 | This articlemay need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia'squality standards. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page.You can help. The talk page may contain suggestions.(July 2023) |
| Ghosts | |
|---|---|
| Pac-Man characters | |
 The four original ghosts as they appear inPac-Man (1980). From left to right: Blinky, Clyde, Inky, and Pinky. | |
| First game | Pac-Man (1980) |
| Created by | Toru Iwatani |
| Voiced by | Blinky
Inky
Pinky
Clyde
|
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Ghost |
Blinky,Pinky,Inky andClyde, collectively known as theGhost Gang, are a quartet of colorfulghost characters from thePac-Man video game franchise. Created byToru Iwatani, they first appear in the 1980 arcade gamePac-Man as the soleantagonists. The ghosts have appeared in everyPac-Man game since, sometimes becoming minor antagonists or allies toPac-Man, such as inPac-Man World 3 and thePac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures animated series.
Some entries in the series went on to add other ghosts to the group, such as Sue inMs. Pac-Man, Tim inJr. Pac-Man, Funky and Spunky inPac-Mania, and Kinky inPac-Man Arrangement; however, these did not appear in most later games. Reimagined versions of them known as the G-HOSTs appear as antagonists inShadow Labyrinth. The group has since gained a positive reception and are cited as some of the most recognizable video game villains of all time.
The ghosts were created byToru Iwatani, who was the head designer for the originalPac-Man arcade game. The idea for the ghosts was made from Iwatani's desire to create a video game that could attract women and younger players, particularly couples, at a time where most video games were "war"-type games orSpace Invaders clones. In turn, he made the in-game characters cute and colorful, a trait borrowed from Iwatani's previous gameCutie Q (1979), which featured similar "kawaii" characters.[5][6] Iwatani citedCasper the Friendly Ghost orLittle Ghost Q-Taro as inspiration for the ghosts.[7] Their simplistic design was also attributed to the limitations of the hardware at the time, only being able to display a certain amount of colors for a sprite.[5] To prevent the game from becoming impossibly difficult or too boring to play, each of the ghosts were programmed to have their own distinct traits[8] — the red ghost would directly chase Pac-Man, the pink and blue ghosts would position themselves in front of him[who?], and the orange ghost would be random.[8]
Originally, all four of the ghosts were meant to be red instead of multicolored, as ordered by Namco presidentMasaya Nakamura — Iwatani was against the idea, as he wanted the ghosts to be distinguishable from one another.[9] Although he was admittedly afraid of Nakamura, he conducted a survey with his colleagues that asked if they wanted single-colored enemies or multicolored enemies. After being presented with a 40-to-0 result in favor of multicolored ghosts, Nakamura agreed to the decision.[9] The original Japanese version of the game had the ghosts named "Oikake", "Machibuse", "Kimagure" and "Otoboke", translating respectively to "chaser", "ambusher", "fickle" and "stupid".[10] When the game was exported to the United States,Midway Games changed their names to "Shadow", "Speedy", "Bashful" and "Pokey", their nicknames being changed to "Blinky", "Pinky", "Inky" and "Clyde" respectively.[10] Early promotional material would sometimes refer to the ghosts as "monsters" or "goblins".[11][12][13]
Uproxx argues that the ghosts are really just people in costumes, based on what is revealed between rounds in the game. A cutscene that appears after the 5th round of the game, shows the ghost Blinky chasing after Pac-Man, and his ghost costume snags on a nail and rips, revealing a leg underneath. In a later cutscene, Blinky has a rip in his ghost costume, then after going off screen, he is seen back on the screen dragging the red costume behind him.[14]
In the 1982Pac-Man series, the hero faced five Ghosts — four males wearing various styles of hats, and a female ghost named Sue, who wore earrings. The Ghost Monsters work for Mezmaron, who assigns them the job of finding the Power Pellet Forest.
The battle of Pac-Man vs. Ghost Monsters would have to address the issue of the original arcade game's 'cannibalism' somewhere along the line; after all, the basic appeal of Pac-Man was the indiscriminate ingestion of his foes. This was handled with such nonviolent dexterity that Hanna-Barbera could have written a textbook forAction for Children's Television on the subject. Pac-Man only chomped the Ghost Monsters when defending his loved ones or the Power Forest (as opposed to the videogame, where the lead character was on the offensive), and once chomped, the Ghost Monsters merely disappeared temporarily, re-emerging unscathed after picking up new shrouds from Mezmaron's wardrobe closet.
— Hal Erickson[15]
The 2013 TV seriesPac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures and its tie-in video games introduce a new ghost antagonist, Lord Betrayus, the ruler of the Netherworld who seeks to take over Pac-World with his ghost army. Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde act as secret allies to Pac-Man, hoping to one day be restored to life in exchange.[16]
The ghosts have received a positive reception from critics and have been cited as one of the most recognizable video game villains of all time.IGN commented on each of the ghosts having their own personality and "adorable" design.[17]Boy's Life praised their simplicity and determination, labeling them as one of the most recognizable villains in video game history.[18] In their list of the 50 "coolest" video game villains,Complex writers Foster Kamer and Brittanny Vincent ranked the ghosts in as the fourth, noting their iconic design and recognition and for being "pretty tough customers".[19]Metro UK listed them at second place in their list of the ten greatest video game villains of all time, praising their easy recognition and cute designs.[20]Kotaku's Nathan Grayson stated that despite "still com[ing] a long, long way since then", the ghosts' artificial intelligence inPac-Man was still impressive by modern standards, being "smarter than you think".[21] Stephen Kelly ofGamesRadar+ liked each of the ghosts having their own unique AI and traits,[22] whileGameSpy said that the ghosts' intelligence is one of the game's "most endearing" aspects for adding a new layer of strategy to the game.[23] Inky alone was ranked the seventh greatest game villain of all time byGuinness World Records in 2013, based on reader votes.[24]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)| Video games |
| ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Other media | |||||||||
| Companies | |||||||||
| Characters | |||||||||
| Related | |||||||||
