Pac-Man Wiki
Advertisement
For other uses of Ms. Pac-Man, see Ms. Pac-Man (disambiguation).

"Hooray, more ghosts. Well guys, I'm afraid we only have enough cake for exactly none of you, if that."

— Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man World 3

Ms. Pac-Man (ミズ・パックマン Mizu Pakkuman), also known as Pepper in the animated series or Pac-Girl (パックガール Pakkugāru) prior to her relationship with Pac-Man, is the deuteragonist of the Pac-Man series. She is Pac-Man's wife and sidekick and is the mother of Jr. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man.

Like her husband, Ms. Pac-Man has a large appetite and enjoys eating food and ghosts.

Concept and creation[]

Crazy-otto-food-fight-sketch

Production sketches of the main character "Otto" from Crazy Otto (1981), the character that would evolve into Ms. Pac-Man. The bottom right sketch is for a character from Atari's Food Fight.

Developer General Computer Corporation (GCC) developed and sold modification kits for existing arcade games by reverse-engineering the games. Upon gaining attention of Pac-Man's surge in popularity, GCC began development on an unofficial Pac-Man modification known as Crazy Otto, which featured a Pac-Man-esque character with legs and blue eyes named Otto; development on Crazy Otto commenced in 1981 following the completion of Super Missile Attack, a modification of the game Missile Command. During the development of Crazy Otto, Super Missile Attack became subject to a lawsuit by Atari, Missile Command's original manufacturer. GCC eventually settled with Atari by developing games for the company. Part of the settlement in the case barred GCC from selling future conversion kits without approval from the original game manufacturer.[1]

The lawsuit with Atari had already settled by the time Crazy Otto was completed. Rather than scrap Crazy Otto, GCC decided to present the Crazy Otto modification kit to Bally Midway, the distributor for Pac-Man in North America, to avoid legal troubles. Midway became enthusiastic that such a game had come to their attention as they were hoping to capitalize on Pac-Man's success with a sequel. Rather than sell it as a conversion kit to Pac-Man, Midway wanted to distribute Crazy Otto as a sequel to the game. Midway acquired the rights to Crazy Otto and began working with Namco's Japanese offices to rework the game for distribution. With Namco's collaboration, the game went through many changes. The game's main character, Otto, was replaced with Pac-Man and the game title became "Super Pac-Man" (not to be confused with Namco's own Super Pac-Man, which released after Ms. Pac-Man). [2]

Programmer Mike Horowitz, who worked on cutscenes during Crazy Otto's development, got inspiration of a boy meeting a girl, chasing each other and finding true love during a drive to a friend's wedding. The intermission animation was then inserted to Crazy Otto, where Otto's love interest and female counterpart was colored red, which had to be female since a heart appeared during the intermission. When the game became "Super Pac-Man", Otto's love interest became a red-colored Pac-Man, and became subject to replacement. The developers looked back at the female Otto character, and decided to create a female Pac-Man in place of the red female Otto and make her the main character.[2]

During the creation of "Super Pac-Man", there were multiple debates internally on deciding the name for the character. The initial name, Pac-Woman, was not well received with the staff, so the name switched to Miss Pac-Man. Upon realizing that the game's third cutscene had a cutscene where both Pac-Man characters have a baby delivered to them and the two needing to be married, the name Mrs. Pac-Man was proposed to Mike Horowitz, though he opposed this. Horowitz's wife, Eileen Mullarkey did not like using the Mrs. prefix in her name, and preferred to be referred as Ms., and served as the leading thought eventually establishing the character and game name as Ms. Pac-Man. The character and games switched from Miss Pac-Man, to Pac-Woman and eventually Ms. Pac-Man in 72 hours during production.[2][3]

Mspacman sprite art development

Sprites of Ms. Pac-Man for the following versions of Ms. Pac-Man from top to bottom: Otto in Crazy Otto, Pac-Man in Super Pac-Man, Pac-Woman, and Ms. Pac-Man.

