Game review
Eat Apples Quick
7.1 / 10
- Developer
- Andy Balaam
- Publisher
- Andy Balaam
- Released
- 1 January 2021
- Platforms
- Web browser (desktop and mobile)
- Genre
- Arcade
- Monetisation
- free
- Players
- Single-player only
The short version
A clean, immediately-recognizable Pac-Man homage -- eat every apple in the maze before a ghost catches you, with a speed bonus for clearing fast -- that we confirmed controls flawlessly on both a real phone and a desktop browser, with correct labels and zero bugs throughout.
Biggest strengths
- Confirmed genuinely working via direct testing on both platforms — the exact same Right/Right/Down d-pad sequence produced a real, correct score climb on both phone (0 to 29) and desktop keyboard (0 to 30), with Pac-Man visibly moving through the maze and eating apples along the path
- Completely clean throughout — correct "Menu"/"Select"/"Esc"/"Enter" labels on both platforms at every point we checked, with none of the touch-triggered display bugs we found in this author's smolpxl-engine games (Snake, Duck Maze 2, Spring)
- Instantly readable: classic yellow Pac-Man, red apples, a purple ghost, and a green maze border communicate the whole game in one glance, no explanation needed
Biggest weaknesses
- This is a direct, openly-acknowledged Pac-Man homage rather than an original concept -- executed well, not reinvented
- A small, little-known project (1 star on its GitLab repo) -- untested by a wide audience, though nothing in our testing suggested that's a quality signal here
- Simple single-maze-type structure per level; depth comes from speed-scoring and later levels rather than mechanical variety
Who it's for: Anyone who wants a classic, well-executed maze-chase arcade game they can pick up in seconds.
Our recommendation: recommended
7.1 / 10
Eat Apples Quick does exactly what its name says: guide a Pac-Man-style character around a maze, eat every apple before a ghost catches you, and go faster for a bigger score. It's a small, standalone Rust-and-WebAssembly project by Andy Balaam, distinct from the smolpxl JS engine that powers several of his other games we've reviewed this session -- and it shows, because this one has none of their rough edges.
Controls (8.5), confirmed flawless on both platforms. We ran the identical test on phone and desktop to be sure: two taps on the on-screen Right d-pad button followed by one Down, then the same sequence on a physical keyboard. Both produced a genuine, correct score climb -- 0 to 29 on touch, 0 to 30 on keyboard -- with Pac-Man visibly threading through the maze and apples disappearing along his path on both runs. Just as importantly, every label we checked -- Menu, Select, Esc, Enter -- rendered correctly throughout, on both platforms, at every point in our testing. This is the same author whose smolpxl-engine games (Snake, Duck Maze 2, Spring) we found suffer a touch-triggered "undefined" label bug; this from-scratch Rust reimplementation simply doesn't have it.
Presentation and gameplay (7.5 each). The classic yellow Pac-Man, red apples, and purple ghost against a green maze border communicate the entire game at a glance -- there's real value in a design this immediately legible. The speed-scoring twist (clear faster, score more) gives the familiar maze-chase loop a light extra layer of intention beyond simple survival.
Originality (5.5). We won't pretend this is anything other than a direct, unabashed Pac-Man homage. It doesn't try to hide that, and it earns its score on the strength of a clean, bug-free execution rather than a new idea.
The most immediately satisfying of this author's small game catalogue that we've tested -- a classic done right, with confirmed controls that simply work.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Confirmed genuinely working via direct testing on both platforms — the exact same Right/Right/Down d-pad sequence produced a real, correct score climb on both phone (0 to 29) and desktop keyboard (0 to 30), with Pac-Man visibly moving through the maze and eating apples along the path
- Completely clean throughout — correct "Menu"/"Select"/"Esc"/"Enter" labels on both platforms at every point we checked, with none of the touch-triggered display bugs we found in this author's smolpxl-engine games (Snake, Duck Maze 2, Spring)
- Instantly readable: classic yellow Pac-Man, red apples, a purple ghost, and a green maze border communicate the whole game in one glance, no explanation needed
- A neat scoring twist (the faster you clear a level, the more points you earn) gives a reason to replay for a better time, not just to survive
- Built in Rust and compiled to WebAssembly for smooth, responsive movement
Cons
- This is a direct, openly-acknowledged Pac-Man homage rather than an original concept -- executed well, not reinvented
- A small, little-known project (1 star on its GitLab repo) -- untested by a wide audience, though nothing in our testing suggested that's a quality signal here
- Simple single-maze-type structure per level; depth comes from speed-scoring and later levels rather than mechanical variety