Fans of “Ms. Pac-Man” have a nearly infinite number of new levels to try today: Google Maps’ mobile app currently offers a feature that overlays the video game on its city street maps. The April Fools’ Day stunt arrives in the U.S. a day early because it’s already the first of the month in Asia.
We played the iOS version of the game, which can be accessed by touching a pink “Ms. Pac-Man” button that appears on the mobile app. Once selected, the map is magically transformed into the 8-bit “Ms. Pac-Man” universe, with street grids becoming mazes that Ms. Pac-Man can explore as she chomps pellets and avoids ghosts. Eating a Power pellet turns them blue, just like at the pizza parlor where you played “Ms. Pac-Man” in the early ’80s. Right?
Users can move Ms. Pac-Man by swiping — which is easier said than done if you’re in a narrow, pedestrian-unfriendly neighborhood like the one where TheWrap headquarters is located. (Usually we only get to play a real life version of “Frogger.”)
Google first introduced a “Pac-Man”-Google Maps mashup for April Fools’ 2015, which overlaid the original “Pac-Man” game on the mapping platform. “Ms. Pac-Man” is the highest-selling U.S.-produced arcade game, moving more than 115,000 cabinets since it was released in July 1981.