PAC-MAN game now free for quarantine gamers
Today the folks at Bandai Namco US delivered a message of thanks to the public with their "goodwill ambassador" PAC-MAN. Their announcement was that they'll be "asking fans to do their part and have More Fun For Everyone at home" – the "more fun for everyone" is their own tagline. To make this a reality, and to thank gamers for staying home, Bandai Namco US is delivering PAC-MAN Championship Edition 2 for free starting on April 24, 2020.
The "free" bit will last until the 10th of May, 2020. After that, the game will once again cost more than a few dollars. This game can be attained on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (through Steam) right this minute. The game is like the PAC-MAN your mom and dad used to play in the quarter machines at the arcade back when they were knee-high to a grasshopper, but now it's more... insane.
We're asking fans to do their part and have #MoreFunForEveryone – at home!
To lend a ✋, we're sending our goodwill ambassador, PAC-MAN, into every 🏠 by making PAC-MAN Championship Edition 2 free from 4/24 – 5/10! pic.twitter.com/pSnrPIEK2t
— Bandai Namco US (@BandaiNamcoUS) April 24, 2020
Below you'll get an idea of how insane this game can really be. It's like they took the original PAC-MAN and injected more psychotropic hallucinogens than they'd originally intended. This is not the sort of game you're going to want to play if you're prone to seizures.
This game is classified as a "Casual Game" and, while it SHOULD be allowed to roll with more than one player, you never know. Bandai Namco also makes a wide variety of other games in all sorts of categories, like Sword Art Online, and CAPTAIN TSUBASA soccer (the great game). If you're all about horror, see the game Little Nightmares, and if you like to bash your opponent into dust, this is the company that makes TEKKEN!
If you're all about PAC-MAN, this is actually just the latest in a long line of titles that range back to the original – decades of chomping. The original PAC-MAN was released in the year 1980 in arcades in both Japan and North America. Ms. Pac-Man was released in 1982, then things got messy. Pac-Man Plus, Super Pac-Man, and Baby Pac-Man were all released in the same year, 1982, followed by Professor Pac-Man, Pac & Pal, and Jr. Pac-Man all in the year 1983.
The first home console, handheld console, or PC game with Pac-Man as the main character was an edition of the original Pac-Man, which came to Atari 2600 in 1982, Intellivision, Apple II, IBM PC, VIC-20, Commodore 64, and TI-99/4A machines in the year 1983.
The same game was released in 1984 to ZV Spectrum, MSX, and the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console in 1984. In 1990 the same title (AGAIN!) was released to Nintendo Game Boy, then in 1991 it hit Game Gear (SEGA!) You can still get the original game for Android on Google Play and on the App store for iPhone and iPad right now, for free, with in-app purchases. That's until further notice – that game's been out for a while, and isn't going to move away from the free system any time soon.