Pac-Man Party Royale is a game for the Apple Arcade service, released in October 2019 by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is a follow-up to the arcade game Pac-Man Battle Royale, and features similar gameplay and mechanics to it.
Gameplay[]
There are 3 types of gameplay, with slight variations between them. In "Quick Play", you can add controllers to play locally or alternatively add Pac-Bots to act as players. In "Party", you can either create or join a party online using a code. In both of these modes, the settings are customizable (such as maze themes, power-pellet abilities, NPC ghosts, etc.) The third Game mode is Battle Arena, in which the player is thrown into a random online room with randomized settings. As the player wins matches, their rank will go up. Ranks are reset after each calendar month, but the players final rank from the last month will give a boost for the new month. Each mode has the same basic gameplay for matches.
The four players are put into a maze with Pac-Dots scattered all over. When a player eats a Pac-Dot, they will speed up. After a certain amount of Pac-Dots are eaten, the player will gain max speed. When all of the Pac-Dots are eaten on screen, they all immediately regenerate, allowing for more ways of gaining speed. The last Pac-Man standing by the end of the round is the winner.
Eventually, a Power Pellet will spawn somewhere in the maze, moving away from players who try to grab it. A player at basic speed is not fast enough to grab the pellet; but once their speed is raised to around half of the bar, they are fast enough to grab it. Once the pellet is eaten, it will give the eater one of a total of four temporary powers (possibly less depending on the settings set by the player), including:
- Energizer: The player gains a rainbow hue, along with increased movement speed and the power to eat other players and ghosts. (Prior to the addition of Electric Field and L.A.S.E.R., players without and with this power-up could eat any ghost.)
- Electric Field: The player gains a circular electric field around them which zaps other Pac-Men and ghosts. The field will shrink as time goes on. (In older versions, the field grew larger by time.)
- L.A.S.E.R.: A laser will shoot from the player's face, zapping other players and ghosts if they stay in its path too long. The laser is stopped by walls and is always completely straight.
- Air Strike: Missiles will rain down from the sky. Anyone caught in the smoke clouds left behind (except the eater) will either be turned into a ghost or stunned. The eater will eat any player and NPC ghosts, but act normal to other players.
There are also two enemy ghosts. The red one, Blinky, acts as a classic Pac-Man ghost - chasing a player until they are caught, either by itself or another player. The green ghost, known as "Itchy", will spawn in similarly to a Power Pellet, but having the opposite effect; giving the player one of four bad effects, which make the player temporarily vulnerable in some way. These include:
- Inverted controls: The player's controls are inverted for the duration of the effect
- Slow: The player's speed is lowered for the duration of the effect. The player is still able to gain speed through Pac-Dots while the effect is going on.
- Bait: The player is vulnerable to be eaten by other players (even without a power pellet) for the duration of the effect.
- Muzzle: The player is unable to eat Pac-Dots or Power Pellets for the duration of the effect
When a player is eaten, they will become a ghost. When a player becomes a ghost, they lose the ability to eat Pac-Dots but still retain the speed they had when they were a Pac-Man. If a ghost-turned Pac-Man catches another player, the roles are reversed; turning the Ghost back into Pac-Man, and vice-versa. A player ghost is unaffected by enemy ghosts and the Power Pellet.
If a round has been going on for a long period of time, the Map 256 Glitch will begin manifesting itself from the outer edges of the maze. The Glitch will defeat any Pac-Man upon contact; the last Pac-Man to survive the glitch will be declared the winner. Also, any ghost (player or enemy) will get wiped out, making any player ghost unable to play and all players killed in the glitch will be represented with a colorless ghost.
Fruits can be used to give the player other power-ups. The first fruit added into the game is the Cherry, which makes the player who ate it invisible. More fruits will be added in future updates.
Outfits are items that affect the player’s look. There are 3 styles: Hats, Gloves, and Boots. If the player has all 3 with a specific name, the player has made a set. Emotes are the 2nd type. They make the player do certain actions. There are 3 types: Waiting, Victory, and Defeat.
Festivals allow the player to get rewards. To get them, the player needs XP by playing battles or completing missions. XP Boosters double the player’s XP. Missions come in as Weekly and Daily. Daily missions reset each day and Weekly missions reset each week. When the player finishes a battle, they gain a certain number of XP based on win or loss. A win is 50 and a loss is 10. Festivals replace the Weekly Challenge. In the weekly challenge, players tried to win 7 battles and if they did they would get an outfit.
Players[]
- Yellow Pac-Man
- Green Pac-Man
- Azure Pac-Man
- Magenta Pac-Man
Other[]
Leagues[]
A "league" is a rank in the Battle Arena mode. Each league has 3 tiers, which raise the number a games you need to win to advance to the next teir/league. The ammount it raises by for each teir up depends on what league you are in. There are 6 leagues, including:
- Bronze
- Silver
- Gold
- Crystal
- Diamond
- Legendary
Trivia[]
- The launch trailer for the game on YouTube is misspelled as "Pac-Man Party Royal".
- The logo for the game's promotional artwork does not include the dots and dashes inside the letters of "Pac-Man".
- While the 256 glitch is a reference to the original Map 256 Glitch, its specific mechanic in this game may be a reference to Pac-Man 256.
- There is a glitch with the Air Strike power-up that causes any player to die even if they were not near an Air Strike mine.
Gallery[]
