No future game seems to really go with the idea this is some disguised creature, but it certainly serves as a strange reward for managing to stick with the game for a few rounds. If you can survive through enough rounds you’ll eventually see little animated segments where Pac-Man and a ghost chase each other, and while the first one just seems a fanciful take on the pursuit beyond the borders of the maze walls, two of the scenes involve a ghost either having its sheet damaged or completely removed, revealing a strange fleshy creature beneath. The specters that patrol this maze are colorful cartoon ghosts similar in appearance to the bedsheet ghost archetype, a comparison that seems to extend further than expected based on the small scenes that emerge between rounds. Four spirits will gradually enter the maze as well after play has begun, contact with them leading to an instant death for Pac-Man that also has a fairly distinct death sound and interesting visual flourish of Pac-Man opening his mouth wider until his body folds in on itself. However, navigating the maze is no easy feat once the ghosts start escaping the box in the middle of the maze. Clearing out the whole maze can be done pretty swiftly, a new round starting once the all 244 dots have been successfully munched. There are 244 dots in the maze when a round starts but Pac-Man moves around the maze fairly quickly, the player not actually controlling his speed but instead using the joystick when they want Pac-Man’s automatic forward movement to take turns. Often described with the onomatopoeia “wakka-wakka”, it’s a pleasant little noise that makes each little pellet consumed a little bit more satisfying and its measured volume means it doesn’t grow grating even though you’ll be hearing it a lot as you play. While traveling the black maze with its dark blue walls, Pac-Man’s gobbling of the dots emits a distinct sound. While looking a little strange on the arcade marquee by having legs and eyes when in-game he was featureless beyond his mouth, Pac-Man is the player character and one with a few more distinct traits to him. Easily recognizable as a mouth, especially as it flaps open and shut to gobble up the pellets in the maze he inhabits, Pac-Man’s elegant simplicity made him recognizable wherever he cropped up, and after the breakaway success of his arcade maze game debut, he would go on to get a hit song, a cartoon, and a spot as an important part of the 80s cultural identity in the U.S.A. Despite his name Pac-Man was not a human but a circular yellow figure with the now iconic shape that resembles a pizza with a single slice removed. Rather than just being a game starring shapes moving on a screen, Namco’s Pac-Man introduced to the world to a character who was distinct, who originated in video games rather than being some borrowed face from another medium, and he represented the wonderful whimsy and world of fantasy that video games could offer. Video games had been slowly finding their footing during the 1970s, but it was 1980 that would give the burgeoning medium a face.
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