April Fools’ is usually a day when it pays to stay offline; the internet is saturated with wildly misleading stories and it’s hard to distinguish between fact and fiction. The programmers at Google, however, have given us a good reason to keep surfing: they’ve superimposed the video game classic Pac-Man on to various cities across the world.
Though mobile users are limited to 15 locations – Google have listed clues to the locations here – desktop users can play the game in almost any city they like. We’ve been “hard at work” all morning working out our favourites, so here eight of the best – plus one that should be good, but is actually a bit of a letdown ...
On mobile
Level 1: Sagrada Família, Barcelona
The orderly, grid-like streets make this relatively unchallenging for gaming, but the view you get of Sagrada Família – the incomparable cathedral from Catalonian architect Antonin Gaudí – makes this location a clear winner. Google Maps renders 3D images of buildings, and the slender, organic towers of this architectural gem provide at least the semblance of culture as you gobble your way through Barcelona.
Level 2: Times Square, New York City
Cruise down 7th Avenue as you join the 39 million yearly visitors who come to see “The Crossroads of the World”. It’s hard to really capture the spirit of New York on a two-dimensional street map, but the intersection with Broadway provides a nice challenge – and despite the simplicity of the street design, the former Longacre Square is one of the most instantly recognisable locations in the world.
Level 3: Arc de Triomphe, Paris
Circular streets and concentric roundabouts offer a different gaming experience at the Arc de Triomphe, epicentre of the axe historique, the “historic axis” of grandiose monuments that began with the creation of the Champs Elysees in the 17th century and stretches from the Louvre to the Grand Arch de la Defense, 5km away.
Level 4: Googleplex, California
“Can you score 10^(10^100) points?” Following this particular clue leads to the so-called Googleplex in California, corporate headquarters of the tech giant. Not the most exciting map to play on, but you can imagine the fun the engineers had coming up with this.
Level 5: Taj Mahal, Uttar Pradesh
After playing in the grid-like gardens of the Taj Mahal, you begin to wonder if the 17th century Mughal architects designed it with Pac-Man in mind. The design is based on the four rivers separating the garden of Paradise into north, south, east and west, and the white marble mausoleum is just visible in front of the Persian-inspired Charbagh garden.
On desktop
Level 6: Forbidden City, Beijing
Depending on your co-ordinates there’s a lot of variety here, so start off with the Forbidden City itself: the Chinese imperial palace that served as the home for emperors from the Ming dynasty until the end of the Qing dynasty, half a millennium later. Then, if you’re looking for a challenge, head north out of the palace to the public Jingshan Park.
Level 7: Venice
So you can’t actually play on the canals, but that just adds to the difficulty: navigating the chaotic, winding streets of the City of Water without a gondola is no easy feat. On the other hand, escaping Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde is good practice for potential visitors – and infinitely easier than avoiding the throngs of tourists who’ve taken over this beautiful Adriatic gem.
Level 8: Grand Bazaar, Istanbul
A challenge only for veteran arcade gamers. The Grand Bazaar was the beating heart of the Silk Road city of Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire sprawled across three continents. Over the course of five centuries, enormous and profitable trade routes ensured this marketplace grew to cover more than 3000 shops and 61 streets.
Level 9: Spaghetti Junction, Birmingham
Playing this map is actually a total disappointment to anyone who’s attempted to drive through Birmingham’s notorious Gravelly Hill Interchange, a junction journalist Roy Smith once described as “a cross between a plate of spaghetti and a Staffordshire knot”. It seems the complexity of Brum’s much-maligned motorway can’t even be captured by a multibillion-dollar tech giant like Google.
