Pac-Man
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Pac-Man goes free to play on Android
Pac-Man was always sort of like a free-to-play game – you had to pay into an arcade machine each time you wanted to try. Now, 32 years later, it's free-to-play for real on Android, with Pac-Man + Tournaments.The game includes the original Pac-Man for free, along with a new "Tournaments" mode that offers power-up items and weekly tournaments with chances to win plush toys and other Pac-Man swag. This mode includes new downloadable mazes, which is where the extra costs come in. But if you just want some Pac-Man, that's free.
Video to board games: WoW Trivial Pursuit, Skylanders Monopoly, more
USAopoly has a lineup of new board games for the American International Toy Fair in New York City on February 10, including the following ones based on video game franchsies: Monopoly: Skylanders, Risk: Mass Effect Galaxy at War Edition, Risk: Plants vs. Zombies, Yahtzee: Pac-Man Collector's Edition, Jenga: Space Invaders Collector's Edition, Trivial Pursuit: World of Warcraft and Clue: Dungeons and Dragons.Risk: Mass Effect tops the price points at $50, with Trivial Pursuit: WoW and Yahtzee: Pac-Man the cheapest at $25 each. Monopoly: Skylanders, Yahtzee: Pac-Man and Jenga: Space Invaders hit this summer; Trivial Pursuit: WoW, Risk: Plants vs. Zombies and Risk: Mass Effect launch in the fall, and Clue: Dungeons and Dragons comes in the spring.When you get bored of gaming on a screen, maybe give board gaming a try (it's totally different; we promise).
NintendoWare Weekly: Aero Porter, Pac-Man
This week, the second of Level-5's bite-sized collaborations arrives on 3DS: Yoot Saito's airport puzzle game Aero Porter. It's accompanied by the Virtual Console release of the NES version of Pac-Man, a game we do not mind having portable access to. Find the full list of 3DS eShop and DSiWare releases after the break.
Ohio State University marching band salutes video games
The half-time show for last night's Ohio State University vs. Nebraska game included some familiar faces amidst all the fancy footwork. OSU's show paid tribute to a range of video games, beautifully executed in sight and sound, featuring Pokemon, Mario Bros., Tetris, Halo, Zelda and Pac-Man. We dare you to not get chills.The OSU marching band is one of the few brass- and percussion-only bands in the country, and it boasts 225 members. Keep that in mind if you want to watch one of the Joystiq editors in her 2005 Halo 2-themed high school marching show, with a band of 100, some of which were piccolos (ouch).[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Pac-Man survey asks fans to choose look of new game
Namco Bandai is asking fans to vote on the look of a new Pac-Man game. In a short survey on the Pac-Man Facebook page, users can vote for one of the above visual styles. The next question asks respondents which platform they play casual games on, while the third asks whether or not they're between the ages of 13 and 40. The final question queries whether they are male or female.It's not a massive leap to suggest Namco is working on a new Pac-Man game aimed at a casual audience. The real question is how it will look. Most of the options are familiar, not surprising given the franchise's numerous guises through its history. We quite like the look of 'D', though. The faded colors along with the ghosts' sharp eyes and crooked mouths make it surprisingly macabre.
Post-It Notes deliver paper Mario stop-motion escapade
Here's a clever piece of stop-motion animation, featuring magical Post-It Notes that bring Mario to life and Pac-Man to his demise.
Today's old car junk is tomorrow's video game controller
Every unused car part you have is basically living in your place, rent free. Did you know that? How do we keep letting this junk get away with that?Well, here's an idea: turn that lazy junk into working video game hardware. Jason Torchinsky did just that, using an old power seat controller from an Oldsmobile to play some Ms. Pac-Man. You can check out the whole how-to over on Jalopnik – or, if you're anything like us, you can just call your dad, tell him to come over and make him do it.
Easter egg: Pac-Man is on Pac-Man in Street Fighter x Tekken
You may not have noticed during the frenzy of battle, but Pac-Man's got something interesting going on with his battle bot in Street Fighter X Tekken. On the back, there's an animated classic Pac-Man game board where Pac's chasing down his next ghastly snack!Too bad nobody will be able to notice the intricate Easter egg mid-fight. Instead, you'll probably want to check it out in the customization screen – or, by simply hitting the play button on the video above.[Thanks, Robert.]
Decorate your own maze with Pac-Man wind-up toys
Two incredible surprises await: the first surprise is that there apparently weren't already wind-up Pac-Man and Ghost Monster toys, and the second is that there are totally wind-up Pac-Man and Ghost Monster toys now.Retailer Entertainment Earth (where Tomopop discovered the toys) lists them for release next month, at a $9.99 price point. However, Amazon has it right now through a third party seller, which means we could be re-enacting Pac-Man with our cats as unwitting participants in just days.
'Pac-Man Smash' trademarked in Europe
Namco Bandai filed a European trademark (number 010786341) for something called "Pac-Man Smash!" suggesting that, finally, Namco is making a spinoff game based on Pac-Man.All right, maybe there's not enough information in the trademark listing to do much other than joke about the ubiquity of games starring Pac-Man, but the trademark does at least specify that it's for a video game (or card game, toy, or "gymnastic and sporting articles.)The majority of Pac-Man-themed games end up on mobile or iOS these days (Pac-Man Arcade Golf, Pac-Man Kart Rally, Pac-Chain, etc.) so that's a likely destination for whatever this turns out to be. We're attempting to corner Namco now to ask about it, before the publisher can find a Power Pellet and turn on us.
