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Video Game / Pac-Man

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♫ 'Cause I've got Pac-Man fever. ♫note 

"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 Bandai Namco Entertainment) and created by Tōru Iwatani, 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 across gender demographics. It sparked a pop-culture phenomenon and helped drive the early-1980s video game craze. Ironically, its poorly implemented Atari 2600 port helped turn Pac Man Fever into Pac-Man Cancer. It also was the first video game to get an Animated Adaptation, with a reluctant Marty Ingels in the lead role.

The game depicts an abstract round yellow character vaguely reminiscent of a head with a mouth opening and closing to gobble up nearby objects. The player must steer the character around a maze and "eat" all of the dots and four special power pellets (originally "energizers"). Four ghosts (originally "monsters") pursue the character, and only become vulnerable for a short time after Pac-Man eats a power pellet. Touching a ghost at any other time is fatal.

The original game famously had no random number generator: the ghosts moved through the maze in a completely predictable pattern. It is said that the ghosts were given different colors to enable the programmers to give each a different "personality" or movement pattern. Top players could develop and memorize specific patterns to clear levels without losing lives. However, the ghosts prove an equal challenge if run on a random AI.

A sequel, Ms. Pac-Man, was even more popular than the original in Western territories, featuring more complex mazes and semi-randomized play. It started life as a bootleg hack of the original Pac-Man called Crazy Otto, which featured the player character as a Pac-Man head with legs. GCC, who created that hack, thought this game could be successful and brought the game to Bally/Midway, Namco's American distributor. Midway was impressed. Together with the hackers, they edited the sprites back into Pac-Man–style sprites, and with Namco's blessing, they released it as a Pac-Man sequel in America.

Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man were known for having lots of bootleg versions, many with altered mazes and graphics. They also had unofficial "speed-up kits" that, added to a legitimate machine, made the game faster and presumably harder. For players who mastered it, however, it became ultimately easier because being out-sped by Ghosts was no longer an issue.

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 Puzzle Bobble. It actually pays out rather generously, so play it if you find one.

The game was originally released in Japan as "Puck-Man" but 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 undesirably retitle the game. Either version of the name is based on the Japanese sound "paku-paku", for eating.

For the series' 30th anniversary, Google made a new version of the game using their name as the map. It's awesome to play, by the way (and the mechanics are scarily accurate to the arcade game, right down to the Kill Screen). For April Fools Day 2015, the game became playable on Google Maps, so players could chomp pellets from all over the world.

Pac-Man appeared as a fighter in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and also in Street Fighter X Tekken riding a Mokujin-themed mini-mecha, and also makes an appearance in Super Robot Wars DD.

This page should have anything you ever wanted to know about the gameplay.

It's also possible to enable a Pac-Man progress bar in Arch Linux and its derivatives (as they use the Pacman package manager).

See also Pac Man Fever.

The franchise has contributed the following works:

    open/close all folders 

    Arcade Games 
  • Pac-Man (1980)
  • Ms. Pac-Man (1981, Made by Bally/Midway without Namco's authorization, as well as:)
    • Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man Pinball (1982)
    • Baby Pac-Man (1982)
    • Professor Pac-Man (1983)
    • Jr. Pac-Man (1983)note 
  • Pac-Man Plus (1982)
  • Super Pac-Man (1982)
  • Pac & Pal (1983)note 
  • Pac-Land (1984)
  • Pac-Mania (1987)
  • Pac-Man Arrangement (1996, Included in Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2 alongside a port of the original Pac-Man) note 
  • Pac-Man VR (1996)
  • Pac 'N Party (2000)
  • Pac-Man Battle Royale (2010)
  • World's Largest Pac-Man (2016)note 
  • Athletic VR: Pac-Man Challenge (2019)
  • スピード錯覚アトラクション Pac-Man Racer (2020)
  • Pac-Man Battle Royale Chompionship [sic] (2022)

    Home Console / Computer Games 

    Mobile Games 
  • Pac-Match 2001 (J2ME)
    • Pac-Match Party 2010 (iOS)
  • Pac-Man Crisis 2002 (J2ME)
  • Pac-Man Casino (J2ME)
    • Card Game Pack
    • Slots Pack
  • Pac-Man Pinball 2003 (J2ME)
    • Pac-Man Pinball 2 2008 (J2ME)
  • Pac-Man Puzzle 2004 (J2ME)
  • Pac-Man Bowling 2004 (J2ME)
  • Pac-Man's Arcade Corner 2005 (J2ME)
  • Space Invaders × Pac-Man 2005 (J2ME)
  • Pac-Man Arcade Golf 2006 (J2ME)
  • Pac-Man Party 2010 (J2ME)
  • Pac-Man Reborn 2010 (J2ME)
  • Pac 'n Twit 2010 (iOS)
  • Pac-Chain 2010 (iOS)
    • Pac-Chain Compact 2010 (iOS)
  • Letter Labyrinth: Pac-Man Edition 2010 (iOS)
  • Pac-Man Kart Rally 2010 (J2ME, Windows Phone, Android)
  • Pac'n Jump 2011 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Chomp 2011 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Man SP 2011 (J2ME)
  • Pac-Man Games 2012 (iOS)
  • Pac-Man Dash 2013 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Man + Tournaments 2013 (iOS, Android - Renamed to just Pac-Man in later updates; also called Pac-Man for Mobile in the game's official Facebook page) note 
  • Pac-Man Monsters 2014 (iOS, Android) (Discontinued)
  • Pac-Man Friends 2014 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Man Bounce 2015 (iOS, Android)
  • Dodge and Dash Pac-Man 2015 (iOS, Android)
  • Mobile eSports with Pac-Man 2015 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Man Slots 2015 (Android)
  • Pac-Man 256 2015 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Man Hats 2016 (iOS, Android)
    • Pac-Man Hats 2 2017 (iOS, Android) (Beta) note 
  • Pac-Man Puzzle Tour 2016 (iOS, Android)
  • Mega Run Meets Pac-Man 2016 (iOS, Android)
  • Trace It Pac-Man 2016 (iOS, Android)
  • Milbox Touch VR Pac-Man 2016 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Tune 2016 (iOS, Android)
  • Mogpac 2016 (iOS, Android)
  • Intense! Pac-Man Fantasy Tower 2016 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Man Pop 2016 (iOS, Android)
  • The Card: Respectable Pac-Man 2017 (iOS, Android)
  • Gachi Escape: Serious Escape Pac-Man 2017 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Pong 2017 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Man Note: Escape From the Page 2017 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Man Maker 2017 (iOS - only in Canada)
  • Pac-Man: Ralph Breaks the Maze 2018 (iOS, Android) - a crossover with Ralph Breaks the Internet
  • Pac-Man's Nippon Journey 2018 (iOS, Android)
  • Pac-Man Geo 2020 (iOS, Android - a fully-fledged implementation of a 2015 Google Maps April Fools game)

