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Bandai Namco revealed PAC-MAN WORLD Re-PAC yesterday, and it’s the latest example of Ms. Pac-Man being scrubbed from Pac-Man lore.

For those who don’t know, the original Ms Pac-Man arcade release was a modded version of a game called Crazy Otto, which was created by General Computer Corporation (GCC) in the US. Through a deal with Midway and GCC, Ms. Pac-Man was birthed. The thing is, GCC still retains some rights to Ms. Pac-Man, whereas Bandai Namco holds all the other Pac-Man rights.

If Bandai Namco wants to use Ms. Pac-Man in their games, they have to strike a deal with GCC. This has been a point of dispute for quite some time, which is forcing Bandai Namco to tweak any Pac-Man re-releases that feature Ms. Pac-Man.

This is why we keep seeing Ms. Pac-Man ditched for Pac-Mom, and that’s exactly what’s happened with PAC-MAN WORLD Re-PAC. As you might guess, fans aren’t very happy about this situation, but it certainly seems like Bandai Namco is going to continue with this rebranding going forward.

As a tiny bit of solace, the Ms. Pac-Man theme song doesn’t seem to be a part of this dispute. In the debut trailer for PAC-MAN WORLD Re-PAC, you could still hear the Ms. Pac-Man theme being played in one portion. At least we’ll have something to remember the classic character by!

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Comments (6)

mock turtle

1+ y ago

It seems like however much ransom GCC is demanding, Bamco should just pay it. The negative PR and fan backlash hardly seems worth it.


d_says_hi

1+ y ago

Pac baby is different too. Our IP/trademark/copyright laws are so messed up but at least they're not as horrible as Japan's yet...


mereel

1+ y ago

I get that we’re supposed to be outraged by this, but isn’t Ms. PAC-Man and PAC-Mom basically the same thing?


For the intents-and-purposes of this game, more or less, yes. The impactful part is that Ms. Pac-Man is a gaming icon and this is essentially scrubbing her from many of her important appearances. Rarely is Ms. Pac-Man included in collections of Pac-Man games but it reaches farther beyond that.

Ms. Pac-Man is being scrubbed from all old Pac-Man games. Pac-Land and now this as well. It also means that other games with Ms. Pac-Man are up in the air like Jr. Pac-Man, leaving out part of the legacy of the series.

Worse yet, this means Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness won't ever get rereleased or remade. The more you look into it, the more you see how much Ms. Pac-Man has truly been in and the impact she's had on the series. From being player 2 in Pac-Man Arrangement (PSP) which in turn led to them cutting the mode from subsequent releases to the story in Pac 'N Roll being completely omitted because it involved her.


mock turtle

1+ y ago

@fish

Is the Pac N Roll thing true of all subsequent releases, or just this newest one? I wanted to pick up Museum + mostly for that game, but if they've gutted the story I'll get the Wii collection (or even the DS game itself).


I'm not... positive. I went and checked a longplay of the Wii version on Youtube because of your comment and didn't see the story stuff so I'm thinking it was removed in that one too? Worth investigating! Fandom Wiki also doesn't say.