When's the Party Time?
3D Maze Man is a series of three-dimensional Pac-Man clones developed by Webfoot Technologies in 1998. Primarily based off of Pac-Mania, the title character travels through ten different environments to devour the entire continents of the game's boards and avoid the ghosts out for his blood. Its existence become somewhat infamous for resulting in Hasbro Interactive suing the various publishers of the original game and its sequels, along with later versions (primarily those published by eGames) being bundled with adware.Five total incarnations of the game exist, each of which are Mission-Pack Sequels at most.
- 3D Maze Man: Amazing Adventures
- 3D Maze Man: Adventures in Winter Wonderland (the Christmas Special)
- 3D Ms. Maze: Tropical Adventures
- 3D Munch Man II (released as part of America's Greatest Arcade Hits 3D)
- 3D Frog Man (unrelated to 3D Frog Frenzy from the same developer)
Years later, Webfoot released 3D Frog Feast, using the levels of 3D Maze Man but with greatly enhanced visuals (and slower gameplay).
3D Maze Man contains the following tropes:
- Attract Mode: Every game has one; which runs through several title/copyright screens, up to four demos of gameplay footage, and then a credits scroll.
- Bedsheet Ghost: The adversaries of the Maze Men, colored green, red, yellow, and purple.
- Big Boo's Haunt: The Haunted House world.
- Blue with Shock: When collecting a Power Pellet and entering "Party Time" the ghosts respond with this.
- Bubblegloop Swamp: The Swamp world in 3D Frog Man.
- Build Like an Egyptian: The Egyptian Pyramids world.
- Covers Always Lie: Some versions of the back box artwork for 3D Maze Man show a level using the Winter Wonderland theme, which is actually a level from Adventures in Winter Wonderland (level 9) that doesn't exist in the original game.
- Christmas Special: Adventures in Winter Wonderland: 10 levels that solely use the Winter Wonderland theme.
- Dolled-Up Installment: In 2002 and 2006, 3D Maze Man and 3D Ms. Maze were re-released by Greenstreet Software Ltd. as Cruncher in Mazeland and Lady Cruncher respectively.
- Endless Game: Finish one of the three level sets (Fantasy Land, Mystic Mazes, or Wild World in the case of the original game and Munch Man II) and you return to the Hub Level to pick another levelset with increased difficulty.
- Every 10,000 Points: You get an extra Maze Man if you score 10,000, 30,000, 50,000, 75,000, and 100,000 points, and then you receive one for every 100,000 points after.
- Extreme Omnivore: Perhaps even moreso than Pac-Man. The objects the Maze Men consume include flowers, toy balls, golden coins and nuggets, eyeballs, tiny pyramids...
- Game-Breaking Bug: Maze Man includes a particularly nasty one on Mystic Mazes 9 (the first of the Haunted House levels), which causes the game to crash instantly mere moments when the level loads. To this day, it is unknown what causes the crash, however the remaining Mystic Mazes levels do not exhibit such a behavior, and through modding the faulty level can be removed or replaced entirely.
- Game Mod: While uncommon, few builds of all 5 games have the game's data and the executable separate from one another- allowing modders to easily add or remove levels from the three worlds (including restoring
Dummied Out levels and porting levels from other 3D Maze gamesnote ), changing the messages displayed, and editing sound effects and music. - Girl's Night Out Episode: Ms. Maze: Tropical Adventures. The player instead controls the Distaff Counterpart and 3D Maze Man himself is neither mentioned nor seen.
- God Mode: The Attract Mode gives the Maze Men this. Only noticeable if you mod the Attract Mode to play levels from other games in the series since the Ghosts' movements will desync because of a drop/rise in their speed.
- Green Hill Zone: The Flower Garden world.
- Hub Level: In Maze Man, Munch Man II, and Frog Man, this serves to pick which of the three environments to tackle for that Round.
- Jump Scare: The death animation across every game.
- Lock and Key Puzzle: Levels can feature up to four keys, which raise or lower colored blocks so the Maze Men can cross. Munch Man II in particular favors this mechanic.
- Medieval European Fantasy: The Medieval Castle world.
- Missing Secret: The Winter Wonderland theme in the original game. Intended to be accessed through the Fantasy Land area following the Toy Land levels but before the Hyper Space levels, it was likely taken out for the purpose of reserving them for the Christmas Special. 3D Munch Man II restores the theme in Fantasy Land, but with different levels.
- Mission-Pack Sequel: The entire series of games past the original- they all use the same engine, soundtrack, and level themes. Munch Man II is by far the biggest example- it is the same as the original except with new levels and a lower stage count. Frog Man on the other hand attempts to be more unique with four new level themes and a completely new player character.
- One-Hit-Point Wonder: Touch a Ghost or an X tile and your character begins their ascent to Heaven.
- Palmtree Panic: The Tropical Island world.
- Recycled IN SPACE!: 3D Frog Man is 3D Maze Man WITH A FROG!
- Remixed Level: Several of the levels from 3D Ms. Maze are upsized versions of the Tropical Island and Flower Garden levels from 3D Maze Man.
- Rise from Your Grave: The ghosts' spawn points are marked as gravestones.
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The Winter Wonderland world.
- Space Zone: the Hyper Space world.
- Sprite/Polygon Mix: Everything in the game except for the mazes themselves are sprites.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Ms. Maze is distinguished from her male counterpart by lipstick and a feminine hat.
- Title Theme Drop: The Infinite Space World reuses the title theme heard during the Attract Mode.
- Toy Time: The Toy Land world.
- The Wild West: The Wild West world.
- Zerg Rush: Once you enter the later Rounds and the Ghosts increase in speed (to about as fast as the Maze Men can travel, if not more) and numbers (six on Round 2, eight on Round 3); they employ this strategy.