    Cross-Platform Games 
Games that can be played across both PC and mobile devices.
  • Google Pac-Man (Web browser, 2010)
  • とびだせ Pac-Man Run (Web browser, 2016)
  • Pac-Man Mini (Web browser, 2017)
  • Pac-Man Shanghai Mahjong (Web browser, 2017)
  • Pac-Man Ghost & Stage Maker (Web browser, 2017)
  • Pac-Run (Web browser, 2017)
  • Pac-Man.io (Web browser, 2018) - Open beta by Miniclip
  • Million x Pac-Man (Web browser, 2019)
  • One Piece Pac-Man Stampede Ver. 2019 (Web browser) - a crossover with One Piece Stampede
  • Pac-Man Party Royale (Apple Arcade, 2019)
  • Morinaga Pac-Man Mini (Web browser, 2020)
  • TenSura x Pac-Man (Web browser, 2020)
  • Pac-Man: Mega Tunnel Battle (Google Stadia, 2020)
    • Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs (PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, 2024): Updated Re-release for all other 8th/9th Generation platforms.

    Other Games 
Non-Pac-Man games which feature Pac-Man.
  • Kick (Arcade, 1981)
  • Family Pinball (Famicom, 1990)note 
  • Mario Kart Arcade GP (Arcade, 2005)
    • Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 (Arcade, 2007)
    • Mario Kart Arcade GP DX (Arcade, 2013)
  • Honeycomb Rock (J2ME, 2006)
  • Namco Arcade Golf (J2ME, 2007)note 
  • Minecraft (2009) - A 2020 Pac-Man DLC for Bedrock Edition features ten mazes, a maze builder, and unlockable characters.
  • Body and Brain Connection (Xbox 360, 2010)
  • =10 (iOS, Android, 2011)
  • Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational (PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3, 2011)
  • Street Fighter X Tekken (PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions only, 2012)
  • Namco High (Web Browser, 2013)
  • Sonic Dash (iOS, Android, 2013) - Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man were introduced as limited event unlockable characters during February-March 2018
  • Super Smash Bros.
  • Crossy Road (iOS, Android, 2014)
  • Family Stadium / Famista
    • Famista Dream Match 2014 (iOS)
    • Famista Evolution (Nintendo Switch, 2018)
    • Pro Yakyuu Famista 2020 (Nintendo Switch, 2020)
  • Disney Tsum Tsum (iOS, Android, 2014) - Pac-Man and Blinky were introduced as limited event Tsums classified under the Wreck-It Ralph series in 2019
    • Disney Tsum Tsum Festival (Nintendo Switch, 2019) - Pac-Man was a DLC character until January 2020
  • Pixel Super Stars (iOS, Android, 2015)
  • Pixel Runners (iOS, Android, 2018)
  • Super Robot Wars DD (iOS, Android, 2019) - Pac-Man joined the roster in 2021, piloting his Super Robot Chogokin toy.

    Non-Video Game Adaptations 
Pac-Man games and media that are not of the video variety.
  • Pac-Man (card game, 1981)
  • Pac-Man (board game, 1982)
  • Pac-Man (Hanna-Barbera animated adaptation, 1982)
  • Ms. Pac-Man (board game, 1983)
  • Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (CGI animated series which spawned video games based on this series, 2013)
  • Pac-Man Stories (Amazon Alexa, 2018)
  • Pac-Man: The Board Game (2019)
  • Monopoly Arcade: Pac-Man (board game, 2020)
  • Pac-Man: The Card Game (2020)

    Appearances in Other Media 
  • In Wreck-It Ralph, Clyde (voiced by Disney animation employee Kevin Deters) hosts the villain support group in a Pac-Man arcade machine, and Pac-Man is a guest at Felix's anniversary party.
  • When aliens attack with retro game characters in Pixels, Pac-Man is one of their main weapons. The heroes use Mini Coopers to take the role of the ghosts, and Pac-Man's creator Toru Iwatani also appears (played by Denis Akiyama, but the real Iwatani does make his own Creator Cameo as a background scientist).
  • The antagonist in the Kamen Rider Ex-Aid movie Kamen Rider Heisei Generations is "Doctor Pac-Man", who wears a warped Pac-Man mask and spreads a bio-digital Pac-Man virus that manifests physically as both a swarm of Pac-Men and as a giant demonic-looking Pac-Man. While it seems odd for Pac-Man to appear in Kamen Rider, It Makes Sense in Context as he fulfills the role of a Crossover Combo Villain: Ex-Aid is video game-themed and the heroes fight game viruses like these all the time, while the film's main co-star Kamen Rider Ghost has, well, ghost powers, which the Pac-Man virus naturally fears and targets him for. And Namco Bandai has some control over the show as the toy manufacturer, so there's that.
    • In a series of web videos set after the movie, another character takes on the identity of Dr. Pac-Man and loans Ex-Aid and his allies powerups based on Namco games, with Ex-Aid using a Pac-Man-themed one.

