Pac-Man (Universe)

The logo used for Pac-Man internationally. Almost all games use this logo.

Series logo, a vectored image of a pixel version of Pac-Man

The **Pac-Man universe** (パックマン, *Pakkuman*), offically captialized as "PAC-MAN", is a third-party franchise in Super Smash Bros. Switch. It is the "mascot franchise" of Bandai Namco, who helped develop the game alongside Sora Ltd., SEGA, and Dan Fornace. The series is represented by Pac-Man, and it's newcomer, Blinky. The Klonoa universe is considered to be a sub-universe, branching off of this one.

## Franchise Description

After Masaya Nakamura's company, Nakamura Amusement-machine Manufacturing Company (or NAMCO), founded Namco's American subsidiary in order to license its video arcade machines to companies such as Atari and Midway Games for distribution in the U.S., Namco released its first internally designed video arcade game in 1978, *Gee Bee*. Following this, Namco developed and released the highly popular fixed shooter game *Galaxian* in 1979 to compete with Taito Corporation's successful earlier game, *Space Invaders*. *Galaxian* revolutionized the arcade industry as the first game to use RGB-color graphics, and it and its 1981 sequel *Galaga* became fixtures in what was subsequently remembered as the "Golden Age of arcade video games" - the peak era of arcade video game popularity and technological innovation. However, Namco's project in between, 1980's *Pac-Man*, would arguably become even more definitive of both the era and Namco's legacy. A young Namco employee named Toru Iwatani designed the game with the intention to appeal to a wider audience beyond young boys and teenagers - demographics that were typical of the time because of the prevalence of space shooter-themed arcade machines. He therefore fashioned a game out of maze-like elements and a colorful aesthetic with cute character designs, including a player-character he originally named "Puck-man" after the Japanese phrase "paku paku", an onomatopoeia used to represent the sound of eating. The character and the game itself were renamed *Pac-Man* for the North American release.

Despite its initially lukewarm reception in Japan, it is difficult to overstate the immense impact that the North American release of the game *Pac-Man* had. It quickly became far more popular than anything seen in the game industry up to that point, grossing over $1 billion in quarters within a decade, and towards the end of the 20th century, the game's total gross in quarters had been estimated at more than 10 billion quarters ($2.5 billion), making it the highest-grossing video game of all time. It established the maze chase game genre, and is also credited for laying the foundations for the stealth genre due to its emphasis on avoiding enemies rather than fighting them. It introduced what is argued to be the first original gaming mascot, Pac-Man, and in doing so demonstrated the potential of characters in video games. It was the first video game to feature power-ups, and is often credited as the first game to feature cutscenes, albeit not to the degree that Nintendo's own revolutionary arcade game, *Donkey Kong*, had the following year. Finally, it opened gaming to female audiences, and it was gaming's first licensing success. Pac-Man was determined to have the highest brand awareness of any video game character among American consumers.

*Pac-Man* became one of few games to have been consistently published for over three decades, with many remakes and sequels released on numerous platforms. This is not to mention the influx of unauthorized *Pac-Man* clones that took place soon after the original release, nor of the ill-fated port of the game for the Atari 2600 (which ironically was a contributing factor to the infamous 1983 video game crash in North America due to the debilitating technical limitations of the console). An American-produced derivative titled *Ms. Pac-Man* garnered a great deal of success of its own due to improvements over the original title, and despite its development happening without Namco's consent, Namco received the rights to the property and subsequently included the feminine take on *Pac-Man* in various *Pac-Man* compilations and ports. As the series progressed with continued releases that explored different genres, the iconic yellow wedge shape that ordinarily defined the title character onscreen was phased out for a design closer to his appearance on the promotional artwork printed on the arcade machines themselves - an abstract, spherical humanoid with rudimentary limbs and a massive face with a stick-like nose that varied in length between appearances. This was done in *Pac-Land* in part to tie in with a Hanna-Barbera animated series about Pac-Man that ran for two seasons in 1982 and 1983.

The steady stream of *Pac-Man* games was more-or-less halted for roughly six years after *Pac-Mania* for the arcades in 1987, before resuming on consoles with *Pac-Attack* in 1993. Through releases on a variety of competing platforms, including the PC, the formerly maze-based series explored genres as varied as puzzle, adventure, platformer, party, racing, and even pinball. It could be argued that *Pac-Man* as an IP was easily more relevant as a forerunner to modern video games than as a starring video game franchise, due to the tendency of modern *Pac-Man* games to cater to young child demographics and garner at-times-lukewarm reception, but Namco nonetheless honors the character as its company mascot, and introduced an updated design in the computer-animated series *Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures*, which began airing in 2013. In an odd twist of fate, Pac-Man was involved both in another company's crossover fighting game - Capcom's *Street Fighter X Tekken*, wherein he was a playable character exclusively in PlayStation versions - and in a *Mario* game - as a playable racer in 2005's *Mario Kart Arcade GP*, a racing arcade game developed jointly by Namco and Nintendo, along with its sequels - before he was included for the first time as a playable fighter in Nintendo's *Super Smash Bros.* series of crossover fighting games in 2014, also a joint Nintendo-Namco effort. Inversely, Mario also made a cameo appearance in a Pac-Man game, acting as the announcer in the 2003 GameCube title *Pac-Man Vs.*

Pac-Man has recently been making appearances in a mulit-tude of games released for mobile devices as well, with the latest one, *Pac-Man Hats 2*, becoming very popular.

