A former Stadia exclusive comes to PC and consoles this week, and it’s a blast
If you’re a fan of Pac-Man, you’re in luck. On May 9, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs (not the catchiest name, is it?) hits PC and all major consoles. The online-only multiplayer release is a battle royale game where 64 players fight to survive across interconnected mazes. It’s a chaotic use of the Pac-Man formula that fans of the series should enjoy.
If all of this sounds oddly familiar, it’s because the game originally launched nearly four years ago … as a now-lost Google Stadia exclusive.
Originally released on November 17, 2020, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle was touted as one of Stadia’s key exclusives. Like so many other games, it was nearly lost to time when Stadia shuttered on January 18, 2023. Since it was a true exclusive for the service, it seemed like fans would never get a chance to play it again. Thankfully, it’s back. And that’s good news, because the newly updated version is a fun multiplayer curiosity that deserved a second chance.
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In Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle, 64 players chomp through mazes simultaneously and fight to be the last Pac standing. That idea would be explored later in the Nintendo Switch exclusive Pac-Man 99 (another game that’s now defunct), but the idea is much more successful here. The big difference is that players get more opportunities to interact with one another. At different intervals, paths will open that lead to rival players’ mazes. Players can mess with one another, stealing their valuable fruits or gobbling up one another’s power pellets. It’s all a bit more tense and cutthroat than the comparatively lonelyPac-Man 99.
It’s also a bit more confusing. There’s a lot happening on screen, and the in-game tutorial only explains so much. Power-ups can appear in mazes from time to time. Some are
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