How to play Maze Muncher

Clear every dot from the neon maze while four chasers hunt you down — grab a power pellet to turn the tables and eat them for escalating points.

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Maze Muncher is a dot-maze chase. Steer through a symmetrical labyrinth, eat all two hundred and thirteen dots to clear the board, and stay ahead of four chasers.

Movement

Movement is grid-locked and turns are buffered: press towards a corner before you reach it and the muncher banks into it at the next opening.

That buffering is why a near miss here is a decision rather than a fumble. You are not fighting the controls at the junction — you are choosing your route a corner early, which is exactly how the game is meant to be played.

The four chasers

They are not one enemy in four colours. Each aims at a different tile, and once you can tell them apart you can manipulate them.

One comes straight at you and never lets go. One cuts ahead to where you are going rather than where you are. One flanks, using a partner's position to work out where to cut you off. One keeps its distance and behaves unpredictably when you get close.

The consequence is that the direct chaser can be led anywhere, while the one that aims ahead of you is beaten by turning — because the tile it was aiming at stops being where you will be the moment you change direction.

Power pellets and the chase

Four large pellets sit in the corners. Eat one and the chasers flee for a few seconds, and catching them scores.

The value of a pellet is not the points, it is the reset. A pellet clears the chasers away from a whole region of the maze and gives you a window to eat the dots you have been unable to reach.

So do not eat a pellet when you are comfortable. Save it for when a section of the board is locked down, then take it and clear that section while they are running.

Clearing the board

Touching a chaser costs a life. The board is cleared by eating every dot, which means the last few dots — invariably in the most exposed corridor — are the hardest part of every level.

Plan for that. Eat the awkward corridors early while you still have pellets in reserve, and leave the safe loops for last. Players who clear the easy dots first end up hunting the final ten in the worst part of the maze with no pellets left.

Corners and tunnels

The maze is symmetrical and full of loops, which means almost nowhere is a true dead end — but the long straight corridors are where you get caught, because a chaser entering one behind you has no branches to lose you in.

Stay near junctions. A junction is a choice; a corridor is a commitment.

Controls

Turns are queued and take effect at the next opening.

Keyboard

Arrow keys or WASD to steer.
P pauses.

Touch

Use the on-screen pad, or swipe anywhere on the board.

Strategy tips

Turn early. Turns are buffered, so pressing towards a corner before you reach it banks you into it cleanly and lets you plan a corner ahead.
Learn which chaser is which. One follows you, one aims where you are going, one flanks and one keeps away — they are beaten in different ways.
Beat the one that aims ahead by turning. The tile it was heading for stops mattering the moment you change direction.
Save the power pellets for locked-down sections. Their value is the window they buy, not the points, so eating one while you are comfortable wastes it.
Clear the dangerous corridors early. The last dots are always in the worst place, and you want pellets in reserve when you go for them.
Live near junctions. A junction gives you a choice; a long corridor with a chaser behind you gives you none.
Do not chase fleeing chasers far. The points are nice and the pellet timer is short, and being caught out of position when it ends is how lives go.
Use the loops. The maze is built of circuits, so a chaser directly behind you can usually be shaken by going round rather than running away in a straight line.