from Super Pac-Man.
- An unreleased Xbox 360 game titled Pac-Man Party, developed around 2009, is a precursor to Pac-Man Battle Royale; with its main gameplay mode featuring nearly identical mechanics. The exact reasoning behind the game being reworked into an arcade release is unknown.
- This was the first original Pac-Man arcade game since Pac-Man Arrangement, which released 14 years before Battle Royale.
- When a round ends and the results show up, the player(s) who lost can press the start button to throw tomatoes on the winning player’s portrait.
- The earliest revision of Pac-Man Battle Royale featured the song "Pac is Back!" by Towa Tei as its title/attract theme (while crediting Tei in-game).[2] However, the song was removed in all later revisions, reportedly following its initial test-marketing period; allegedly due to arcade operators being annoyed by it, to the point of muting the entire machine's audio.[3]
- There was reportedly an alternate, later version of the Battle Royale software, which ended up never being released. The exact changes are unknown, but one confirmed difference is that the alternate build would have three CPU opponents in single-player rounds, instead of just one opponent like the standard build. This feature may have been incorporated into Pac-Man Battle Royale CHOMPionship.[4]
- While Battle Royale was technically released in Japan (even predating the game's U.S. launch), it did not enter full production in the region; only select, Namco-operated arcades and events featured the machine.
- A set of plush toys based on Pac-Man Battle Royale was released by Toy Factory in 2017 (alongside a Ms. Pac-Man set), featuring the four different Pac-Man colors.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
