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[Big Dog]

It seems that Google has released their annual April Fools game a day early this year. Hadn't found an article explaining it, but it just turns roads into the playing field and lets you loose to have some fun!

For those having trouble seeing how to "Unlock" this mode, it appears in the bottom right side of the Google Maps site adjacent to the Earth view in the bottom left hand corner.

 

[One Punch-Man]

haha thats so awesome, i think google is up there with blizzard now

 

[Metal-Geo]

Doooow... Pac-Man is having a little trouble taking a highway exit. Haha

 

[GrayDock]

And no work will be done today....

 

[Lijik]

man this can be megahard depending on where you play.

 

[DryvBy]

Wow. This needs to be downloaded and saved. I'd like to Pac around the world.

 

[Cheat Code]

Google April Fools is god tier.

Their YouTube one is usually great. They go all in.

 

[Swass]

haha that is fantastic, going to play pac man with my neighborhood streets right now..

 

[Diablohead]

works well but the controls are annoying on maps with a lot of curved corners and junctions.

 

[massoluk]

Man, Google April Fools really are god tier.

Pokemon and now this.

 

[Hans.Gruber]

how do I unlock it?

 

[GalacticMouse]

I'm guessing this won't work on IE10?

Spoiler

Only browser I can use at work.

 

[Coldzero]

Hehe love this

 

[Diablohead]

how do I unlock it?

google.com/maps then an option at the bottom left should appear when loaded.

 

[Damaniel]

Ladd's Addition in Portland makes a good Pac-Man map.

And yes, this is awesome.

Any other good spots to play Pac-Man out there?

 

[Polioliolio]

Great, but it keeps forcing me to be zoomed in. It's not nearly as far out as the image you posted, for some reason.

Awesome though.

 

[jokkir]

Google April Fools is god tier.

Their YouTube one is usually great. They go all in.

YouTube awards for the entire day was so good. The hosts looked so exhausted towards the end of the day

 

[Effigenius]

Took a few trys before I found an area I could play. Roundabout intersections are great. They need to be in pacman 2.

 

[GameE]

I dont understand how to unlock it.

 

[Pillville]

Instantly reminded me of this scene from National Lampoon's Vacation
https://youtu.be/AYE9ZqG1eAI?t=6m16s

 

[sparkzero]

My city apparently has "not enough streets" to play Pacman. Oh well, at least there's a Random option.

 

[Luigi87]

Ha, this is pretty great.

 

[Celine]

Pfff, old!
The concept was already thought on WonderSwan:
http://www.unseen64.net/2012/09/29/super-gps-pac-man-wonderswan-color-cancelled/

 

[Skele7on]

blergh the map I found was horrible.

But this will waste a lot of time tomorrow, cheers OP

 

[Diablohead]

The game knows when you are trying to cheese it with one motorway road or a few dead end streets, lol.

Only key and main roads seem to be used, any turn off's get ignored.

 

[Leafhopper]

Some cities are hard to navigate with all these curves and diagonal roads.

 

[Yaranaika]

This is actually pretty neat.
It works well.

 

[suaveric]

Does Google have to pay royalties to Namco when they do something like this?

 

[zeroroute]

Hope someone finds a way to archive this. My address was pretty easy (got to level 3). Areas with traffic circles seem to be pretty entertaining.

 

[bjork]

is there a kill screen

 

[Hans.Gruber]

google.com/maps then an option at the bottom left should appear when loaded.

Thank you!

 

[Effigenius]

this random area in Cairo was a fun place to play. https://www.google.com/maps/@30.041075,31.2018952,18z

 

[dallow_bg]

Does Google have to pay royalties to Namco when they do something like this?

They work with them, so I'm sure there's money involved.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Controls leave a lot to be desired. I found it basically unplayable on Firefox for some reason. Switched over to Chrome and it's a lot better, though still far from great.

 

[LonelyGreyWolf]

Very impressive. Google are always really great with this stuff.

Controls leave a lot to be desired. I found it basically unplayable on Firefox for some reason. Switched over to Chrome and it's a lot better, though still far from great.

Lol, first of all it's a free game and it's just an easter egg. And I had no issues when using Firefox; it was probably the map you were on. Either that or you have an old version of Firefox, or one add-on too many.

 

[androvsky]

This reminds me, does anyone know if the story that Bandai Namco is opening up their 80's game properties to outside developers like Square-Enix did is an April Fool's or not? It's in the Nikkei dated the 31st, so it's hard to tell.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/new...-rights-to-pac-man-80s-game-properties/.86558

http://www.bandainamcogames.co.jp/corporate/press/release/60/pdf/20150331.pdf

 

[Guymelef]

I was thinking on something like this.

 

[SirUltimos]

This is really cool!

 

[Effigenius]

They need to do Seinfeld Frogger next year.

 

[Leafhopper]

Controls leave a lot to be desired. I found it basically unplayable on Firefox for some reason. Switched over to Chrome and it's a lot better, though still far from great.

Worked fine for me, that's weird.

 

[Chairhome]

My favorite was the Dragon Quest one

 

[reKon]

damn it Google, not today

 

[Geobobfrank]

Play in Tokyo or London for extra fun!

 

[Übermatik]

This is terrible to play with British roads hahaha

Navigating Edinburgh is hard as balls

 

[Dunlop]

lol love it

 

[eBay Huckster]

my neighborhood is goddamn impossible in this.

 

[Dr_Swales]

So this is why Google bought out Waze ...

 

[SpookyFries]

I miss the 8bit maps that they did years ago

 

[BigDug13]

I haven't BSOD'd my laptop in months. But trying to load this did it.

 

[Mr. Poolman]

Goodbye productivity...