Youmais

Overview

Yuu Maze ("Maze Play", also spelled Youmais according to its title screen) is a single-screen maze game akin to Namco's classic Pac-Man and its many other imitators in that the goal of the game is to drive the futuristic vehicle around a maze collecting dots while avoiding (or temporarily eliminating) the enemies.

Yuu Maze adds a few innovations to the format: Each maze has a different structure, different enemies and different lay-outs for the pellets that are required to complete the level; the player can find power-ups which grant weapons, shields and speed-ups to their vehicle. The player's vehicle also has some degree of inertia: There's a slight delay when attempting to accelerate after stopping or performing a U-turn, but if the player keeps moving and changes direction only at 90 degree intervals, they can keep moving at their maximum speed. This is often necessary to keep ahead of the fast moving enemies.

The game is a follow-up to Taito's 1988 arcade release, Raimais.