The original *Pac-Man* is set in a static, colored maze, where the original wedge-shaped Pac-Man must traverse every corridor and lane at least once in order to eat every pellet distributed across the screen. Pac-Man is at constant risk from four differently-colored "ghosts" that roam the maze with the intention to collide into him, but whenever Pac-Man eats through any four of the larger Power Pellets in a maze, the ghosts temporarily turn vulnerable, and will be briefly taken out of the game when Pac-Man collides with a ghost in this state. There is essentially no end to the number of mazes Pac-Man can clear, and the point score - the ultimate objective of the game like with many arcade games - can be further increased by eating fruits that bounce through the stage occasionally. While elements of this classic formula have been referenced in later *Pac-Man* games based on different genres, games have since depicted Pac-Man in a colorful world not unlike *Mario* and *Sonic*.

## In Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo Switch

Hailing from the last game, the Pac-Man universe is once again represented. Unlike the last game, however, it doesn't consider Namco's minor franchises to be a part of Pac-Man's, instead, the Pac-Man universe is more strictly based off of the Pac-Man games themselves. Due to this, most of the arcade games represented have their own minor franchise catagory. The Pooka from Dig-Dug is not a part of this universe, but from the Dig-Dug universe now.

### Characters

* **Pac-Man:** Pac-Man returns as a playable character in Super Smash Bros. Switch, using a mixture of his Pac-Man World and Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures redesign. Similarly to his Smash 4 counterpart, his moveset consists of eating power pellets, his Butt Bounce/Rev Roll movies from Pac-Man World and using 8-bit items and enemies from his own game along with those of various Namco arcade games. He has a major role in the game's story mode, being one of the main heroes who follow the Dreadful Evil.
* **Blinky:** Blinky is a newcomer to Super Smash Bros. Switch, and is considered as a "villain" character. With his design hailing mostly from his classical design, and his personality from Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures. Blinky is a quick fighter, relying on speed and pressure to corner his opponents and cause them to mess up, similar to his behavior patterns in the original Pac-Man games. Blinky even represents all of the ghosts seen throughout the Pac-Man franchise. He is also one of the major villains in the game's story mode, being one of the Dreadful Evil.

### Common Enemies

* **Ghosts (Pinky, Inky, Clyde, Sue):** The 3 other Ghosts from the orignal Pac-Man, and Sue, a ghost who appeared in Ms. Pac-Man, and didn't get a redesign until Pac-Mania. They appear individually as Strong Enemies in Smash Run, and together as a Boss Battle on a giant ghost-like robot called "Emperor Ghost" similarly like in the final round of Pac-Man Arrangement.
* **Toc-Man:** Appears as a Boss Battle.
* **Pac-Cub**: Bear-like monsters from the game Pac-Man World 2. They appear during Smash Run and Story Mode.
* **K-Trons**: Robot warriors from the game Pac-Man World 3. They appear during Smash Run, and Story Mode.

### Stages

#### Familar Stages

* Pac-Maze (3DS): Pac-Maze from Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo 3DS returns in this game. It's stage based on the original Pac-Man. It is shown to have several platforms and the four ghosts, Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde, but this time in a special refined form. Power Pellets appear upon collecting 100 Pac-Dots and make fighters temporarily invincible to the ghosts upon being collected.
* Pac-Land (Wii U): A stage from Super Smash Bros. For Wii U. A stage based on Pac-Land, and is mostly unchanged compared to it's previous version. It appears as a side scrolling stage, similar to Mushroomy Kingdom and 3D Land.

#### New Stages

* Pac-Dot Pond: A stage based on the stage of a similar name in Pac-Man World 2. The stage is set on the treetops, with a pond of water and lily pads that sink in the water.
* Gator Panic: A stage based off of the redemption arcade game, Gator Panic. Although it's from another franchise, it is considered a Pac-Man universe stage (Mostly due to it's remake in Namco Museum Remix). The stage has multiple holes where Gators come out to bite at the players.

### Music

> *Main Article: List of PAC-MAN Music*
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* PAC-MAN
* PAC-MAN Mix
* PAC-MAN Medley
* Namco Muesem
* PAC-MAN (Club Mix)
* PAC-MAN'S PARK/BLOCK TOWN
* Pac Jump Up!
* Pac Baby
* Castle Pac
* Gyro Jungle
* Spooky Hallow
* Haunted Funhouse
* Chapter 1 (Pac-Pix)
* Chapter 2 (Pac-Pix)
* Pac-Man VS.
* Pac-Village
* B-Doing Woods
* Cleopactra
* Gator Panic
* Block World
* Maze World
* Pac-Attack

### Other

* Ms. Pac-Man: Appears in the Pac-Land stage and is referenced in Pac-Man's alternate costume.