Ghosts

The Ghosts (also known as Monsters or Ghost Monsters) are a recurring race of species and are the main enemies of the Pac-People, all of Pac-Land and Pac-Man's worlds. Ghosts tend to generally be mischievous, mostly terrorizing, haunting, attacking, or creating mischief for the people they encounter.
The most notable recurring ghosts - Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde form part of the Ghost Gang and act as the main antagonists of the Pac-Man series. Though they have mostly appeared as antagonistic characters towards Pac-Man and his family, they have been occasionally allied with Pac-Man on certain occasions.
Like the Ghost Gang, some ghosts tend to be nice to the other characters. Ghosts turn blue and scared when a Pac-Person uses a Power Pellet, which allows the user to eat the Ghosts with ease, with the exception of their eyeballs. They are spectral beings that dwell in Ghost Land and will sometimes travel to Pac-Land to cause havoc and mischief.
== Concept and creation==
Namco became accustomed to the video game industry following the releases of Gee Bee, Bomb Bee, and Cutie Q; despite the titles being considered commercial failures. In Japan, video games had surged in popularity following the success of games such as Space Invaders and Breakout. At the time, game developer Toru Iwatani felt arcade games only appealed to men for many games sharing themes of crude graphics, shooter gameplay, and violence. He decided to create a concept for a game with cuter characters that would appeal to women, as he believed that making a game that would appeal to women would make arcades appear more family-friendly, since he felt that arcades at the time had seedy environments.https://web.archive.org/web/20190304181633/https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/iwatani-pac-man-was-made-for-womenhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190607072436/http://time.com/3892662/pac-mans-35-years/https://web.archive.org/web/20190712174728/https://www.wired.com/2010/05/pac-man-30-years/ The game and its concepts went into development in 1979 alongside Namco's shooter game Galaxian, which would be Namco's first video game with an RGB video display, allowing for colorful palette selections and graphics. The RGB display would be pivotal for the idea of the project which eventually became Pac-Man, so it could display vibrant colors for the titular character.https://web.archive.org/web/20200109075706/https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132330/the_pacman_dossier.php 
Ghosts were chosen as the game's main antagonists because they were used as villainous characters in animation.https://web.archive.org/web/20190712174728/https://www.wired.com/2010/05/pac-man-30-years/ The four ghosts were designed to be cute, colorful, and appealing, using bright, pastel colors and blue eyes.https://web.archive.org/web/20200109075706/https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132330/the_pacman_dossier.php Toru Iwatani cited the inspiration of the ghosts from Casper the Friendly Ghost and the manga Obake no Q-Taro.https://web.archive.org/web/20190712174728/https://www.wired.com/2010/05/pac-man-30-years/
When the ghosts were decided as the antagonists, Namco president Masaya Nakamura requested that all ghosts be colored red and indistinguishable from each other. The idea was opposed by Toru Iwatani, who thought the ghosts should be colored differently; this idea was supported by his colleagues. During an internal vote, all of Namco's staff were in favor of the multicolor ghosts on a 40-0 vote; Nakamura agreed to let the ghosts be multicolored.https://web.archive.org/web/20170807132255/http://www.businessinsider.com/pac-man-ghosts-were-almost-all-one-color-2015-6 The ghosts were given different personalities and methods of chasing Pac-Man in order to balance the game difficulty and prevent the game from becoming boring. Each of the ghosts were given character names to distinguish their methods of pursuing Pac-Man, and would become more difficult to avoid in later rounds.https://web.archive.org/web/20200109075706/https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/132330/the_pacman_dossier.php 
==Biology==
In the original games and cartoon, the Ghosts were originally portrayed as monsters (with the original Japanese version of the games using the term "Obake", a type of yokai usually equated to goblins), with their cloak-like bodies serving as their outfits covering their true body, being a pink-worm being with feet that could only be seen visibly under their cloak. However, they had a few ghostly traits such as being able to levitate. It is unknown if they are actual "ghosts" (i.e. spirits of the dead), or just creatures that act as enemies to the Pac-People in the older continuities.
In the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures animated series and games, the Ghosts are portrayed as spectral ectoplasmic entities with the common ghostly traits of being semi-intangible, being able to levitate, and can leave trails of ectoplasm on living beings. They also do not appear to have a very good diet, with much of their "food" appearing to be made up mostly of inedible and gross muck like garbage, worms, body parts, and other unidentifiable substances and slimy goo, however, due to being spiritual entities without organs, these substances do no permanent harm to them. The fact that they have things such as sewers and sewage implies they still need to expel bodily waste products like Pac-People. Blinky has even admitted to passing gas on one occasion, which, sad to say, dramatically improved the smell of their food. With proper seasoning, their food can be made edible to Pac-People.
