Pac-Man Battle Royale

Pac-Man Battle Royale is the 17th arcade game in Pac-Man's series (11th official). It is made as part of Pac-Man's 30th Anniversary^[1] and developed by Namco Bandai Games. It was released for the arcade in January 2011 and later ported to Pac-Man Museum for a digital release (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC) in 2014.

First appearances

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.

Gameplay

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; 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, he grows 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 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.

Release

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]

References