Mike Horowitz began working on the design for Ms. Pac-Man, who was still named Pac-Woman at the time the designs were created. The character's first sprite design featured a slightly smaller Pac-Man with red shoulder-length hair, blue eyes and perspective views. When Midway sent the ROMs of the game to Namco, Namco president Masaya Nakamura commented "Love the concept, get rid of the hair." The resulting feedback from Nakamura removed Ms. Pac-Man's hair from the design, with her bow remaining. The character then received a beauty mark, lipstick and eyeliners per the suggestion of employees at Bally Midway; her perspective view sprites when moving up and down were removed and made similar to that of the original Pac-Man. The changes to the sprite also made her height equal to that of Pac-Man. Ms. Pac-Man's sprites were insisted to be created on graph paper, though they also used Lite Brites create the sprites for the game, similar to Crazy Otto.[2]

Mspacman2 orig

Early cabinet art designs for Ms. Pac-Man (at the time named Miss Pac-Man) portrayed her artwork appearance similar to that of Bally Midway's Pac-Man art.

Mspacman-2

Ms. Pac-Man's original artwork design for the arcade cabinet art (1982)

In her arcade cabinet design, Ms. Pac-Man at one time was portrayed similar to Bally Midway's redesign of the Pac-Man character, having a jackrabbit-like appearance, blue eyes and red/orange attire with heels. In the final design, she was given a distinct appearance, gaining human legs, cheek blushes, and her eyes were turned white. In a promotional flyer for the game, she had a red bow, black heels, a tuft of hair, a necklace and black eyelids. The character also gained eyebrows and magenta attire.

As there were no established guidelines for character art at Bally Midway, the character's design - like Pac-Man - had varied between appearances; Ms. Pac-Man's designs however had been designed more consistently in comparison to her husband. Though designs varies, common traits with the many designs of Ms. Pac-Man included her bow, long legs, lipstick and eyeliners. Ms. Pac-Man appears in the Hanna-Barbera TV series with brown hair, a pink bow and pair of boots and white gloves, which would be commonly used in merchandising and promotions following the debut of the series.

MsPacman2

Ms. Pac-Man's Namco design, illustrated by Tadashi Yamashita, which was established in 1983.

Mspacmannamcowithusfeatures

Ms. Pac-Man's Namco design would receive design aspects from her American counterpart for her N.A. design, from Tadashi Yamashita. (From NG Namco Community Magazine issue 05)

Like with Pac-Man, the character design inconsistency across Ms. Pac-Man products gained the attention of Namco's Design Office in Japan, and prompted Namco's art department in Japan to create style guides for their existing and future games. Ms. Pac-Man's Japanese design was established with the creation of the Pac-Man Character Manual in 1983 .[4] Ms. Pac-Man's Japanese design, illustrated by Pac-Man's character artist Tadashi Yamashita, illustrated the character similar to Pac-Man; with her notable differences being the inclusion of her bow, slightly thinner boots than Pac-Man, a smaller nose, the lack of eyebrows and two small eyelash lines. The design would be used often in promotional content for Pac-Man in Japan. Pac-Land, released in 1984 was the first game featuring Ms. Pac-Man's limbed design in-game; though the North American release changed the sprites of Ms. Pac-Man to resemble her appearance in the Hanna-Barbera TV series.

Ms pac man greg martin

Promotional artwork of Ms. Pac-Man, by Greg Martin (1990)

