What is Maze Muncher?
Maze Muncher is a retro arcade maze game where you play Mochi, a little rice cake, and clear each stage by eating every last dot in the maze. Like classic Pac-Man, four cats roam the maze trying to catch you, and a big candy lets you chase them down for a short time.
There are three mazes that rotate from stage to stage. Each new stage makes the cats faster and shortens the time they stay scared. You start with three lives and earn one more at 10,000 points.
What are the rules?
- Dots: 10 points each. Eat them all to clear the stage.
- Big candies: one near each corner of the maze, worth 50 points. Every cat turns pale blue and runs away. When they start flashing white they are about to recover.
- Catching cats: touch a scared cat to catch it. Only its eyes are left, and they float back to the house in the middle before the cat comes out again.
- Tunnel: both ends of the middle row wrap around to the other side. Cats slow down inside the tunnel.
- Fruit: a fruit pops up below the house for a few seconds after you eat 70 dots and again after 170.
How does scoring work?
Each cat you catch on the same candy is worth double the last one: 200, 400, 800 and then 1,600 points.
| Item | Points |
|---|---|
| Dot | 10 |
| Big candy | 50 |
| Cats on one candy (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th) | 200 · 400 · 800 · 1,600 |
| Fruit | 100 (cherry) up to 5,000 (peach) |
How do the cats move?
The four cats are not just different colors. Each one hunts you in its own way, and every so often they all scatter to their own corners before coming back for you.
- Cheese (orange): heads straight for your tile. When only a few dots are left it speeds up and stops scattering.
- Berry (pink): aims four tiles ahead of you to cut you off.
- Soda (sky blue): the moody one. It aims at a spot worked out from Cheese and the tile in front of you, so it is hard to read.
- Lemon (yellow): chases you from far away but scatters to its corner once it gets close.
Tips
- Press your turn early. Mochi remembers the direction and turns at the first open tile, so you corner much more smoothly.
- Save the big candies. Eat one when the cats are bunched up near you so you can catch several in a row.
- Use the tunnel to escape. Cats crawl through it, so it is a great way to shake them off.
- Watch for the scatter. When the cats all turn around and head for the corners, it is a good moment to grab dots on the far side.
Your best score is saved in this browser. Sound effects can be switched off with the button at the top right of the game.