Pac-Man contains examples of:

  • Action Girl: Ms. Pac-Man is very markedly a woman and she dodges and bites her way through mazes just as well as her spouse.
  • Adaptation Expansion:
    • The Tengen version of Ms. Pac-Man features new mazes, different maze sizes, and the ability to move faster. These are carried over for the Genesis and SNES ports. The Atari Lynx version likewise has its own set of large mazes.
    • Pac-Man for Mobile has a bunch of unique mazes (bought with gained tokens or real money) that serve as mini gauntlets. The weekly tournaments feature the new mazes. Later updates add elements from Pac-Man Hats which includes new powerups and events with multiple mazes and goals.
  • Adrenaline Time: In Championship Edition DX and Pac-Man Geo, it's something to help you so the time slows down when you're in a dangerous situation.
  • Aerith and Bob: The ghosts are mainly known as Blinky, Pinky, Inky and... Clyde. (Or Sue... or Tim.)
  • Ancient Egypt:
    • One of the worlds in Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness and the overall setting of Quest for the Golden Maze
    • One of the time zones in Adventures in Time.
  • Animated Adaptation: Hanna-Barbera produced one in the early 1980s. And after that was a second one on Disney XD.
  • Antagonist Title: Professor Pac-Man - though he is generally non-malicious, he is the opposing force of the game.
  • Artificial Brilliance:
    • The original Pac-Man — for the time, at least. Because the game doesn't have a random number generator, the ghosts' moves were deterministic, but they were each given different tendencies. In "Chase" mode, Blinky (Red) targets Pac-Man, Pinky (Pink) targets 4 spaces ahead of Pac-Mannote , Clyde (Orange) targets Pac-Man when far away and the lower-left corner when close, and Inky (Light Blue)... wow. Draw a line from Blinky to two spaces in front of Pac-Mannote . Now keep drawing this line past this space until it's twice as long. The end of the line is where Inky targets. As a result of these simple and unique behaviors, the ghosts provide shockingly intelligent tactics; Inky and Pinky work in conjunction with Blinky to try and corner Pac-Man between them, while Clyde's constant presence around Pac-Man but not chasing him can lead to him becoming a Spanner in the Works when trying to escape the other ghosts or group them up to eat in one swoop.
    • When not in "Chase" mode, the ghosts go into "Scatter" mode, where they target squares off the grid instead (Blinky targets the upper-right corner, Pinky the upper-left, Inky the lower-right, and Clyde the lower-left, the same corner he targets when Pac-Man gets too close in Chase mode). They alternate between chasing Pac-Man and scattering to the corners, which gives the game moments of tension and moments of calm — with the latter's duration steadily decreasing the longer the game is played. Furthermore, they'll all automatically enter scatter mode when a Power Pellet is eaten, leading to the player to want to capitalize on its effects quickly before the ghosts scatter too far to consume all at the same time.
    • Ms. Pac-Man mixed things up by making the ghosts move pseudo-randomly when in Scatter mode instead of targeting the corners. The upside is that you can't memorize paths this time around, the downside is that finishing a level quickly (or "perfectly") now relies on luck.
  • Art Evolution: Pac-Man has changed a lot in design over the years; from this◊ to this◊ and now this◊. He and his friends got a complete design overall for Pac-Man Party, and many games since adopted various styles of their own.
  • Ascended Glitch: Pac-Man 256 is based off the original game's Kill Screen.
    • Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle uses the 256 glitch as a means of teleporting gateways and the mazes around.
  • Beat: The ghosts in Super Pac-Man and Pac & Pal occasionally stop in their tracks, quickly shift in place, and move along forward. This is in contrast to most Pac-Man games, in which they'll instantaneously turn around when switching between chase and scatter mode.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Downplayed with Ms. Pac-Man, as far as her original appearance is concerned; Pac-Man blinks out of existence when he loses a life, while Ms. Pac-Man spins wildly in place.
  • Bedsheet Ghost: Although the intermissions in the original game suggest they have some kind of body under there. The arcade game calls them "monsters".
  • Big Eater: The original game established eating as one of Pac-Man's main character traits, with his primary objective being to eat an entire maze full of Pac-Dots to clear each stage, and maybe eat some ghosts along the way. Most future games feature eating as a major mechanic, with the maze games typically having it as the main objective, and even the other games tend to feature lots of food for Pac-Man and his family to eat.
  • Blue with Shock:
    • Whenever Pac-Man eats an Energizer/Power Pellet, the monsters/ghosts turn blue and have expressions of fear on their face, and in this state, Pac-Man can eat them.
    • In Pac-Man Battle Royale, when any player eats a Power Pellet, all opposing players that haven't eaten one will turn blue, and much like the ghosts, they are vulnerable to getting eaten.
    • In the first game, due to a bug, getting killed by a ghost under certain (very rare) circumstances (right as their vulnerability time wears off) causes all four ghosts to turn bright orangenote .
  • Bold Inflation: Pac-Man is referred to as PAC-MAN in modern game descriptions.
  • Bonus Stage:
    • The minigames in Pac-Man Adventures in Time
    • Some maze sets in Pac-Man for Mobile have a stage where Pac-Man must eat all the fruit in time.
  • Bootstrapped Theme: Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man's themes comes from their respective debut game's intro and intermission. Pac & Pal is unique as it has its own theme song that hasn't been used since.
