Pac-Man 256

Pac-Man 256 took the classic maze of the yellow ball and stretched it endlessly upward, while a mysterious glitch resembling a bug from old arcade machines advances from the bottom of the screen, forcing the player to keep moving upward instead of lingering to collect every dot in one spot, as the slower pace of the original arcade classic required. Controls stay faithful to the original – a finger drag moves Pac-Man in four directions through the maze – but added power-ups offer new ways to destroy ghosts and survive at an ever-increasing pace, which sets the game apart from its bare-bones arcade predecessor from the eighties.

Hipster Whale, the creators of Crossy Road, released the game in 2015 as an officially licensed title built on the same endless-progression principle that had worked for their previous game, this time applied to the iconic Pac-Man character and his world of ghosts. The visuals combine the maze's retro colors with more modern power-up effects, and the music draws on the classic Pac-Man theme, together creating a pleasant bridge between nostalgia and modern mobile gameplay for both new audiences and those who still remember the original arcade machines.

The game is free-to-play with ads between runs and the option to unlock new power-ups and characters with in-game currency or microtransactions, while basic play remains freely accessible and fully functional without spending a single penny.

Why play it: Fans of Pac-Man and endless arcade games who appreciate quick rounds with rising tension and don't mind ads between rounds.