Review: Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs Is OK

Competitive Pac-Man games aren’t new. We even already saw a battle royale variant, appropriately enough called Pac-Man Battle Royale. Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs attempts to tap into that kind of market and formula again and, well, it’s fine? It’s absolutely okay. 

The concept behind Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is basically Pac-Man with 64 people. You opt into a standard Elimination or Ranked mode, with the former being casual and the later involving leaderboard spots. After enough players are pulled together, you all head into the maze. Your goal is to go around, eating pellets and Power Pellets and chomping ghosts, as usual. 

However, during each round the gates between your maze and ones belonging to other players periodically open up, allowing you to invade. There will also be power-ups (or “bad” power-ups) that can float by and be caught (or banked) to make ghosts and other players dizzy, repel them, attract them, speed you up, and so on. The idea is to survive as long as possible, ideally being the last one standing to win. Doing so nets you experience, currency for cosmetics, and perhaps even a chance to place on the leaderboard in Ranked.

Basically, it’s Pac-Man. You know, the same old Pac-Man you know, only occasionally others can come into your maze to try and eat your avatar or you can run to another maze to avoid doom. There is even a life-system in play, so getting caught or eaten once isn’t an immediate “game over.” One of the power-ups even gives you an extra heart.

What I appreciated are some of the unintentional pitfalls that can occur and keep you on your toes. For example, getting a Power Pellet only makes you master of your own maze for a limited time. Head to another maze and chomping those ghosts in that state will kill you dead. If you’re not keeping track of round times and heading for a gate to invade another maze when cornered by other players or ghosts, then it can suddenly shut and bar your way, leaving you susceptible.

However, unfortunately for the most part, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is only just okay. The cosmetics included in it aren’t terribly exciting. When I first started, I had access to googly-eye glasses and a Klonoa hat, and I never felt a need to deviate from either one. Likewise, while some of the other maze options were fine, I didn’t feel compelled to work toward earning money for specific designs. The default maze was all I needed. The game works fine. If you like basic Pac-Man, it’s fun enough. However, I didn’t feel the same excitement I did with, say, Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. And since it doesn’t have some of the elements I loved from other competitive Pac-Man games, like Pac-Man 99’s Ghost Trains, I didn’t feel there was the same sense of strategy. Sure, I could complete a mission objective like “invade 3 mazes” for a point bonus, but I cared more about just staying alive than earning a high score. It’s not bad and I wouldn’t be surprised if it all falls into place to meet some players’ needs, but it didn’t click with me.

The one thing I will say in its favor is that Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs at least never timed out or took forever to start due to a lack of players. It usually didn’t take too long to find an Elimination Match. But then, I also did have cross-play on, so I wasn’t only relying on people who owned the Nintendo Switch version. So at least the stability worked in favor of keeping progress steady.

Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is rather boring. There’s no adrenaline rush when I manage to make it into the final groups of players. The cosmetics are fine, but I didn’t feel a drive to unlock specific maze designs or items for my Pac-Man. While it is designed to feel competitive, it seemed like more people I faced were more concerned with dealing with the ghosts and eating pellets, rather than gunning for the top spot in any way. I honestly had the most fun when I’d play through Elimination or Ranked like I would any other Pac-Man game, without engaging in maze invasions, which probably defeated the point of a battle royale.

Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs is available for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.