  • Brand X: The Cola fruit in Pac-Man Plus bears an obvious resemblance to a Coca-Cola can. The version found in the Arcade1Up cabinet edits it into a red can with the word PAC on the side.
  • The Bus Came Back:
    • Sue and Funky & Spunky, last seen from Pac-Attack and Pac-Mania, respectively, return for Pac-Man 256.
      • They also appeared in The Sandbox Evolution as part of the Pac-Man assets. An update even added Tim from Jr. Pac-Man.
    • Professor Pac was added as a tutorial NPC in an update for Pac-Man Pop
    • Professor Pac, Mr. Cookie, Super Pac-Man, Miru, and Pac-Ranger all appear as unlockable characters in the Pac-Man DLC pack for Minecraft.
  • The Cameo: Mario is the announcer in Pac-Man Vs.
  • Catching Some Z's: Sleeping ghosts in Pac Man: Championship Edition DX and Spunky/Grey Common in Pac-Man 256.
  • Crossover:
    • Did one with Hello Kitty in the mobile app. This maze pack was later released as its own Tiny Arcade handheld game.
      • A similar collab was done with Red Bull; this maze pack was made into a fully fledged arcade machine.
    • Pac-Man and Sonic the Hedgehog appeared in each other's apps in 2018.
    • An individual app for Ralph Breaks the Internet features various characters in the film running around and helping Pac-Man.
    • The cast of the Pac-Man games appeared in the Namco-developed Mario Kart Arcade games.
    • Many Pac-Man games made for Internet browsers served as crossovers. Some of these include Morinaga, Million, and anime franchise That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime.
  • Collision Damage:
    • If Pac-Man / Ms. Pac-Man touches a ghost that's not under the effect of a power pellet, it's lights out for them. Downplayed in Championship Edition 2, where Pac can harmlessly bump off of ghosts, but if he hits a specific ghost train too many times, or just once in Extreme, the leader ghost whose train he hit will temporarily turn angry and will be lethal on contact to Pac-Man as usual.
    • Eating a power pellet turns this against the enemies; any ghost under its effect that makes contact with Pac-Man (even if he's not facing the ghost) will be eaten and return to the respawn box.
  • Color-Coded Multiplayer:
    • Pac-Man Arrangement (1996) and World's Largest Pac-Man both have Player 1 play as the normal yellow Pac-Man while Player 2 is a green one.
    • Pac-Man VS. assigns colors to the players currently playing as the ghosts. In order from Player 1 to Player 4, Red Blinky, Blue Inky, Pink Pinky, and Green Funky.
    • Pac-Man Battle Royale has a yellow, pink, blue, and red Pac-Man.
  • 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).
  • Cowardly Mooks:
    • While the ghosts normally chase Pac-Man down, when he eats a Power Pellet, they enter a scared state and begin to flee from him.
    • Clyde is programmed to be cowardly, targeting his scatter mode corner whenever Pac-Man comes near him. Due to this, the area near his corner is the only spot where Clyde can catch Pac-Man on his own.
  • Cutscenes: Speaking of which, are therefore Older Than They Think.
  • Determinator:
    • Blinky always chases after Pac-Man. Once only a few pellets remain, Blinky starts moving faster than anyone else.
    • In Pac-Mania, Sue does not have a scatter mode, so she's always on Pac-Man's feet. Even then, Blinky outruns her.
  • Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
    • The difficulty selections in Pac-Man Adventures in Time affect the duration of the stamina meter for jumping. This can affect players' abilities to expect when to jump.
    • Pac-Man for Mobile includes lots of mazes with dead ends. In any other version of Pac-Man that happens to include dead ends (including Champ Ms. Pac-Em, Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze, numerous mazes in World's Biggest Pac-Man, and the Google maze), they will teach you that they are extremely dangerous unless they contain a Power Pellet at the end thanks to a lone Ghost being all it takes to trap you and costing you a life. In Pac-Man for Mobile, on the other hand, ghosts are programmed to never enter (most) dead ends, thus turning them into safety nets to temporarily escape the Ghosts' onslaught. Pac-Man Hats distinguishes these safety gaps with deep clouds that Ghosts can't see through.
  • Difficulty by Acceleration: In many games in the series, especially the maze games, all characters gradually get faster as the player clears more stages.
  • Distaff Counterpart: Ms. Pac-Man is Pac-Man's female counterpart, with most of the same characteristics, but sporting more feminine features like lipstick and a hair bow.
  • Divergent Character Evolution: Sue in Ms. Pac-Man is basically Clyde. The cartoon series includes both as separate characters and changed Sue's color to purple. She is further evolved in Pac-Land and Pac-Mania where her characteristic is actively pursuing Pac-Man regardless of what the other ghosts are doing.
  • Dolled-Up Installment: Ms. Pac-Man, technically, sort of. Originally, the game was a Game Mod for Pac-Man titled Crazy Otto. Midway, which wanted a sequel to Pac-Man and couldn't wait for Namco to make one, bought the rights to Crazy Otto, and changed it to 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:
      • Akabei/Blinky - Chaser/"Shadow"
      • Pinky - Ambusher/"Speedy"
      • Aosuke/Inky - Whimsical/"Bashful"
      • Guzuta/Clyde/Sue/Tim - Playing dumb/"Pokey"
    • This could potentially be considered a Dub-Induced Plot Hole, as the new descriptors for the latter three ghosts don't really match their movements. In fact, despite Pinky being called "Speedy" in the localized version, it's actually Blinky who is the quickest of the ghosts, increasing his chase speed at various stages of progress through the maze.
    • A booklet published not long after the game was released, called How to Win at Pac-Man, took the name "Bashful" literally, based on the fact that Pac-Man can sometimes go through him without harm, and other alleged quirks such as their claim that he tends to run away from Pac-Man. In fact, the pass-through ability is a glitch in the game's collision detection and not unique to Inky, and the other "quirks" have been disputed.
