Pac-Man Geo lets you play mazes created from real-world roads

Bandai Namco is getting in on the location-based mobile game action, reaching into its pit of nostalgia to grace the world with the free-to-play Pac-Man Geo.

Pac-Man Geo, as its name suggests, takes the classic maze-roving action of the legendary arcade series, and combines it with the new-fangled video-game-but-utilising-the-real-world premise popularised by the likes of Pokémon Go.

And while that might not immediately sound like the most natural pairing, Bandai Namco's only partly illuminating announcement does at least suggest there's a germ of a decent idea here, with Pac-Man Geo aiming to deliver the series' familiar pellet-gulping maze action, albeit across levels drawn from Google Maps' road data.

Players can either utilise pre-made levels or create their own, and in the latter case, once a map size has been specified, the app transforms nearby streets into a pellet-riddled maze.

As to what happens next, it's not entirely clear, given the limited nature of Bandai Namco's announcement, but it appears that the resulting stages are played just like any regular high-score-chasing game of Pac-Man - complete with ghosts, plus some collectible landmarks thrown in - with no real-world roving required. The publisher even states that Pac-Man Geo can be played "from the comfort of home".

Pac-Man Geo will be free-to-play with in-app purchases, and is due to launch on iOS and Android some time this month across 170 countries.