''Pac-Man Fever'' is a

party game Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation. Categories include (explicit) icebreaker, parlour (indoor), picnic (outdoor), and large group games.Frankel, Lillian; ...

developed by

Mass Media Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets. Broadcast media transmit informatio ...

and published by

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

, released for

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the W ...

and PlayStation 2 on September 3, 2002, exclusively released in North America. Players move about on a virtual game board, with the object of the game being to reach the end first. It allows for up to four players, featuring six characters from other Namco games to choose from:

Pac-Man originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game, maze action game, action video game developed and released by Namco for Arcade game, arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its l ...

(''

''),

Astaroth Astaroth (also Ashtaroth, Astarot and Asteroth), in demonology, was known to be the Great Duke of Hell in the first hierarchy with Beelzebub and Lucifer; he was part of the evil trinity. He is known to be a male figure most likely named afte ...

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Soulcalibur is a weapon-based fighting video game franchise by Bandai Namco Entertainment. There are seven main installments of video games and various media spin-offs, including music albums and a series of manga books. The first game in the series, '' ...

''),

Heihachi Mishima is a fictional character of Bandai Namco's ''Tekken'' fighting game series, serving as its main antagonist. Introduced as the boss character from the first ''Tekken'' video game from 1994, Heihachi appears as the leader of a military firm known ...

(''

Tekken is a Japanese Media mix, media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video and arcade games developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco). The franchise also includes film and print adaptations. The ...

''),

Ms. Pac-Man is a 1982 maze arcade game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway. It is the first sequel to ''Pac-Man'' (1980) and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco. Controlling the title character, Pac-Man's wi ...

(''Pac-Man''),

Tiger Jackson is a video game character from the ''Tekken'' series by Namco Bandai Games. The character is a Brazilian capoeira fighter. Introduced in ''Tekken 3'' in 1997, Eddy has since appeared in every game thereafter (albeit he is not a participant in th ...

(''Tekken''), and Reiko Nagase (''

Ridge Racer is a racing video game series developed and published for arcade systems and home game consoles by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. The first game, ''Ridge Racer'' (1993), was originally released in arcades for the Namco System 22 h ...

'').

Gameplay

There are three different types of game boards to play—Tropical, Space, and Medieval—each with its own set of

minigame A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than th ...

s. After selecting a board, players can also choose to play a short, medium, or long game, each having a different number of tiles that corresponded to the length's name. The object of the game is to get to the finish first. The game is played in rounds; each round begins with a four-player minigame, the results of which determine how many spaces each player moves forward on the board. Each tile on the board also has an effect. These include moving forward/going backward some number of steps, stealing/losing/gaining tokens, playing a single/two-player/free-for-all minigame, the ability to spend earned tokens, and a raffle game to earn redemption tickets with cherry, orange, or banana raffle tickets. When on a "store" tile, the player can spend tokens to move steps forward, move others backward, buy raffle tickets, multiply the amount of spaces moved next turn, or gamble to earn more tokens. The three spaces before the goal space are special raffle spaces (cherry, orange, and banana, respectively). In addition to functioning as a raffle space for the first player that reaches them (and as a token space thereafter), a player must place a certain rank or better in a minigame (3rd, 2nd, and 1st, for the cherry, orange, and banana tiles, respectively) in order to progress to the next space while on these tiles. If a player attains 1st place in a minigame while on the banana space, they advance to the goal space. Once a player has reached the end, the game is over and players will receive redemption tickets based on how far they got on the board. These can then be used to buy each minigame separately, which can be played in short tournaments outside the main game. Alternatively, once all minigames have been bought, the player can let the tickets tally up to see their overall

high score In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points (except in game shows, where scores often are instead measured in units of currency), and events in the ...

Development

On June 20, 2022, a developer confirmed that Namco tried to get the rights to the Pac-Man Fever song for use in the game, but were ultimately unsuccessful.

Reception

''Pac-Man Fever'' received mixed reviews. Review aggregator

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the GameCube version a 54 out of 100, indicating "mixed or average reviews", while the PS2 version received a 47 out of 100, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".

Matt Casamassina Matt Casamassina is a video game journalist, businessman, and novelist, and a founding editor of '' IGN''. He quit working for IGN on April 23, 2010. In his time at the site, he was the author of many reviews and previews of games by video game ...

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...

gave the GameCube version a 4.9/10 and the PlayStation 2 version a 4.5/10. While he praised the sound, he criticized the gameplay and graphics. Ryan Davis of ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' gave both versions of the game a 5.2/10, disliking the lack of variety in the minigames and the slow pace on the boards. ''

1UP.com ''1Up.com'' was an American entertainment website that focused on video games. Launched in 2003, ''1Up.com'' provided its own original features, news stories, game reviews, and video interviews, and also featured comprehensive PC-focused conten ...

'' called the mini-games lacking in "creative interactivity", concluding: "the only 'fever' I experienced was a spasm brought on by my boredom." ''

GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...

'' called it "a dismal showing" and a "shameless Mario Party rip-off" devoid of "even a hint of fun multiplayer competition," and ''

Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The ...

'' called it "a snore-fest". ''

Game Informer ''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 ...

'' gave the PlayStation 2 version a 7.5/10 and the GameCube version a 7.3/10, praising the animation and the presence of a plot while remarking that the game will "fade into obscurity."

References

{{Tekken 2002 video games Crossover video games Digital board games GameCube games North America-exclusive video games Pac-Man Party video games PlayStation 2 games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in the United States Video games scored by Jim Andron Mass Media (company) games