Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness is a video game in the Pac-Man series developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Dreamcast in 2000, with a simplified Game Boy Advance port releasing years later in 2004.
Hidden within Pac-World are the four magical Gems of Virtue, housed within four uncharted lands separated from the rest of the world by magical force fields. Dark forces are planning to steal the Gems, and have already kidnapped a princess living in these uncharted lands. One day, Ms Pac-Man pays a visit to Professor Pac so he can explain this to her, when suddenly, an evil witch named Mesmerelda appears in the mirror in the Professor's lab. Mesmerelda takes the Professor away, leaving Ms. Pac alone with his Pactrometer, a device that will allow her to access the four wonders of Pac-Land. Now, she must race to obtain the four Gems before Mesmerelda does, and save Pac-Land.
Similar to the previous year's Pac-Man World, Maze Madness attempts to update the classic Pac-Man gameplay for more modern hardware. While World reimagines Pac-Man as a 3D Platform Game, Maze Madness plays more like a 3D expansion of the original arcade maze games. Each stage consists of a series of mazes that Ms. Pac Man explores from an overhead view, eating Pac-Dots littered all over the place and occasionally eating Power Pellets that allow her to eat the enemies in her way. Separating these maze sections are intermissions that implement puzzle elements, with Ms. Pac often needing to push blocks around to create a way to progress. Ms. Pac has no other notable moves or abilities, so the gameplay is very simple and can be played almost entirely using only using the four directional buttons.
A sequel, titled Ms Pac-Man Maze Madness 2 began development for sixth-generation consoles sometime around 2005, but the project was ultimately cancelled for unspecified reasons.
This game provides examples of:
- 1-Up: Large Ms. Pac-Man tokens adorned with a red bow can be collected to obtain extra lives.
- Action Bomb: Living Firecrackers appear as enemies in Pac-Ping Harbor. They charge toward Ms. Pac when they see her, before exploding.
- A Day in the Limelight: Ms. Pac-Man gets to star in her own adventure completely separate from her husband.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: Gobblin is a giant green Pac-Man-like monster with huge teeth that pursues Ms. Pac in the first half of the final boss fight. She has to quickly navigate a grid of obstacles while avoiding stepping on the exploding green crates to outrun the beast.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist is Mesmerelda, an evil witch who kidnaps Professor Pac and plans to steal the four Gems of Virtue to take over Pac-Land.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The final main world is the Castle of Haunted Halloween, the enchanted palace turned into a creepy fortress. Not only is the castle full of Ghosts, as is to be expected, but other creepy creatures like vampires and Frankenstein's monsters.
- Cash Gate: Each stage contains gates that cannot be passed unless Ms. Pac has eaten enough Pac-Dots.
- Creative Closing Credits: The credits are accompanied by a minigame with the same gameplay as the Pier Pressure bonus stage. The credits move by as Ms. Pac fires rockets at ships to collect Pac-Dots. If you lose a life before completing the credits, a more traditional credit roll will start, acknowledging which parts of the credits you got during the minigame, and which ones you missed.
- Damsel in Distress: In the intro, Professor Pac explains that a princess has been kidnapped by dark forces, and her enchanted palace has been turned into the Castle of Haunted Halloween. At the end of the game, however, it is revealed that the princess was actually turned into Mesmerelda by an evil spell.
- Demoted to Extra: Pac-Man himself only appears as a playable character in the multiplayer modes, with no appearances in the main story.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Upon clearing the final world, Ms. Pac gains access to the first of two final boss stages with both Gobblin and Mesmerelda. After defeating her, Mesmerelda retreats, but not before dropping her Witch Key, allowing entry to previous inaccessible areas in previous stages. Ms. Pac must then return to the previous stages to gather enough stars to unlock the true final boss stage, with rematches against the two bosses.
- Distressed Dude: Mesmerelda kidnaps Professor Pac by pulling him into a portal through a mirror, so Ms. Pac must rescue him.
- Embedded Precursor: The "Classic" option in the main menu allows you to play a version of the original Ms. Pac-Man arcade game.
- Every 10,000 Points: Scoring 10,000 points in a stage will grant Ms. Pac an extra life.
- Gotta Catch 'Em All:
- Hundreds of Pac-Dots are scattered around every level. If the player eats every single one within a stage, they will obtain a star.
- Each level has seven fruit pickups to collect. Finding all seven will award the player with one of the level's stars.
- Guest Fighter: Pooka from the Dig Dug series appears as a hidden playable character in the multiplayer modes.
- Hailfire Peaks: The Crystal Caves world starts as a typical arctic cave, but as Ms. Pac ventures further, she ends up in caves with fiery pools of lava.
- Heart Container: Certain stages contain rare golden hearts that permanently increase the length of Ms Pac-Man's health bar.
- Lock and Key Puzzle: Certain blocks bar Ms. Pac from progressing until she obtains a same-colored key somewhere else in the stage first.
- MacGuffin Delivery Service: Midway through Ms. Pac's adventures through Pac-Ping Harbor, there is a cutscene where Mesmerelda is shown to be happy that Ms. Pac is collecting the Gems of Virtue for her. Sure enough, once Ms. Pac has them all, Mesmerelda shows up to swipe them.
- Magic Carpet: Flying carpets appear as platforms in Cleopactra. Ms. Pac can stand on them to get a ride to different places, but she can only get on or off of them while they are stationary.
- One-Hit Kill: If Ms. Pac is standing next to a TNT or skull-and-crossbones crate when they explode, it will instantly cost her a life, no matter how much health she has.
- Plot Coupon: The goal of each world is to collect one of the four Gems of Virtue.
- Powder Trail: Pac-Ping Harbor has ghosts that carry barres of gunpowder, leaving a trail on the ground below them. There are certain areas where you'll need to trick the Ghosts into making a powder trail towards One-Hit Kill crates, then trick a dragon into lighting the trail with his fire breath to destroy the crates. Be careful not to stand in the trail as it is lit, or you'll get hit.
- Secret Character: Pooka and Jr. Pac-Man can be unlocked as playable multiplayer characters by making enough progress in story mode.
- Segmented Serpent: Giant centipedes appear as enemies in Cleopactra. Ms. Pac can use Power Pellets to eat them, either by eating the head to eliminate them in one go, or by eating them from behind in individual segments.
- Shifting Sand Land: The first main world is Cleopactra, a desert heavily inspired by Ancient Egypt. Ms. Pac explores ancient temples with heiroglyphs depicting ancient Pac and ghost characters, the ghosts all wear pharaoh headdresses, and other enemies include mummies and Anubis.
- Spin Attack: The Whirl Mummies in Cleopactra spin around like a tornado anytime Ms. Pac is in their line of sight. The spin allows them to quickly chase after her.
- Sprite/Polygon Mix: The environments are rendered with 3D polygons, as are the majority of the characters, but most of the items are 2D sprites.
- Timed Mission: Every level has a Time Attack mode that can be played once the level has been cleared for the first time, and the player is awarded a star for clearing it. These are abridged versions of the levels with Pac-Dots removed, and Ms. Pac must race to the end before the timer runs out. Extra time can be earned by collecting clock power ups lying around, or by eating enemies using a Power Pellet, but taking damage will cause Ms. Pac to lose several seconds.
- Unexpected Shmup Level: The Pier Pressure bonus level has Ms. Pac steering a boat through an Auto-Scrolling Level firing rockets at other ships being ridden by ghosts.
- Wicked Witch: Mesmerelda is an ugly, green skinned hag who hides in the creepy castle of Haunted Halloween, and fights using magic powers.
