Hipster Whale, which developed the popular Crossy Road endless distance game for iOS and Android, has teamed up with publisher Bandai Namco to work on Pac-Man 256.
Pac-Man 256 is a free-to-play game that will be released this summer, according to Bandai-Namco. The game will be tied in with the 35th anniversary celebration of Pac-Man, which has turned out to be one of the most iconic video game characters in history.
Pac-Man 256 draws inspiration from a glitch that can be found in the original version of Pac-Man as released in the arcade. Players that can reach beyond level 255 would see that the game would glitch out in epic proportions, which makes it almost impossible to continue playing the game. This is caused by the limitations of programming then leading to an unbeatable level, which has the right side completely replaced by a mess of letters and symbols. Even if the player is able to eat all the dots, the level will not see itself as finished.
In Pac-Man 256, Pac-Man will be up against an "endless maze chased by the infamous '256 Glitch,'" said Bandai Namco. With the glitch in chase right behind him, Pac-Man will still be eating up Power Pellets to be able to eat the ghosts that chase the yellow hero through the levels, with additional power-ups that players will have to pay for.
Of course, the ghosts will still be the same four ghosts that have been chasing Pac-Man since the very beginning, namely Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde.
The game looks more like an endless runner game similar to Temple Run than the classic arcade game, but it looks to provide gamers with the same amount of fun and nostalgia.
"Our game, Pac-Man 256, takes the infamous 'glitch' level of Pac-Man and builds upon this to become a unique game that retains the retro spirit of the original," said Matthew Hall, director of Hipster Whale. Hall, as stated in the press released, was only five years old when the original Pac-Man was released in the arcades.
Bandai Namco did not indicate the platform that Pac-Man 256 will be released for, but it should be a safe bet to say that the game will be released for both iOS and Android.