    • For the other ghosts in the series, there is:
      • Green Common/Funky
      • Gray Common/Spunky
      • "Kinzo"/"Kinky" - Hinekure/?????
  • Early-Bird Cameo: In Pac-Man Museum +, alongside the ghosts and Professor Pac appearing in-person, trophies are available of four characters replacing legally troubled characters- Pac-Mom, Pac-Sis, Pac-Boy and Pac-Buddy. These four would make their first appearance proper in Pac-Man World Re-Pac, announced the same month of Museum+’s release.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Going by the maze games alone, Super Pac-Man and Pac & Pal are oddities. Unlike Midway's sequels that expanded on Pac-Man's dot eating gameplay, Namco's sequels added gates & keys onto the mazes, bonus stages, largely altered the ghost movements, and dots were now fruit. Later Namco games largely forego most of these elements.
  • Eating the Enemy: Pac-Man gains the ability to eat the ghosts after devouring a "power pellet".
  • Edible Collectible: The Trope Maker for bonus fruits, though after the eighth board the fruits are replaced by non-food items, such as the Galaxian ship (or the Atari "fuji" symbol in the Atari 5200 and 8-bit computer version). Of course, Pac-Man's goal in each stage is to eat all the dots, and the energizers let him chomp on the ghosts for more bonus points.
  • Endless Game: As planned, but there is a Kill Screen after 255 mazes. However, every maze past 20 is exactly the same.
  • Every 10,000 Points: Despite the trope name, only the first 10,000 points nets an extra life.note  Pac-Man for Mobile does use this system but only for the new mazes.
  • Extreme Omnivore: Besides pellets, power pellets, and ghosts, Pac-Man can eat fruit, Galaxian flagships, bells, keys, and much more. The port for Atari 8-Bit Computers substitutes an Atari logo for the Galaxian ship.
  • Eyes Are Unbreakable: Whenever Pac-Man eats a ghost, their bodies are consumed, with only their eyeballs remaining. The eyes then fly back to the ghost box to regenerate the ghost's body.
  • Fan Remake: These do exist, whenever they be in small or large numbers. Champ Pac-Em is one of the earliest known that attempted to replicate and expand the original game.
  • Freemium: Pac-Man for Mobile has a boat load of new maze sets that each cost a varying number of Tokens to unlock. Completing a maze set, finishing the daily missions, and logging in each day gives the player Tokens, or one can go the faster route and pay for Tokens. The aversion is the Classic maze which is free, and Tokens can be used to continue from a Game Over.
  • The Future: Set in Adventures in Time, the last stage of Quest Mode.
  • Game Mod:
    • Besides Ms. Pac-Man, there was Hangly-Man, Piranha, and quite a few others that popped up in the arcades.
    • The Atari 2600 version of Ms. Pac-Man got a mod in the form of Pac-Man Arcade, in effect being the reverse of how arcade Ms. Pac-Man came into being.
    • The Atari 7800 version of Ms. Pac-Man got modded into Pac-Man Collection, which features Pac-Man and some other game mods.
  • Gameplay Grading: Several mobile games give the player a rating out of three stars per completion of a level.
  • Gender Flip: Pinky, who became female as of Pac-Man World and has remained so ever since.
  • Ghastly Ghost: Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde are a quartet of ghosts who serve as the main enemies. Their motive is to prevent Pac-Man from eating all the Pac-Dots that send him to the next level, and if they touch Pac-Man, he loses a life.
  • Goroawase Number: 765 is the number for Namco. Certain games give out 7650 points after maintaining a large combo.
  • Graphics-Induced Super-Deformed: Rather radical example. In the cabinet art, Pac Man is drawn with legs and eyes. In-game, he's very stylized so only a pie chart remains. This image soon stuck with the audience.
  • Hat of Power: The hats in Pac-Man Hats activate their powers when a certain amount of pellets are eaten.
  • Hitbox Dissonance: In the original games, Pac-Man and the ghosts all have hitboxes that are based on what "tile" of the maze they are currently in, rather than the exact position of their sprites, allowing them to sometimes brush past each other while not actually coming into contact. There is even a rare glitch where Pac-Man can seemingly pass right through a ghost if they switch tiles at the exact same time.
  • The Hunter Becomes the Hunted: Most of the time, Pac-Man is defenseless against the ghosts and has to run away from them at all costs. Any time he eats a Power Pellet, however, he can turn the tables, as now he can eat them instead to score bonus points. (Mr. Burns even quotes the Trope by name while playing Ms. Pac Man in an episode of The Simpsons.)
  • Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels:
    • Tengen's Ms. Pac-Man has their difficulty sorted as: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Crazy.
    • The new mazes in Pac-Man for Mobile have their difficulty categorized from Relaxed, Challenging, and Elite. Averted for the Classic Maze, it's simply Easy, Medium, and Hard.
  • I'm a Humanitarian: One of the ways to defeat an opponent in Pac-Man Battle Royale and Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle is to grab a Power Pellet and eat them.
  • Indy Escape: In Adventures in Time, Pac-Man ends up escaping a whole bunch. One instance is from a giant boulder.
  • In Medias Res: The Plug-N-Play version of Pac-Man 256 starts the game in the 255th stage. Beating it leads to the Kill Screen.
  • Invincibility Power-Up: Power pellets.
  • Kid Hero: Junior Pac-Man stars Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man's young son, who proves to be just as much of a ghost-chomper as his parents.
  • Kill Screen:
    • Perhaps the most famous example. It makes an in-game appearance as the Advancing Wall of Doom in Pac-Man 256.
