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Pac-Man: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Computer games don't affect kids. If Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music."''|'''Marcus Brigstocke'''}}
A well-known game developed by Namco (now [[Namco Bandai]]) from [[The Golden Age of Video Games]], and one of the most popular games ever, ''Pac-Man'' was the first really successful [[Maze Game]], and one of the first games to be popular with both sexes. It sparked a pop-culture phenomenon, and helped drive the early-1980s video game craze. Ironically, its [[Porting Disaster|poorly implemented]] [[
The game depicts an abstract round yellow character vaguely reminiscent of a head with a mouth opening and closing [[Extreme Omnivore|to gobble up nearby objects]]. The player must steer the character around a maze and "eat" all of the dots and four special [[Power-Up Food|power pellets]]. Four ghosts pursue the character, and their touch is fatal unless Pac-Man recently ate a power pellet.
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The franchise continued through an endless array of sequels, including a pinball machine and lots of console adaptations. One of the most notable of these is ''Pac-Man Championship Edition'', released for the [[Xbox Live Arcade]] and iPhone — notable because it is the only sequel to have been designed by Pac-Man's original creator, Tōru Iwatani. It is also a much faster, more intense game than the original ''Pac-Man'', and was heralded as being "actually a video game now" by several gaming sites.
There's also a special version of the game, ''Pac-Man VS.'' for the [[Game Cube]], designed by [[Shigeru Miyamoto]] and bundled with the [[Game Boy Advance]] link cable (as well as several other Namco games, and it was even given away for free at stores!). One of the few multiplayer entries in the series, the game allows up to three players to take control of the ghosts on the TV screen, while a fourth player controls Pac-Man himself on a linked [[Game Boy Advance]], passing systems and controllers among one another between rounds. It also features [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]] as an announcer, for some reason, and makes a great party game.
Another notable sequel is ''Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures'', for the [[Sega Genesis]] and [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]]. This game was an adventure game, except instead of controlling Pac-Man, you were an off-screen helper who suggested things to Pac (who had a mind of his own and was prone to moods which affected how he would respond), either by directing him to look in a general direction or by shooting things with a slingshot. You could also give him power pellets, of which you had only three but could find more around the levels. This game also included a full version of the original ''Pac-Man'', and either ''Ms. Pac-Man'' (SNES) or the exclusive ''Pac-Man Jr.'' (Genesis). ''Pac-Man 2'' was largely forgotten but still has a cult following.
Fun fact: It is one of the few games from the Golden Age to still make money in arcades in some form. ''Ms. Pac-Man'', ''[[Galaga]]'' and ''Pac-Man'' were released as a multiple game arcade machine in 2001, with Pac-Man being hidden or not depending on the version of the machine. There is also a "Penny Falls" gambling machine called ''Pac-Man Ball'' that's notable for featuring a screen with a video game mechanic reminiscent of ''[[Bubble Bobble
The game was originally released in Japan as "Puck-Man". It was changed for the North American release when marketing noticed how easy and tempting it would be to blot out a bit of the P to [[Troll|undesirably retitle]] the game. Either version of the name is based on the Japanese sound "paku-paku", for eating.
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* [[Art Evolution]]: Pac-Man has changed a lot in design over the years; from [http://images.wikia.com/pacman/images/a/a6/Pacoriginal.png this] to [http://images.wikia.com/pacman/images/f/fa/JapanesePacMan.png this] and now [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100925112354/pacman/images/9/90/Pacman.jpg this]. Recently, he and his friends got a complete design overall for ''Pac-Man Party''.
* [[Big Eater]]
* [[Blue
* [[Breather Level]]: In the round immediately after a cutscene, the ghosts stay blue for longer than usual.
* [[Cartoon Bomb]]: The [[Smart Bomb]] counter icons in ''championship Edition DX'' certainly look like these.
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* [[Confusion Fu]]: Inky's behavior is somewhat unpredictable. It's based on the relative positions of both Pac-Man and Blinky, and there's a bug involved as well (normally "ahead of Pac-Man" means two tiles ahead in the direction he's moving, but when Pac-Man is moving up, the game thinks that ahead is two tiles up ''and'' two tiles left.
* [[Cutscene|Cutscenes]]: Speaking of which, are therefore [[Older Than They Think]].
* [[Difficulty
* [[Distaff Counterpart]]: Ms. Pac-Man
* [[Dub Name Change]]: An interesting version, as not only were the original Japanese names for the ghosts (understandably) changed for the American market, but so were the descriptors cluing in the player to each ghost's particular movement style. They were:
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