After being revealed last October, Bandai Namco has today announced that the catchily-titled Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs will be bringing even more Pac-Man-based battle royale action to Switch on 9th May.
Mega Tunnel Battle originally launched on Google Stadia back in 2020, though the game has obviously disappeared in the years since after Stadia shut up shop last year.
While many of us out there would say that PAC-MAN 99 isn't even cold yet (forever in our hearts), this is another battle royale take on the iconic Pac-Man formula. You'll be facing off against other ghost-hunting competitors in 64-player online battles, navigating interconnected mazes and picking up power-ups to become the last one standing.
It all sounds rather familiar, but hey, at least the trailer is colourful. You can find the official description and some screenshots below:
The only PAC-MAN Battle Royale with cross platform play! Eat everything in your maze! Then tunnel to other PAC-MAN players’ mazes and munch even more for the high score!
Eat a Power Pellet to chomp the GHOSTS… and even chomp other PACs!
Beware of flashing mazes and escape before they’re eliminated! Be the last PAC standing against 63 other PAC-MAN opponents to be the Chomp Champ!
Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is now available to pre-order in both a Standard ($19.99) and Digital Deluxe ($29.99) edition, the latter of which packs in a bunch of bonus costumes, mazes and icons alongside the main game. Those who pre-order the Digital Deluxe version can also get seven-day early access to the game. You can find all of the version details on the Bandai Namco website.
Will you be picking this one up next month? Let us know in the comments.
Comments 21
I just hope this gets better support than 99 did.
One of the problems with Pac Man 99 is that by taking main inspiration from the very first game it was limited and mainly "old" looking, this on the other hand seems to appeal to the well received flashiness of Pace Man DX and it's sequels and rereleases.
It is kinda like F-Zero 99. A lot of the loud disappointment with it was not because it was a battle royale, it was because said battle royale took direct basis from the first game. On the other hand, if they had released F-Zero X or GX 99, now that would catch their eye.
I thought this game was free to play or something.
Is this game Online or Offline based?
Not a fan of Online required to play simple games alone.
“64 player online battle”.
Good luck with that… let’s see how long this niche looking game regularly garners 64 simultaneous players 🙃
@RobotReptile It’s cross play so should be well populated (for a while at least).
£16 is a bit steep though
Looks definitely much cooler than 99!
If I didn't have so many games to play already, I would certainly get this one. Hope they make some sort of free playtest, I'd be curious to give it a try.
@Anti-Matter do you really think a cross play battle royale game is not going to be On line based??? 😅
A paid BR game is a very slippery slope. Although this isn't a BR game at all really so..kinda weird marketing it like that. But buzzwords and whatnot.
With the millions of games out with new stories and innovations to discover, I can't really say I want to play...Pac-man...these days.
I hope this lasts longer than 99. I left it too late to buy 99 and it got delisted.
Been loving Pac-Man's arcade rebirth in the past decade (so many flashy lights and TEKKEN music abound!!! AAAAHHHH!!!)
But this? I mean, do you really expect me to BUY an online only Pac-man game? That might require an online subscription on top of the premium to keep playing?
Bah.... Give me Pac-Champ 3 instead!
@dodgeskill100 There's always room for some chaotic simplicity though. 1000s of amazing stories in games, but sometimes, you just need to let off some steam, and start a rave for the hell of it.
@Yomerodes I'd disagree on that front. Pac-Man 99 felt more inspired by Pac-Champ DX, albeit, a bit stripped down in comparison.
These games couldn't be more different, Tunnel Battle is a battle royale, and no I don't consider Pacman 99 to be a battle royale, it's just one of Nintendo's weird 99 titles. It was basically a 1 player game not much different than the arcade version. This has 63 other players on the same mazes (there are many mazes going off to the sides to make up the overworld), and you can eat each other, bump someone into a ghost, etc. I played it on Stadia and it was great.
I really liked Pacman 99 for what it was, but it also felt the most one-note out of the NSO games. This at least looks a lot more involved.
Honestly I have a real fondness for Pacman's new focus on just trying to recreate the classic game in as many weird, new ways as possible. Someday I do need to go all in and play all of the content I can in the Championship Edition games because, especially with DX, they're some of the more fun gameplay experiences I've had, as someone who rarely had any thoughts about Pacman at all. I also played this weird, modern tabletop version at an arcade a few years ago that was also really cool. I think its really shown me just how solid Pacman was at its core, that you can keep re-using it to this degree and it can still feel fresh with just the right additions. I think Tetris is exactly the same.
Hmm, it feels like this game would probably be more successful if it was free to play. Unfortunately this game is probably not going to last long term I think, which is a shame.
@Nintendo_Thumb Nintendo had no involvement with Pac-man 99. It was developed by Arika and published by Bandai Namco
Glad I won at least 1 game in 99. Great game
Doesnt look at good as pac man 99 and do I get a refund now that has been pulled?
That trailer was awful, the screenshots provided did a better job at telling me what real gameplay is. I doubt I'll be getting this at $20, especially since Pac Man 99 died seemingly to make this.
This is probably why Namco wanted to pull 99, isn't it. Can't be giving people something fun for free when we could be charging them 20 bucks...
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