Pac-Man The Card Game: How Much Will You Eat?

A retro classic becomes a push-your-luck card game of drawing from the deck, collecting fruits, avoiding ghosts, and knowing when to stop.

Published by Steamforged Games, Pac-Man The Card Game is extremely light and fast but manages to capture the suspense of push-your-luck games nicely.

Gameplay

There are two decks in the game. You choose which one to play with, shuffle it, and then set it in the center of the table.

On your turn, you may choose to shut down, in which case you are out for the rest of the game, or to draw cards. You can draw up to three cards, looking at each card as you draw it, and choosing whether to draw again, end your turn, or shutdown, based on what you draw.

Fruit and dots are worth points. If you draw these you add them to your hand. You keep your hand hidden from the other players. If you draw a ghost, you also add it to your hand. If you ever have three ghosts in your hand, you are eliminated from the game.

If you draw a power-up, you reveal it and perform the action on it. Actions include, for instance, taking a ghost from your hand and giving it to an opponent, choosing two players to swap cards, or all players passing a card to the person on their left. If a player is shut down, power-up cards never affect them.

If everyone except one player is eliminated from the game, then the one player remaining is the winner. Once everyone has been eliminated or has chosen to shut down, the player with the most points in hand, who was not eliminated, wins the game.

Review

Pac-Man: The Card Game is an enjoyable combination of simplicity and push-your-luck. Turns are fast and you just have to keep deciding whether to draw again, end your turn to see what other players do, or bow out. That keeps the game running smoothly, but suspenseful. Drawing that third card can often feel perilous but oh, so tempting, when you already have two ghosts in hand but you just want a few extra, precious points.

All that being said, the game does require one house rule to make it really work: it's best played over a series of rounds with your points carrying over. This is a very simple modification, but an important one, otherwise you have very little reason to bow out early should you happen to draw lots of ghosts right out of the gate. You can try to outlast your opponents by drawing only one card each turn, for a while, but it’s unlikely that every other player will lose to ghosts. It’s more satisfying to bow out early, knowing that at least your points will carry over and be worth something in the next round.

The game components are solid, with the cards a nice material and thickness, and the stark black shade is different looking. The theme is not particularly exciting, but it is recognizable and might appeal more to other players than it did to us. The idea of the two decks is nice, and although they are not particularly unique from one another, you can combine them to increase player count which is a nice touch.

Pac-Man: The Card Game is simple but enjoyable. It’s portable, doesn’t take up a lot of room to play, and is fast. It doesn’t overstay its welcome and it implements a push-your-luck mechanism well. It’s a very easy game to teach and is quite accessible.

Pros: Solid suspense in the push-your-luck moments, fast turns, very easy to teach

Cons: Should be played over several rounds, theme won’t appeal to everyone

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.