Pac-Man Battle Royale[b] is a 2010 maze battle-royale arcade game in the Pac-Man series. Developed and published by Namco Bandai Games, it was made in celebration of Pac-Man's 30th Anniversary.[1] The game sees up to four players control multi-colored Pac-Men as they try to compete to be the last Pac-Man standing.
| Pac-Man Battle Royale | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | Namco Bandai Games |
| Publisher(s) | Namco Bandai Games[a] |
| Director(s) | Kunito Komori |
| Series | Pac-Man |
| Platform(s) | Arcade |
| Release | January 21, 2011 |
| Genre(s) | Maze |
| Arcade system | Namco System 147 |
It was released for arcades in January 2011, and was released on several platforms afterwards following its release.
Gameplay
In Pac-Man Battle Royale, up to four players can compete at once, choosing a game length of between three and nine rounds. Each player controls a differently coloured Pac-Man character (yellow, pink, blue and red); a single player faces one computer-controlled Pac-Man opponent. The players move throughout a maze, avoiding ghosts and attempting to eat dots and power pellets scattered throughout. New dots and pellets appear whenever the players eat them all. In addition; if any player eats a bonus item that appears next to the ghosts' cage, all remaining dots and pellets are immediately removed and replaced.
When a Pac-Man eats a power pellet, they grow in size and can eat the ghosts and any un-powered Pac-Men until the pellet wears off. During this time, the un-powered Pac-Men turn blue but retain an outline of their original colour, and they cannot eat ghosts.
Un-powered Pac-Men are eliminated from the round when they either run into a ghost or are eaten by a powered-up Pac-Man. If two Pac-Men of equal strength run into each other, they are knocked backward a short distance but suffer no harm otherwise. Blue Pac-Men cannot knock or pass through each other.
Each round lasts a maximum of two minutes, with an on-screen countdown for the last 10 seconds. The last remaining Pac-Man wins the round. All players are brought back into the game at the start of each new round; after the final round, the player with the most victories is the overall winner.
Development and release
Pac-Man Battle Royale was first displayed in the United States in a playable state at the 2010 Amusement Expo show in Las Vegas.[2][3] in March 2010. It was then seen again at an after-party event during E3, where Namco America brought four cabinets for attendees to play.[4][5] Namco also took the unusual step of throwing a party prior to the launch of the game at the Whiskey River Saloon in Madison, Wisconsin.[6] It was not seen in Japan until September 2010 at the Amusement Machine Show,[7] which is opposite of most major Namco arcade releases where they are shown off in Japan first and are later brought to the US.
While the game was reported for a release in September 2010,[8] it was delayed for unknown reasons until late November 2010. NAMCO America, Inc. officially announced the release of Pac-Man Battle Royale on January 21, 2011.[9]
Unique to Namco's other modern arcade releases, the company created a Facebook page to promote the game, which registered locations where players could find the game.[10]
Ports and legacy
A demo version was released on the iOS App Store on January 28, 2011.[1] The game was ported to Pac-Man Museum for a digital release (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Windows) in 2014. The game is included in the compilation title Pac-Man Museum+ (Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch) released in 2022.
The game would inspire several follow-up games, including Pac-Man Party Royale for Apple Arcade, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle for Google Stadia, and Pac-Man 99 for Nintendo Switch.
A direct sequel, Pac-Man Battle Royale Chompionship, was released in June 2022.[11]