Pac-Man is celebrating his 30th birthday in style. Last month, Google used the famous board in its logo for the official 30th anniversary of the iconic game. Now the character is getting his first new game in five years.
The game will get a preview at this week’s E3 and will hit shelves in November.
The game has more than 45 mini-games that let Pac-Man take part in everything from curling and tennis to a king-of-the-mountain-style game and, of course, evading and chasing those pastel-colored ghosts Pinky, Blinky, Inky and Clyde.
An overarching story mode lets you guide Pac-Man over a variety of locales (green meadow, desert, snowy mountains) laid out on a Monopoly-style game board. As the ghosts chase Pac-Man across the board, he dives in and out of the various games. The goal: Help Mr. Cookie save his secret recipe. Players also can go straight to whatever mini-game they choose.
Released in Japan in 1980 as an arcade game, Pac-Man has been a fixture on nearly every game platform, including all the home systems since the Atari 2600.
“There have been a zillion iterations of both 2-D and 3-D versions of Pac-Man,” says Todd Thorson of Pac-Man publisher Namco Bandai.
Last month, Google helped stoke a new wave of Pac-Man fever after it posted a playable version of the original game on its home search page.
Considering the success of social party games on the Wii, a Pac-Man-themed party game is timely. “We’ve definitely taken the Pac-Man themes and concept and expanded them to make Pac-Man relevant for the current generation of gamer,” Thorson says. “Going the party game route is right in line with the audience and who will have fun playing it, both parents and kids. It’s very family-friendly.”
The new game will include as a bonus the original arcade version of Pac-Man, along with Galaga and Dig-Dug.
“People have a real attachment to that game,” Thorson says. “That Pac-Man fever still runs through today.”
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