Back in April, we took a trip back in time and reviewed Milton Bradley's 1982 Pac-Man board game, a surprisingly fun entry in the world of arcade-to-cardboard transitions. A little less successful but a lot more interesting to look at was today's focus, Tomy's Magnetic Maze.
Also arriving in 1982, the game used magnets to forge a faithful adaptation of Pac-Man's quest. Tomy, heralded for its ability to make 'gimmick toys' actually work, didn't let us down with this one. While awkward and probably a bit frustrating for younger players who really hated losing, Pac-Man's Magnetic Maze made up for any complaints by giving you little ghost toys that could pick up safety clips and tacks with their bare asses. Swear to God. It's amazing.
Picture yourself walking down the board games aisle, trying to decide which contender will provide the most hours of family fun and mass intrigue. If you haven't done any extensive marketing surveys or pooled a group of gaming enthusiasts, the only 'quality gauge' you had were the various boxes. Look at the Magnetic Maze's box -- you're telling me you'd skip on that? There's more things happening on that box than I'd even try to count, with the real creamy coup being that none of the other boxes featured Pac-Man attaching plates full of fruit to his head. Somehow, this one's slipped under the cracks. It's nowhere near as mentioned as it deserves to be, something I attribute mainly to the little known magnet shortage starting in '78. The Magnetic Maze was a luxury item through and through -- nobody was gonna let Tomy make too many of 'em until the magnet drama ceased.
Really, it's the only passable excuse for Pac-Man's Magnetic Maze not being the most championed tabletop game in history. Or at least in the top five.
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The maze itself boasts an impressive landscape - sort of like a discount version of Pac-Man's original adventure route, but with the added advantage of being in complete 3-D. Made from a lightweight and very orange plastic, the entire maze rests atop a flimsy 'pole.' You can control the maze's angle by using the attached joystick, enabling the magnetic characters to move along the horizon. It all feels pretty fragile under the weight of my gigantic bear claws, but was adequate enough for the smaller hands of seven-year-olds.
The tacky color scheme and gaudy setup makes the maze seem more dated than the arcade title itself, but in today's world of the essentially sleek, that's just part of its charm. The item's trump card were the character pieces themselves -- small, magnetized figurines that justified the price of the entire game...
While Pac-Man usually faced off against a larger number of ghosts, he only takes on two in this maze. Don't think you've been gypped - any additional ghosts would've rendered playing a successful game impossible. Pac-Man's pretty versatile in pixel form, but he's facing some tough challenges as a magnet. Each of the characters moves along the board at the player's discretion, but it's never an exact science. Magnets follow their own gods, and it takes some masterful skill to make them glide to where you're aiming. If any of the ghosts attack and attach themselves to Pac-Man, you lose. Pac-Man has appeared in many forms - video games, board games, even magnetic mazes. In all of these variations, there still remains one universal truth. Losing sucks.
Be careful, and make sure you win. Don't suck by association.
The goal is simple enough - you've just gotta collect all the fruit pieces before the time runs out, all the while avoiding the two evil ghosts. The game is timed by one of those ticking buzzer things, sort of like the one used in Perfection, only without the satisfying 'DING!' in the climax. It's basic, but it serves the purpose well enough. Personally, I would've preferred it if this portion of the board served as a candy dispenser. I like candy.
For whatever reason, the box refers to the ghosts only as 'monsters.' I guess it's because the otherwise cute ghost figures needed a sinister title to emphasize their bad intentions. You wouldn't want children making Pac-Man befriend the ghosts in a fit of ignorance -- that'd go against the whole storied history of the game. It'd also make Pac-Man explode.
To be honest, the game doesn't 'work' as well as I would've hoped. The mechanics are incredibly clumsy, almost to the point where cheating has to be a given. The character pieces will often get stuck, and the joystick itself sometimes seems more like a cosmetic accessory than a tool that actually does anything. Course, age plays a part in that -- the Magnetic Maze pictured in this article worked a Hell of a lot better twenty years ago. The fact that this thing is still playable at all is remarkable -- try to find a Monopoly game from 1982 where the board isn't being reinforced with electrical tape.
Getting back to the rules, Pac-Man's mission is to collect fruit. Cherries, oranges, and the almighty strawberry. How he does this is the coolest part of the entire game...
The box, keeping with its tradition of calling things by inappropriate names, refers to the fruit as 'bait.' Represented by magnetic discs that hang underneath wire tunnels, Pac-Man is the only guy on the board tall enough to catch the stuff. The ghosts can glide under the fruit without even grazing it, but Pac-Man's substantial height allows him to gather the fruit atop his mighty yellow head. THIS = POINTS. After you've collected the three fruity dishes, pop the champagne and start bragging to everyone in a two mile radius. You're an awesome force and a superior creature. And you've had lots of fun with magnets.
There's few sights more impressive than Pac-Man coasting across a thin sheet of plastic-covered metal with fruit pucks stuck to his head. You'll never want to take the things off of him, which is bad since you must do that to collect the other pieces. It'll be time to make an important decision - play it straight and win the game, or screw the rules and delight in Pac-Man's bonus point bearing hats forever more. What will you do? What would Pac-Man want you to do? That's not really for me to say, because I'm not Pac-Man. And even if I was Pac-Man, I don't think solving the mystery would be important enough to break character by speaking. I wish I was Pac-Man.
As a final note, the board depicts Pac-Man in his old 'sock look,' which eliminates the iconic jaw but adds a great set of legs. I never quite understood the design, because despite its close ties to all of the original Pac-art, it just doesn't look anything like him. It's always bothered me a lot more than it probably should've, but come on, anyone could see that something fishy was going on. They're obviously not the same guy, so which was the real Pac-Man? Have we been following a decoy for all these years?
Overall: Tomy's Magnetic Maze isn't widely remembered, but it's easily one of Pac-Man's best spinoff items. Though hard to come by, the game remains cheap as it's relatively unknown even by the biggest Pac-worshippers. 'Cheap,' of course, is by comparison. You're still going to be paying a lot more than its original retail price, but Pac-Man's sturdy build and never-changing convictions always lent themselves to a value that appreciated over time. If you're lucky enough to happen upon a Magnetic Maze at a yard sale or when raiding the estate of the recently deceased, don't pass it up. 8 out of 10, especially if you can find it with all of the metal tunnel rails still included. 7 if not. 5 if Pac-Man's been chewed on. 3 if someone just sold you the box filled with paper to keep it inconspicuously weighted. 10 if your Pac-Man magnet arrives with the ability to fly.