It appears that the majority of ghosts are former Pac-People, but usually bare no resemblance to their living selves, and apparently they come in a wide variety of colors and types apart from the usual standard ghostly appearance, with some appearing gigantic, cycloptic, octopus-like, etc, and it appears that they may be able to freely change between these forms depending on their moods and personalities, a likely benefit of no longer being restricted by physical forms. However, ghostly animals appear to still somewhat resemble their living animal forms, unlike Ghostly Pac-People.
They mainly attack Pac-People by biting them (despite many having no visible teeth), covering them in slime, or eating them alive (according to the Atari 2600 manual of Pac-Man).
=== Weakness===
In the original games and cartoon, their main weakness is the Power Pellet, which can be eaten by almost any type of Pac-Being, such as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man, other Pac-People, and Pac-Animals. When eaten, Pac-People posses the ability to eat them and it causes them to turn blue with fear. Once eaten, their empty bodies will return to a chamber in the center of a maze where Pac-Man has no access and return to their original forms to continue chasing him.
In the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures animated series and games, Pac-Man is the only one capable of eating them due to his status as a "Yellow One" and can do so even without berries in certain games while in others it is required. Power Pellets have also been replaced with Power Berries which simply act as empowering items that can give Pac-Man unique abilities that can defeat Ghosts more easily, but are still not required for eating Ghosts.
===Varieties===
In Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, Ghosts, especially the Ghosts of Pac-People, come in a wide variety of shapes and forms but the majority usually appear to resemble the most common appearance of ghosts with round heads and ghostly tails but with a wide assortment of colors. 
*Alien Ghosts - a species of extraterrestrial ghosts that has a symbiotic relationship with Ghosteroids. they protect the ghosteroid and in return, the ghosteroid shelters them
*Aqua Ghosts - ghosts that can travel effectively in water
*Cyclops Ghosts - The second largest species of ghosts even dwarfing some monsters in the Netherworld.
*Drill Bit Ghosts - ghosts forced to be used as the tip of huge drills.
*Fire Ghosts - a species of ghost that conjures fire. Lord Betrayus is the most notable one.
*Green Ghosts - ghosts that can attack with slime more effectively than others.
*Ghosteroids - The largest species of ghosts, they are a species of extraterrestrial ghosts that have a symbiotic relationship with Alien Ghosts, the Ghosteroid shelters the alien ghosts and in return, the alien ghosts protect it.
*Ghost Sharks - Ghosts of deceased Pac-Sharks. can also fly too.
*Guardian Ghosts - Royal guards of the Netherworld.
*Ice Ghosts - a species of ghost that conjures ice.
*Jellyfish Ghosts - The smallest species of ghost, which are nonsapient and can be found in Pac-World's seas. Their faces resemble scaredy ghosts.
*Lightning Ghosts - a species of ghost that conjures electricity.
*Tentacle Ghosts - a ghost that resembles a squid and/or octopus.
*Vulnerable Ghosts - a form ghosts take when they start panicking.
===In-Game Behavior===
Ghosts in the original Pac-Man are limited by not being able to turn unless they reach an intersection. Each ghost will behave differently once it has reached an intersection. Some will move randomly, while others focus on chasing Pac-Man or ambushing him. Other times, the ghosts will revert to scatter mode where they try to spread themselves among the four corners of the maze.
==Notable Ghost characters==
Throughout the series, there have been a notable amount of Ghosts appearing within the Pac-Man games and media.
===Ghost Gang===
The Ghost Gang refers to the original antagonists of the first Pac-Man game, who return in most of the other games in the Pac-Man series. The group is comprised of four ghosts named Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. In some appearances, they are joined by a fifth member named Sue, who originated from Ms. Pac-Man in place of Clyde.
Their roles in the series have mostly varied; they were originally portrayed as villainous, but are friendly in some later appearances. However, most of their solo villainous efforts usually consist of them just teasing or chasing Pac-Man (and family), while in others they take on a more antagonistic role due to being ordered to do so by their superiors (e.g. Spooky or the Ghost Witch). Nonetheless, it appears they usually antagonize others simply for the fun and joy of scaring and pranking them, rather than genuine hate or malicious intent.
Throughout the series, the roles and names of Blinky and Clyde are often mixed up; this has been commonly referred to by fans as the Clyde and Blinky error. 
*Blinky 
** Color: Red
**Character: Bad-tempered, crude, bossy, bully, fast, bratty, grouchy, dangerous, mean, sarcastic, greedy, mostly aggressive, he's the responsible leader of the four and the arch-nemesis of Pac-Man.