    • As part of a marketing gimmick, one of the games in the 35th Anniversary Plug-N-Play lets the player access the Kill Screen without playing over 254 stages.
    • Pac-Man for Mobile doesn't have a Kill Screen; the final 256th stage is actually beatable. Completing all stages earns an achievement.
  • Later-Installment Weirdness: Mazes have traditionally been taller than they are wide due to the games being designed for vertically-oriented monitors. Even in games for consumer platforms, the games still often still do this, shrinking the mazes down to fit on a horizonally-oriented screen and simply using the unused space for the game's HUD. The Championship Edition games and Battle Royale do away with this, instead having mazes designed explicitly for 16:9 screens.
  • Lead the Target: Pinky doesn't target Pac-Man's actual position, but rather four spaces in front of him.
  • Marathon Level:
    • The Game Boy Advance version of Pac-Man World 2 has a lot of these.
    • World's Biggest Pac-Man, which strings thousands of different user-generated mazes into one gi-freaking-gantic mega-maze. Good luck completing it in your lifetime.
  • The Middle Ages: One of the time zones in Adventures in Time. Expect it to be somewhere in the middle of the game.
  • Mission-Pack Sequel: While containing new mazes and some graphical updates, Ms. Pac Man was otherwise the exact same game as the original Pac Man.
  • Mood Whiplash: Jungly Steps in Pac-Mania uses an unsettling theme for its level, compared to the rest of the game's cheerful music. In the 23rd and final round, this theme is mixed in with a bright pink maze.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Along with Ms. Pac-Man, starting with the 19th level, where eating a power pellet does nothing to faze the ghost monsters. The monsters will reverse direction, but Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man must avoid their pursuers at all costs.
  • Nintendo Hard:
    • Jr. Pac-Man, with double-width scrolling mazes, bonus items that will mutate dots into larger dots that slow you down (and will even destroy power pellets if Jr. doesn't eat them) and long corridors.
    • Baby Pac-Man, with more aggressive ghosts, laser-guided AI, and no power pellets to start off with... until you (hopefully) gain some in the pinball portion of the game.
    • Pac-Mania, being a late 80s arcade game, cranks up the difficulty as you play through the mazes after beating "Jungly Steps".
    • Adventures in Time, eventually in some of the later mazes and difficulty levels. The ghosts might end up just as fast as Pac-Man on some levels, and the jump meter refills more slowly on harder settings.
  • No Ending: Most Pac-Man arcade games go on until the Kill Screen. Pac-Mania can be ended by using DIP switches (causing it to end after two "laps", one lap, or go on indefinitely) and Pac-Man Arrangement (1996) has a final boss after World 5. Oddly, the Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2 version of Pac-Man ends at the 21st level note  and any left over lives are counted as points.
  • No Plot? No Problem!: The original game really had none: You send this little yellow guy around the maze to eat all the dots while avoiding the monsters, and you could eat the monsters if you ate a power pellet. Then again, there were those cut-scenes. Still, popular to the point of addictive.
  • Non-Indicative Name:
    • As said above, Pac-Man is known as "Puck-Man", but nonetheless is almost always depicted with a spherical body.
    • Some of the Bonus Fruit aren't fruit and others are not even food at all (keys, bells, etc.).
    • Ms. Pac-Man should be called Mrs. since she's married.
  • Non-Linear Sequel: There are three sequels to Pac-Man: the official Super Pac-Man, the unofficial bootleg turned canon Ms. Pac-Man, or the 16-bit point and click action game Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures.
  • Nostalgia Level: The original maze pops up in almost every game in the series in some form.
  • Odd Name Out: Most of the ghosts follow a Theme Naming, except for the orange one.
    • In the English version, we have Inky (red), Blinky (blue), Pinky (pink), and... Clyde (or "Sue" in Ms. Pac-Man, and "Tim" in Jr. Pac-Man).
    • The original Japanese names of the ghosts were "Akabei" (from "Akai", Japanese for "Red"), Pinky (the only one who never went through a Dub Name Change), "Aosuke" (from "Aoi", Japanese for "Blue"), and Guzuta (from "guzuguzu", an onomatopoeia for sluggishness, and referencing the fact that he's always the last one to leave the ghost pen at the start of each level). Even here, Guzuta is still the Odd Name Out due to breaking the Colorful Theme Naming of the three others.
  • Older Than the NES: Pac-Man was born in 1980, a year before Mario even existed. He's one of the oldest video game mascots in the videogame industry, and still going.
  • One-Hit-Point Wonder: In most of the maze games, Pac-Man cannot afford to touch the ghosts at all without losing a life.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: The more iconic names for the ghosts are actually considered their nicknames in the original game. According to the attract screen, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde's real names are respectively Shadow, Speedy, Bashful and Pokey.
  • Our Ghosts Are Different: The intermission scenes in the original game imply that the ghosts may actually be some other kind of creature hiding under colored bedsheets. Most future games seem to ignore this, however.
  • Overflow Error: The famous Kill Screen was caused by attempting to proceed to Stage 256 — the game keeps track of the stage number by the fruit icons in the corner, and there's always supposed to be at least one.
  • Player Character:
    • In most games, it's Pac-Man, obviously.
    • Occasionally, Ms. Pac-Man will take center stage in this regard.
    • On three separate occasions, it's been Pac-Man's children.
    • Exaggerated in Pac-Man VS and Pac-Man Party Royale, where every character in the maze is a Player Character fighting for dominance.
