From first to worst, the tragic story of a legend: Is Pac-Man dead?

[Cactuar]

For those of you too young to know, Pac-Man was Mario before Mario. I know Mario was in Donkey Kong (1981), but he didn't become a cultural phenom until Super Mario Bros. (1985), whereas Pac-Man was a pop culture icon from his initial introduction in 1980.

It was a game made for arcades, but had success on the early home consoles, a TV show, featured in various movies, etc., and of course, songs...




Not to mention, an incredibly hot wife...

There's no question Pac-Man is still an icon, despite not releasing a relevant video game in years, perhaps decades. But my question is regarding his viability as a video game seller. Would anyone care about a new Pac-Man game? Is there anything that could be done to make this character relevant to today's scene? Surely he can guest star in a bunch of games and get a quick laugh, but can he carry his own game and actually have that game move big numbers?

We can't say it's age, Mario still sells plenty to this day. Maybe it's his style of game (arcade/puzzle)? They've tried various genres with him, but I think he has a stigma of being "too old fashioned." What say you? Is there more life left in this icon, or is he better off left in the past?

 

[Deleted member 59109]

The series is in a pretty bad spot right now, but it's still my favorite series and if a new Pac Man World game or sequel to Pac Man Adventures in Time were announced, it would be the best video game announcement for me. I mean even anything unique, something beyond just rehashing the arcade maze style again, would be great

 

[Stuart Gipp]

Isn't Pac-Man CE DX still really popular?

 

[Angie]

My first game was Pac-Man World, and I have the foundest memories of playing it with my brother.
If a new game or a collection was announced it would make me so happy.

 

[BassForever]

We just had a Pac Man Battle Royale released on Stadia (yeah I know...) in November of 2020

Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle - Official Battle Royale Trailer

The 64-player experience, Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle, is available now on Google Stadia. Check out the launch trailer.#ign

youtu.be

Pac Man also had a cartoon earlier this decade. Pacman will continue to get new games and other merch made until the heat death of the universe.

 

[mopinks]

Pac-Man 256 kicks ass

 

[Undrey]

Pac-Man Championship Edition DX was one of the best PSN games I played on the PS3. I haven't played the sequel yet and it's probably not as good but I don't think it's dead. All Pac-Man need is a Tetris Effect-like Pac-Man game. The Pac-Man Effect.

 

[Oneiros]

The retro Championship Edition that came out last year is pretty cool.

 

[¡Hip Hop!]

The Championship Edition games are dope. Make more of those, Namco.

 

[demondance]

The CE series is great, Battle Royale looks great although it's tied up in Stadia exclusivity for now, and 256 is great. These aren't massive Mario-esque hits, of course, but "irrelevant" is a bit much. These are all way better games than the attempts at making platformers and such in the 90s.

 

[Symphony]

Pac-Man really doesn't need to be reinvented to take on Mario or whatever, Namco have realised that his place in the market nowadays is selling a shit ton of merchandise through nostalgia and retro appeal. Go to an arcade and you'll see new Pac-Man machines literally everywhere, from ticket redemption stuff and air hockey to Battle Royale, and they'll probably have crane games full of plushies too.

 

[entremet]

PacMan is basically video game design language at its most basic. Not much you can do other that release excellent takes on the games--DX, Battle Royale.

I'd love another 3D platforming game.

 

[JaseMath]

Isn't Pac-Man CE DX still really popular?

Click to shrink...

I wish this were available to download on consoles. DX 2 isn't anywhere near as fun.

 

[UltraGashInferno]

FPPMVR

First person Pac-Man vr which is definitely not just a vore sim

 

[Deleted member 21709]

Pac-Man has had some fantastic games in recent years.. so... no!

 

[NinjaScooter]

For the most part people are always going to know what "pac man" is, especially in gaming, but as a financially viable IP, its probably dead. Knowing about something/cultural relevance is different from people knowing/liking a thing enough to spend money on it.

 

[SturokBGD]

He'll be remembered long after Geoff Keighley is gone.

 

[Scottoest]

Aside from retro-styled games, Pac-Man is done.

He's a cheese wheel that ate white dots. It'll always be iconic, but there's only so much you can do with that before you've made a game that is unrecognizable as Pac-Man.

It's alright to let old stuff rest.

 

[Ikarus]

How was the Pac-man multiplayer game on Google Stadia? I didn't get to play it.

 

[Deleted member 10795]

Hoping for a gripping reboot, charting a harrowing coming of age journey as he guides Pac-Boy through the dead, ghost ridden wastelands of the apocalypse.

 

[Outrun]

Things were never the same for Pacman after this:

Ms. Pacman & California Raisin Embroidery Hoop Art | Etsy

 

[eXistor]

Pac-Man is and will always be an icon and an important part of video game history. Whether or not there will ever be a good game in the series ever again is irrelevant.

As for new games, I don't see him ever returning to his glory days. Any new release is probably just gonna be derived from the originals and I think that's totally fine.

 

[Deleted member 54073]

He'll always be iconic but gaming has moved on.

Until we get a God of War style revamp in 2023.

 

[SturokBGD]

He'll always be iconic but gaming has moved on.

