Someone ate the cheese. The cats noticed. This is what happens next.
Midnight Snack is a maze-chase game built along the lines of the format Namco released in 1980 — a game in which you navigate corridors eating items while four differently-behaved pursuers try to intercept you. That original design, conceived by Toru Iwatani, built one of the most recognisable game formats in history not through complexity but through the single rule that each ghost follows different logic: one chases directly, one tries to cut you off, one calculates a flanking angle, one retreats when you get too close. The four together produce emergent behaviour that rewards learning their personalities over purely running away. Here, the ghosts are cats — which, honestly, tracks.
Use arrow keys or WASD to move the mouse through the maze. Eat every piece of cheese to clear the level. Touch a cat ghost and you lose a life. Grab a big cheese wedge to turn the tables: for a few seconds, the cats panic and you can eat them for bonus points.
Cheese crumbs score 10 pts each. Big cheese wedges score 50 pts and activate panic mode. Eating a panicked cat scores 200 pts, and consecutive cats in one panic window double each time up to 1,600 pts.
The format has been good for forty-five years. Adding cats and cheese to it was not our most original idea, but it was the right one.
How do I find this game?
It's hidden. If you found this page, you either know already or you're very close.
What do the big cheese wedges do?
They panic all four cat ghosts for about eight seconds. Blue, panicked cats can be eaten for bonus points — the combo multiplies with each consecutive catch.
Do the ghosts get faster?
Yes, each level they are a little quicker. The maze resets but your score carries.