  • Pictorial Letter Substitution: Many Pac-Man games like to use a Pac-Man-shaped wedge in place of the letter "C", such as in Pac-Man World.
  • Pie-Eyed: When shown with arms, legs and a face, Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man have eyes like these. Appropriate since their pupils are shaped like they are.
  • Pinball Spin-Off:
    • First was Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man Pinball. It was a more conventional Pinball game, with a five-by-five bank of lights in the playfield. During the game, the player could move Pac-Man (represented by a yellow light) by tapping flipper buttons for direction/movement to avoid the ghost (represented by a red light).
    • Five months later came Baby Pac-Man, which combined a Pac-Man video game with a pinball table, in a video-game-sized cabinet. Unfortunately, the small playfield was a challenge for most players, and the maze game was Nintendo Hard to the point where finishing the first maze was an accomplishment.
    • 1990 saw Family Pinball for Famicom. It wasn't primarily a Pac-Man game, but it did feature Pac-Man as a playable character, and there was a Pac-Man-themed table.
    • Pac-Man Pinball Advance was released in 2005 for, you guessed it, Game Boy Advance. It received unenthusiastic reviews.
      • There was a Pac-Man Pinball series for mobile devices; the first game came out in 2003, and the second followed in 2008.
    • A competitive multiplayer pinball game debuted in Japan in 2019 named Pac-Man Panic. It eventually came to the USA at the beginning of 2020.
  • Poison Mushroom: Power Pellets in Pac-Man Plus have a random chance of making the maze invisible, or having one of the ghosts remain unaffected by the pellet.
  • Power-Up Food: Power Pellets aside, Pac-Man Plus's Bonus Fruits turn the ghosts edible (and invisible) and are worth double points.
  • Power-Up Motif: The Bonus Fruits.
  • Promoted to Playable:
    • The Tengen versions of Ms. Pac-Man have the original Pac-Man as the 2nd player when playing a co-op game.
    • Multiplayer modes of games like Adventures in Time and Maze Madness let players control Pac-Jr. and Professor Pac.
  • Retcon:
    • Namco hasn't made very many mentions of Ms. Pac-Man since the 30th anniversary of the original arcade game. It hasn't been in any Namco Museums since Virtual Arcade, and Pac-Man Museum, a compilation based on Pac-Man, does not include Ms. Pac-Man. It probably doesn't help that Ms. Pac-Man was developed by Midway rather than Namco. Then again, Namco did buy the full rights to the game and character. It should be noted that Ms. Pac-Man is available in Pac-Man Museum as Downloadable Content and Ms. Pac-Man herself cameos in Super Smash Bros for Wii U (which Namco co-created alongside Hal Labs and Sora Ltd.).
    • There is also strong evidence that Pac-Man's other family members (Pac-Jr, Baby Pac, Professor Pac) were retconned out of the series after Pac-Man World 3.
    • Unrelated to the last three: Blinky and Clyde had their names switched in Pac-Man Arrangement (1996) and the Pac-Man World series. Their naming scheme returned to normal after Pac-Man World 3.
  • Rhyme Theme Naming: The red, pink, and blue ghosts are given rhyming names in the English translation of the game: Blinky, Pinky, and Inky.
  • Score Multiplier: Present in Pac-Man for Mobile but only in the new mazes. The multiplier increases whenever Pac-Man eats a fruit or eats two or more Ghosts under one Power Pellet. A larger score bonus is given if Pac-Man clears the maze without dying.
  • Scoring Points: Eating ghosts in succession usually follow the 200, 400, 800, 1600 model. Certain power ups and combo systems allow this point combo to increase up to 3200 or 7650 points.
  • Screen Crunch:
    • The Game Boy version—on top of being impossible to tell which ghost is who (without understanding their individual A.I.) thanks to the lack of colors—has a giant, unnecessary gray border on the right side of the screen that eats up nearly 1/3 of the resolution.
    • The GBA port, Pac-Man Collection, was an interesting case. In Pac-Man & Pac-Man Arrangement (1996), only one half of the maze can be on screen at once, though using the shoulder buttons will allow you to see the other half.
    • Perhaps because of all of this, the Championship Edition games instead have mazes designed specifically for 16:9 screens, rather than the traditional taller-than-is-wide mazes.
  • Shown Their Work: The playable Google doodle for Pac-Man's 30th anniversary. While the maze is obviously different, the game mechanics are accurate to the original to an absurd degree. Everything from the ghost behavior to the infamous "pass-through" glitch to even the Kill Screen at level 256 (though unlike the original, the game simply ends at that point) is replicated to near pixel perfection.
  • Socialization Bonus: Pac Man vs., originally bundled with Pac-Man World 2, is only playable in multiplayer and requires one GBA and the special cable. The Nintendo Switch version requires a second console with a separate app, however three players can play a solo console mode where they only capture Pac-Man for points.
  • Something Person: Pac-Man, natch.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Pac-Jr.'s relationship with Blinky's daughter Yum-Yum in Jr. Pac-Man. Blinky clearly objects to the bond, chasing Jr. whenever he tries to go near her to the point that Ms. Pac-Man has to jump in on both occasions to prevent Blinky from catching and potentially killing her son.
  • Stock Food Depictions: The bonus fruits, where applicable, take on stock appearances to make their appearances obvious within graphical limitations. Even when graphics were no longer an issue, their appearances remain faithful to the original.
  • Stock Sound Effects: The Atari 2600 version's sound effects were used extensively well into the mid-90's to depict "video game sounds".
  • Stripping Snag: In Coffee Break 2, Blinky gets his sheet stuck on a pole, and it rips, revealing his inner layer. By the time of Coffee Break 3, Blinky's sheet has been hastily stitched back up.