Click to shrink...

"Expanded", not "moved on". There's a lot more to gaming than what you see on ResetEra.

 

[TSM]

Pac-man Championship Edition, and Championship Edition DX were amazing. It's a shame Championship Edition DX 2 didn't live up to those games. Whoever directed DX2 didn't seem to understand what made DX so great and is one of my biggest disappointments of the last decade. 256 was also a lot of fun at least.

 

[Deleted member 79451]

I expect Pac Man games made more money than Metroid in the last year. It's still alive.

 

[Agent Unknown]

They should reboot the Hanna Barbera version of Pac Man who looked and sounded like a round, discolored and constipated Fred Flintstone, that would get some buzz going.

 

[maximumzero]

There was a Pac-Man animated series recently, there's been a ton of re-releases of old Pac-Man titles lately across a whole bunch of platforms, including Arcade 1Ups cabinet releases, merchandise is everywhere, and Paccy even made his way into Smash.

How could anyone fathom that Pac-Man is dead?

 

[MaverickHunterAsh]

Considering Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 is, to my mind, the best Pac-Man game ever and it's available on all current platforms, I'm gonna say no.

It has been awhile since its release, though, and I'd love to see a follow-up announced.

 

[808s & Villainy]

There's only so many ways you can keep remixing what is a fairly simple game/concept. Either go the Bomberman direction and lose sight of wtf you're doing, or go the Tetris direction and just recoat it with some slightly different gimmick. Either way, it had little room to grow

 

[Hieroph]

I was just looking at the PS2/DS/Wii era, when they used to release all kinds of Pac-Man games.



It looks like Pac-Man is another casualty of the HD era, with ballooning development costs preventing the development of quirkier titles like these.

 

[Giga Man]

These are good games. Bring them back!

 

[Barrel Cannon]

Lol nah he's not dead. The brand brings in plenty of money, mainly through merchandise and not traditional videogames

 

[Finaika]

Ellie is more popular than Pac-Man.

Let that sink in...

 

[Zan]

Pacman's alive.

His contemporaries are a different story.

 

[JooJ]

I once read in an old EGM interview that it was meant to be called Puck-Man, but was changed because the P could be scratched into an F.

 

[WestEgg]

Pac-Man isn't dead, but he's in a semi-retirement, coming out every now and then to relive the good old days and making appearances, but mostly keeping to himself in his glorious Pac-Mansion.

 

[lupinko]

He's in Smash, so no.

 

[kirby_fox]

A Pac-Man game that did something different and catchy could easily get big on mobile. The problem is with the formula being changed ever so slightly or throwing him into other genres that just never caught on.

He had a new cartoon I thought early last decade, so he's not dead. They just can't figure out what to do with him. The arcade stuff I've seen at Dave and Buster's is exactly where Pac-Man belongs, it's just a shame arcades have been dying for a long time.

 

[Hieroph]

These are good games. Bring them back!

Click to shrink...

The way they've done his eyebrows on the 3D model make them look like cat ears. Or maybe horns.

 

[Mugen X]

I think some studio will take it on and find a way to expand upon the original concepts for this game. The same treatment tetris is getting I could see this getting as well.

 

[denpanosekai]

Pac-Man 256 kicks ass

Click to shrink...

YES

Love the local multiplayer!!!

 

[AgeEighty]

Of course he's not dead. But there are only so many ideas for dot-munching maze games before they aren't dot-munching maze games anymore, and therefore aren't Pac-Man.

I think that all things considered, Namco have done a pretty good job periodically churning out games that remix Pac-Man in new and interesting ways: Pac-Man Vs., Pac-Man CE, Pac-Man 256, and so on. We don't get annual iterations or big-budget titles for him, but Pac-Man doesn't need those and wouldn't benefit from them.

 

[night814]

Pac-Man will never die

 

[Zodzilla]

Pac-Man CE and CE DX are two of the greatest games of all time.

256 was also a bunch of fun.

Pac-Man, like Mario will never die, he just needs to be reinvented and re-examined time and time again.

 

[RedMercury]

At this point idk what can be done with it, Championship Edition imo was the last great game

 

[Barrel Cannon]

They'll always refresh the IP with a new title every now and then to keep the merchandise money going. It's an evergreen cash cow. There's a reason it's one of the highest grossing franchises ever.

 

[Gouf]

How was the Pac-man multiplayer game on Google Stadia? I didn't get to play it.

Click to shrink...

It's actually a pretty good battle royale game. The problem is that the playerbase on Stadia is so dead that you're playing against bots that are dumb as dirt pretty much all of the time.

 

[bottledfox]

The series peaked with the Championship Edition games and the best idea imo is to keep re-releasing them while experimenting with spin-offs. I'd like to see a new 2D platformer, or 3D if Namco is feeling ambitious.

 

[Lightus]

Why do you need games when you can just sell merch to guys in their late 30s and feature in any movie tangentially related to video games?

I kid (sorta). Really though most people view pac-man with nostalgia but the game itself gets old pretty quickly when compared with modern games. It'll stay dead game-wise unless they can find away to Tetris Effect it imo