PAC-MAN 99
Like the previous two NSO battle royale games, the familiar gameplay of the original is left in-tact here, with just a few additions to accommodate the competetive nature of the title. The same targeting system is brought back from the other two games, letting you decide who to "attack" in the hopes of being the last player standing. In this game, attacking is done by eating ghosts, and every ghost you eat after consuming a power pellet is sent to the opponents you are targeting. You can really boost your attack power by waking the harmless mini-ghosts before you grab a power pellet. These mini-ghosts form a line behind one of the regular ghosts, and consuming a long chain of them can devastate an unsuspecting opponent.
Any blows from your competition arrive in the form of jammer Pac-Men. The more common white variety move around the maze, slowing you down if you run into them, but they can be defeated by just eating a power pellet. The more rare and menacing red variety kill you if you run into them, and power pellets only freeze them in place. To defeat them, you need to eat a fruit from the middle of the screen, which only shows up after you eat enough dots. These fruits are also used to restore the maze. Instead of the stages found in the arcade original, PAC-MAN 99 only has the one level, so eating all of the dots on the screen has a different purpose. Trying to eat every dot is risky, as you limit your access to the valuable power pellets, but it is rewarding as you get a small permanent speed boost every time you do it. Getting a few boosts can mean the difference between life and death in the final few seconds of a match, so you probably want to try for them.
I found PAC-MAN 99 to be a little easier than it's Tetris counterpart, but still more challenging than the defunct Mario title. It was definitely cool to see another approach to competitive Pac-Man though, and I love that it was just a surprise free game. There is a paid upgrade that adds offline modes and some fun themes, which I may get if the servers ever shut down, but for now the free version is good enough for me. If you have Nintendo Switch Online and you haven't played this, it's free and it's fun, so you should definitely try it. While you're at it, play Tetris 99 too. I promise it's worth it!
The game is available for Switch here (as of 7/15/21): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/pac-man-99-switch/