  • Sudden Eye Colour: Pac-Man went from Pie-Eyed to having blue eyes starting with Pac-Man Party. Later redesigns would go back to the him-shaped eyes.
  • Super-Empowering:
    • In Pac-Man Arrangement (1996) from Namco Classics Collection Volume 2, a fifth ghost named Kinky who could fuse with one of the four other ghosts to give them special powers fitting their personalities: Blinky gains a dashing headbutt, Pinky gains the ability to jump to and from any location in the maze, Inky gains a Doppelgänger Attack, and Clyde gains the ability to lay down Pac dots in empty portions of the maze (forcing you to revisit those sections). Initially, the ghost house will only spawn one Kinky, but later levels will have it spawn more copies, until the final world which will spawn Kinky until every ghost is transformed.
    • The official Namco sequel to the original Pac-Man was "Super Pac-Man".note  It includes the original four energizers in the corners, but also two new Super energizers in the middle of the maze, which transforms Pac-Man into a giant (supposedly he's flying above the maze, but he's still constrained by the maze's paths), makes him immune to the monsters, and gives him super-speed and the ability to eat through doors that normally require a key to open. The Super pellet's duration is short, but it can be refreshed by eating an energizer.
    • In Pac & Pal, eating a special symbol doesn't turn the monsters blue, but instead makes Pac-Man slightly larger and turns him blue, and gives him the ability to shoot a short-range projectile to stun the monsters. The exact projectile depends on the special symbol.
  • Support Party Member: Kinky in Pac-Man Arrangement (1996) from Namco Classics Collection Volume 2. He's the only ghost that cannot harm Pac-Man directly at all, as he's always vulnerable. However, he acts as support by powering up the other Ghosts to give them much more dangerous abilities.
    • Quest for the Golden Maze features Baby Ghost, who functions similarly to Kinky but grants powerups if collected.
  • Timed Power-Up: The majority of the power-ups in the series only last for a short time after they are collected. The Power Pellets are the most famous, but other examples include the Super Pellets from Super Pac-Man, the Green Pellet from Pac-Mania, and all of the power-ups from Pac-Man 256.
  • Title Confusion: There's a lot of this.
    • The arcade game is Junior Pac-Man; the unlockable game in the Genesis version of Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures is Pac-Man, Jr. They are not the same game.
      • Adding to that, there are unrelated handheld LCD games named Pac Man 2 and Pac-Junior
    • Pac-Man Panic is not the same thing as Pac-Panic
    • Pac-Man Pinball Advance is completely different from the Pac-Man Pinball on mobile devices.
    • Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures is known as Pac-World in Japan, in no relation to Pac-Man World.
    • Two games released under the Catalog IP project label are Pac-Run and Pac-Man Run. They are from separate development teams.
  • Turns Red:
    • Well... Blinky is already red to begin with, but when a certain number of dots remain (20 in the first level, up to 120 in later levels), he moves faster and becomes even more of a Determinator. And once you've eaten half that number of dots, he'll speed up even more. Fans have dubbed this behaviour "Cruise Elroy".
    • In Pac-Mania, the player is given a visual indication when Blinky goes "Cruise Elroy" — he gains angry eyes. Later, Namco Classics Collection Volume 2's version of Pac-Man Arrangement (1996) kept this for Blinky (unless he is in his fused form), as well as raising his arms◊.
      • To add to this, as a timeout mechanic in Arrangement, all of the ghosts would become angry and gain Blinky's AI.note 
  • Under the Sea: World 2/Water World in Pac-Man Arrangement (1996).
  • Updated Re-release
    • Pac-Man Plus (created by Namco and Bally Midway) is a more difficult version of the original with the Power Pellet having different effects depending on the stage.
    • The 2005 version of Pac-Man Arrangement received a PSP-exclusive re-release that gives the game a coat of Namco fanservice.
    • World's Largest Pac-Man is the original game on an enormous LCD screen. Gameplay differences include: simultaneous 2-player co-op, the bonus fruits move similar to Ms. Pac-Man, gameplay keeps moving even if Pac-Man dies, the ability to continue the game at a Game Over rather than starting over, and shifting maze colors.
  • Ur-Example: The original arcade game was the first game to feature enemy AI rather than enemies that move in a set pattern.
  • Version-Exclusive Content:
    • Pac-Man for Mobile is full of this.
  • Video Game Remake: Pac-Man Arrangement (1996) in Namco Classics Collection Volume 2 featured two-player co-op play, new power-ups, new stage elements such as dash arrows and jump panels, and a fifth ghost that could give the four other ghosts special powers. It is available in Pac-Man Collection for the Game Boy Advance, Namco Museum for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox, and Pac-Man Museum+ for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.
  • Western Rattlers: In Adventures in Time, rattlesnakes appear as dangerous obstacles in levels themed after The Wild West.
  • Would Hit a Girl: The ghosts are not above attacking Ms. Pac Man. Also, you can eat Pinky and Sue.
  • Would Hurt a Child:
    • The ghosts are not above attacking Pac Man Jr.
    • Baby Ghost in Quest for the Golden Maze is edible without eating a Power Pellet.
  • Wrap Around: There's two tunnels on the side. Ghosts may chase after Pac-Man if they're close enough, otherwise they'll head through the maze.

Alternative Title(s): Ms Pac Man, Pac Man Plus, Professor Pac Man, Jr Pac Man, Pac Man Adventures In Time, Ms Pac Man Quest For The Golden Maze

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