I tried the new Pac-Man Live experience – it was so much fun | UK | Travel

Pac-Man Live has officially arrived in Manchester, and after hearing this news, I knew I just had to give it a try. While I was never an avid Pac-Man fan as a kid, I did enjoy playing the game occasionally, so the idea of becoming Pac-Man myself for an hour was certainly intriguing.

For those who don’t know, Pac-Man is a 1980 arcade game in which you play as a yellow creature that is mostly just a mouth that goes around a maze picking up energy pellets and other bonus items. While doing this, you must avoid being eaten by four ghosts: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde.

Now, this popular video game has gone live-action, landing in Manchester’s Arcade Arena, which is also home to Chaos Karts and the Crystal Maze Experience. When arriving at the venue, which is easily walkable from the city centre, you first enter a cafe/shop area where you can purchase drinks and Pac-Man merchandise.

After arriving, you check in at the front desk, sign some waiver forms and then put your personal items into the cloakroom. Then it’s time to get your Pac-Vest and head in to meet the ‘Pac-Master’, who will run your game.

Two groups can enter the arena and play at once on opposite sides – although you won’t be playing against the other group and will instead be playing against your own group, whether that’s your friends, family or co-workers.

You start by playing a practice round to familiarize yourself with the rules and check that your vest and the tracking technology are working properly. After this round, I began to consider that I had made a mistake by not doing more cardio in the days and weeks before coming to Pac-Man live.

Luckily though, while running almost constantly for an hour is quite exhausting, one or two members of each group are given a break each round. Unfortunately for me, though, my break was immediately after the practice round, meaning I spent much of the remaining game time running around like mad.

There are also two bonus rounds that aren’t quite like a regular Pac-Man game, both of which are great if you, like me, aren’t the best at the regular rounds and need to bulk your points up a bit.

Ultimately, the game was so much fun – even if I did up exhausted and towards the bottom of the leaderboard, coming fifth out of my group of seven. I also had the rather unfortunate title of being the player who had been eaten by ghosts the most (obviously, I make a particularly tasty Pac-Man).

I’d definitely book a trip to Pac-Man Live again (although I would probably hit the gym a bit first), and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an hour of fun while visiting Manchester.

For more information and to book a visit, then just go to the Pac-Man live website.