At the time of this writing, it is already April Fools day on at least some parts of the globe in Asia and Australia so the barrage of online pranks have officially begun. For the annual event, Google has added an interactive Ms. PAC-MAN feature on Google maps that is actually quite fun. Instead of the typical “prank” that other companies do, Google usually goes out of their way to integrate the joke into their site. For April Fools day 2015, Google maps also did the same arcade feature except featuring Mr. PAC-MAN himself, so this time it is the ladies’ turn to play.
The feature can be accessed on any web browser by clicking on the “insert coin” icon, right beside the Google Earth option. It basically overlays a Ms. PAC-MAN playable route on an actual existing area. If the map it is currently set on does not have enough roads to play in, Google maps provides the option to hit the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button which will randomize the location to a more suitable map for playing. So far it has dropped me off in Tokyo and Italy so it is not limited to a certain area in the map, as long as there are playable roads available.
Ms. PAC-MAN is controlled via the keyboard’s arrow keys and each game has five lives available with the usual four ghosts chasing the player and Cherry bonus available. You can start playing now by going to http://maps.google.com/