*Pinky 
** Color: Pink (or sometimes magenta)
**Character: Mischievous, persistent, tricky, cute, adorable, beautiful, happy, lovely, has a big crush on Pac-Man from time to time. In the original arcade game, she's the only female ghost.
*Inky
**Color: Cyan (or sometimes blue or light blue)
**Character: Goofy, shy, unpredictable, wacky, shattered-brained, a little reckless, dizzy, can also sometimes chase Pac-Man aggressively like Blinky. 
*Clyde
** Color: Orange
**Character: Cowardly, lazy, stupid, brainless, hopeless, seemingly dumb, but may be smarter than he lets on and doesn't really care about chasing Pac-Man. He always distracts himself.
*Sue
**Color: Purple (originally orange in Ms. Pac-Man)
** Character: Sly, Sneaky, Flirty, Annoying, Powerful, Slow. She's the arch-nemesis of Ms. Pac-Man.
===Other Notable Ghosts===
Throughout the many spin-offs of Pac-Man, other ghosts have been added. 
*Pac-Man TV Series (1982-1984):
**Dinky - the nephew of the Ghost Monsters. He is a spoiled child and tends to annoy the Ghost Monsters most of the time and demands ice cream cones.
**Fairy-Ghost Mother - the fairy godmother of the Ghost Monsters who gives the Ghosts a magic fairytale book in order to stop Pac-Man, but fails in the end.
*Miru (Pac & Pal, 1983)
*Jr. Pac-Man (1983):
**Tim
**Yum-Yum
*Pac-Mania (1987):
**Funky
**Spunky
*Kinky - when fusing with members of the original Ghost Gang, he transforms into various "Kinky Mutations". (Pac-Man Arrangement, 1996)
*Pac-Man World (1999):
**Chef Ghost
**DJ Ghost
**Orson
*Pac-Man World 2 (2002)
**Hunter
**Spooky - The All-Powerful Leader of Ghosts from Ancient Times.
**Miscellaneous Ghosts
*Wandy (Pac-Man All-Stars, 2002)
*Pac-Pix (2005):
**Blue
**Berobero
**Biggaboo
**Numboo
**Bari-Boo
**Aloha
**Peppeta
**Ghost House
**Ink Master
**Bari-Vader
*Golvis (Pac 'n Roll, 2005)
*Spectral Monsters (Pac-Man World 3, 2005)
*Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures (2013-2015):
**Betrayus
**Butt-ler
**Captain Banshee
**The Creepies
**Dr. Buttocks
**Fred
**Glooky
**Master Goo
**Mavis
**Ogle
**Seymor
**Specter
*Glitchy (Pac-Man 256, 2015)
*Pac-Store (2016):
**Harry
**Kelly
**Terry
**Rocky
*Punky (The Sandbox Evolution, 2017)
*Winky (Pac-Man Pop!, 2017)
*Crossover appearances:
**Creepy (Minecraft, 2020)
**Bash (Sonic Dash, 2018)
==Trivia== 
*The Pac-Man ghosts were originally known as, and were intended to be, Monsters. They were renamed to ghosts later on; this was mainly popularized by the Atari 2600 version of Pac-Man.
*Pac-Man series creator, Toru Iwatani, has cited that Obake no Q-Tarō ("Little Ghost Q-Taro") was a source of inspiration for the Pac-Man ghosts.
==Gallery==
For this page's full gallery, see Ghosts/Gallery.
===Group Pictures===
Ghosthome.jpg|The Ghost Gang's 8-bit look in the original Pac-Man arcade game
Pac-Land Ghosts.png|The Ghost Gang in Pac-Land
386751 579356442090912 286025815 n.jpg|The Ghost Gang in Pac-Man World 2
Pacman-world-2-prima-scan-ghosts-sp.png|Other ghosts from Pac-Man World 2
Ghosts.jpg|The Ghost Gang in Pac-Man World 2's opening cutscene
025.PNG|The Ghost Gang, plus Sue, as seen on the scoreboard of Pac-Mania for the iOS.
Pac-Man New Game Redesigns Survey.jpg|Redesigns of Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Pac-Man shown as part of a survey conducted through the official Pac-Man Facebook page.
Ghosts.png|The Ghost Gang as they appear in Ghostly Adventures
File:Pac man world re pac ghost gang.png|The Ghost Gang in Pac-Man World Re-Pac
File:Re-pac ghost.jpg|Blinky, Pinky, Clyde, and other ghosts from Pac-Man World Re-Pac's opening cutscene
==See also==
*Spectral Monsters
==References==
 
Category:Species
Category:Former Pac-People
Category:Enemies
Category:Allies
Category:Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures
Category:Monsters