Pac-Man 256 on the PC, is a port of a mobile game, but the microtransactions have been removed. The gameplay is basically Pac-Man combined but with rogue-lite elements: random level generation, one-hit death, and grind out unlockables.
You generally have to move up the screen since a “glitch” is following you and will kill you if it reaches you. This is a reference to the original game where level 256 glitched out due to memory limitations.
Your aim is to gain the highest score possible. You eat the Pac-pellets for a basic score, and gain extra score through eating ghosts and score multipliers through eating fruit.
There are power-ups to give Pac-Man abilities, in addition to the main Power Pellets which allow him to eat the ghosts. These power-ups are unlocked as you level up; which is done based on the amount of pellets you eat. You can choose 3 out of the ones you have unlocked. These power-ups can be levelled up with the coins you earn.
Coins can be collected, or are used as rewards when completing objectives. Examples of these are “eat 3 Cherries”, “collect 100 pellets”.
There are loads of different themes to reskin the levels. This not only changes the level appearance but how Pac-Man and the Ghosts look. These include Pac-Man variants such as the original skin, Pac-Mania; some generic ones like Racing, Garden, and Robot; then the developer’s other game Crossy Road where you play as a chicken.
There’s a variety of ghosts which aren’t quite like the original ones. There’s a blue one that always turns left, a pink one that chases you in straight lines, black one that is asleep and wakes up when you get close, the red one that is aggressive. There’s ghosts that come in groups, and may just patrol left to right.
Understanding the behaviours makes a massive difference since often there are a few in the area, but only a few paths you can navigate through. You need to take advantage of the predictable behaviour, and utilise the power-ups to get by.
The problem with the power-ups is that they are instantly triggered. It would have been much better to trigger them manually since there’s times where it seems you cannot avoid the ghosts. When there are only two paths nearby, but maybe 3 ghosts nearby; then you are certain to fail.
I think the game is fun for a while, but it is really grindy to unlock and upgrade your power-ups.