Arika developed Pac-Man 99 for Nintendo Switch. Bandai Namco Entertainment published the game, but Arika handled development, building a competitive maze game around the familiar Pac-Man formula and the large-player-count format associated with Nintendo’s 99 series.
Released on April 7, 2021, Pac-Man 99 allowed as many as 99 players to compete simultaneously through Nintendo Switch Online. Players ate Pac-Dots, used Power Pellets to consume ghosts, and sent obstructive “Jammer Pac-Man” characters to opponents. The design made traditional Pac-Man’s score-chasing loop function as a battle-royale-style contest.
Arika was a particularly fitting developer because it had already worked on Tetris 99 and Super Mario Bros. 35. That experience helped it adapt the “many players competing at once” structure to Pac-Man’s maze gameplay. The game was discontinued as an online service on October 8, 2023, although buyers of certain offline DLC could continue using offline modes. The publisher and developer are therefore easy to mix up: Bandai Namco owned and published the Pac-Man brand release, while Arika developed it.