SoulCalibur 5's upcoming DLC has maid costumes, more swimsuits
So, remember how SoulCalibur 5 is getting monthly costume DLC starting next month, and how we were absolutely positive it wouldn't be what we were expecting? Well, turns out this first pack is actually exactly what we expected, in that it's mostly random goofiness and fanservice.The new array of costumes will be available for purchase through the "Cepheus Store," which will presumably be added during the game's March 21 system/balance update. The store is divided into categories, the ones listed in the video being "Classic Headgears," "SCV Character Equipment," "Maid Costumes," "Active Wear," Ancient Armor" and "Modern Costumes."No word yet on pricing, or whether the costumes will be sold as complete outfits or individual pieces.The above trailer also teases costumes and accessories coming in future updates, which appear to include fishing regalia, flight attendant outfits, the equipment needed to make King from Tekken, and ... a Pac Man head?
These games inspired Cliff Bleszinski, John Romero, Will Wright, and Sid Meier
Everyone in the industry has a story about their formative experiences with video games, but Jon-Paul Dyson, the director of the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, was a bit more blunt than most."Great artists don't borrow. They steal," Dyson said, borrowing a quote from Pablo Picasso as he introduced Wil Wright, Sid Meier, John Romero, and Cliff Bleszinski. Speaking in front of a packed house at GDC, the four industry luminaries shared the games that inspired them as creators, and continue to influence them today.
Street Fighter X Tekken's Pac-Man and Mega Man hit PS3s on March 13
As we learned a few months ago, the PS3 and Vita versions of Street Fighter X Tekken will include the two best/worst characters ever to grace a fighting game: Original Box-Art Mega Man, and Mecha-Mokujin Pac Man.These characters won't be available out of the box, however; both hilarious callbacks will be released as free DLC on March 13, one week from SFxT's North American release on March 6, according to Capcom Unity. We're alright with this, because it means we'll at least get one week of fighting regular characters online. As soon as Mega/Pac-Man are available, we don't expect to see anyone else, ever again.
A waka waka down memory lane: the 1982 Pac-Man cartoon
With a new Pac-Man cartoon on the way to television, there's no more opportune time to go back and re-examine the last Pac-Man cartoon, produced by Hanna-Barbera in 1982 and 1983. If you were too young to enjoy this stuff when it was fresh, get a very small bowl of popcorn and take in the five-minute clip above.That's from the first episode, which I recently watched on the Pac-Man: The Complete First Season DVD. Warner Bros. released this to the Warner Archive at the end of January, and it's now available on Amazon. I took the opportunity to go back through this pilot, taking notes on what was going on.As a kid, I just took the absolutely nonsensical plotline at face value. Now, after 30 years and, not to brag, a lot of Pac-Man, I can see that Hanna-Barbera was doing some really freaky stuff, both in the name of tying into the near-nonexistent plot of the arcade game and just because.
Pac-Man's 'Adventure Begins' next year in new animated series
At its E3 2010 party -- a 30th anniversary celebration for Pac-Man -- Namco Bandai showed the pilot for a 3D animated series, produced by former Marvel exec Avi Arad. The show disappeared like a ghost monster's body until today, when Namco Bandai announced a deal for the show to appear on Disney XD in fall 2013.Called "Pac-Man -- The Adventure Begins," this will finally be your opportunity to learn how Pac-Man started his long career of wandering around a maze trying not to starve.%Gallery-149064%
Street Fighter X Tekken trailer reveals new characters, teases ... Pac-Man in Vita version
Capcom released a new Street Fighter X Tekken trailer, showing new characters for the crossover fighter, including Balrog, Juri, Vega, Paul, Law, and Xiaoyu. But that's not important right now. What is important is a tease for the Vita version at the end of the trailer, which shows silhouettes of what is clearly Pac-Man, and what appears to be some kind of Mega Man variant. Mega Man in a fighting game is relatively common (and still welcome), but Pac-Man? We now live in a time in which a yellow sphere from a 1980 arcade game can beat up on the guy from Infamous. Wondrous!
MAME gets Chrome Native Client port, is awesome case study
We've already seen MAME burn brightly (and briefly) on iPads across the world and now it's been delicately ported across to Chrome's Native Client. Admittedly, the graphics may not stand up against recent gaming wares seen on Google's new platform, but it's still able to cope with the likes of Pac-Man. Managing to turnaround the whole project in a mere four days, Google engineer Robert Muth branded the brief exercise as "relatively challenging" and has noted down all the deep and meaningfuls in a full case study, available at the source below. For anyone unwilling to dip their toes into Native Client waters, however, there's still plenty of power pellets to be downed online.
The most adorable game of real-life Pac-Man you'll see today
As further proof that geek Dads are the very best Dads, YouTube user nglemb demonstrates that all you need to forge a lasting Father-son memory with your progeny is painter's tape, mini-marshmallows and a little imagination.
Pac-Man: The Musical is great, made of clay
When you think of Pac-Man, you probably think of the yellow legend gobbling up ghosts. But what about Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde? Turns out they've been trying to eat Pac-Man this whole time too. Who knew?
NintendoWare Weekly: Pac-Man, Trenches Generals
In case you missed it yesterday, the Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program has officially launched. Those who signed up to the eShop before August 11 can now download ten NES games from the eShop, though it's an annoying process. If you can't get into the 3DS Embassy, it's a much less exciting week. The Game Boy version of Pac-Man awaits 3DS owners, and a House, MD game is up on DSiWare. There's a bit of intrigue, however, in a WiiWare tower defense game called Trenches Generals.
