Ziggy The Chaser is exactly Pacman gameplay only with a generic elephant as the protagonist. Instead of a top-down 2D perspective, the 3D environment is actually difficult to navigate due to a camera angle that is too close and movement that isn’t tile based. It is easy to walk right by one of the collectable gems needed to clear the stage due to the poor perspective and slow movement of the elephant.

Once all the gems on the map have been collected, the player then needs to make it to the exit without bumping into the crocodile or tiger enemies that constantly chase the player. Unlike Pacman, the environment can actually damage the player, like the plants that puke poison, causing a hard restart. There are also a few different power-ups that appear on the board, like the shield that protects the player or the fork to eat chasing enemies. The biggest separation from the simple presentation of Pacman is the multi-tiered stage design. Since this is a full 3D game, Ziggy can walk under pathways or on ramps to reach different tiers. This actually makes collecting gems difficult as stages are large but the player can only see a zoomed in portion of it at any one time. Thankfully, there is an arrow at the top of the screen that points the player toward the nearest gem. It will not, however, indicate if this gem is above or below the player, let alone how to reach that tier. This arrow system feels like the designers knew the zoomed perspective was bad but couldn’t change it at that point so they put a bandage on this problem by including an indicator.

Just because everything is 3D doesn’t mean it is visually appealing. The choppy frame rate and slow movements never look good and always feels wrong. The music also loops quickly and becomes annoying pretty quickly. There a couple dozen levels available but no other major features to note: nothing to unlock, no leaderboards to flaunt, no creative multiplayer modes.

Ziggy The Chaser is a new attempt to capitalize on classic Pacman gameplay. Unfortunately, classic Pacman, especially Ms Pacman, are significantly better titles despite their age, games that you can play for free on pretty much anything with a screen these days.

SCORE: 4/10

Wait For It: A Dumbo game  
Also Try: Lock ‘n’ Chase
Don’t Forget About: Heiankyo Alien  

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz

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