Around the same time when the Japanese character art for Ms. Pac-Man was established, Namco artist Tadashi Yamashita created a redesigned version of Ms. Pac-Man intended for use in the United States. While most of the aspects of the original Japanese design are unchanged, she notably gains features from her American counterparts such as lipstick, eyelids, eyeliners, round eyebrows, her beauty mark, separated fingers on her gloves and her boots becoming more detailed.[5] The redesigned Ms. Pac-Man from Namco began appearing in promotional flyers and other merchandise such as activity books published by Golden Books. When distribution rights for the Pac-Man IP reverted back to Namco, the Japanese design would be more consistently established in games. For releases of Ms. Pac-Man for Nintendo consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System, the redesigned Ms. Pac-Man from Namco was established further. Beginning in 1990 with the establishment of the Pac-Man Characters and Logo Style Guide issued by Namco Hometek, the redesign (with elements based on the interpretation of artist Greg Martin such as rounder gloves) would later appear more consistently with Pac-Man products released in North America, though some products would use the original Japanese Namco design in some releases of Japanese-developed Namco games featuring the character (such as the PlayStation Namco Museum games).[6] Ms. Pac-Man would debut in 3D at earliest with her Japanese design for the first time in Namco Museum Vol. 1 (1996), though she would debut with her redesigned appearance in 3D with Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary in 1999. Following the character's 3D establishment, the character's appearance largely remained consistent in both 3D and 2D appearances.

Mspac new

Ms. Pac-Man's current design as of 2018(?), which has appeared exclusively outside of console and mobile video games.

Mspacman

Ms. Pac-Man as she appears in Sonic Dash (2018), her most recent appearance as a playable character in a video game.

Because of the ongoing legal issues surrounding the Ms. Pac-Man game and its elements, Ms. Pac-Man began appearing less frequently after the mid-2000s, and is sometimes replaced by other characters. When the Pac-Man cast was redesigned for Pac-Man Party in 2010, Ms. Pac-Man along with her family members were notably absent, though the original Bally Midway art returned in active usage around this timeframe for the character, most notably in mobile re-releases for the Ms. Pac-Man game. In the late 2010s, Ms. Pac-Man would later be redesigned with an appearance similar to her Bally Midway artwork. Her redesign is closer to Pac-Man, with the replacement of boots with blue heels, blue eyeliners, pink mittens, bow and lipstick. Though this design is currently used by Bandai Namco Entertainment with advertising, merchandising, plug and play consoles and Arcade1UP releases for the Ms. Pac-Man game, no console or mobile video game releases have used this design so far. The most recent games featuring Ms. Pac-Man include Sonic Dash (during a crossover event in 2018), which used a 3D appearance similar to her regular 3D appearance, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which uses her Pac-Land sprite appearance in her cameo within the Pac-Land stage, and QuickSpot (released in 2022), which features reused artwork of Ms. Pac-Man unedited.

History[]

Arcade Games[]

Mspac8bit

Original Ms. Pac-Man sprite.

Ms. Pac-Man[]

Main article: Ms. Pac-Man (game)

Ms. Pac-Man's first appearance was in Ms. Pac-Man, where she had to navigate a Maze to collect Pac-Dots, while avoiding Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Sue. The intermissions in the game showcase the love story between her and Pac-Man. During a chase from Pinky, Ms. Pac-Man encounters and meets Pac-Man, who is also being chased by Inky. They successfully escape the ghosts and fall in love with each other. A while later, they chase each other, and eventually gives birth to their first son, Junior.

Jr. Pac-Man[]

Main article: Jr. Pac-Man (game)

Ms. Pac-Man only appears in the intermissions. She protects Jr. Pac-Man from Blinky, who is trying to attack Junior for having a crush on his daughter, Yum-Yum.

Baby Pac-Man[]

Main article: Baby Pac-Man (game)

This game stars Ms. Pac-Man's second child, Baby Pac-Man. Ms. Pac-Man only appears on the pinball playfield in-game, however.

Pac-Land[]

Main article: Pac-Land

Ms. Pac-Man appears as a supporting character in the game, awaiting Pac-Man's arrival outside their house.

Pac 'n Roll[]

Main article: Pac 'n Roll

LoveAtFirstSight

Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man during their youth

Ms. Pac-Man appears in Pac 'n Roll, where in her youth, she is called Pac-Girl. In Pac 'n Roll, Pac-Girl's origins and her first meeting with Pac-Man is shown. In the story, Pac-Girl met Pac-Man as a child when he was training under her father on how to be a Pac-Knight, and both fell in love at first sight.

However, on the night of the Power Pellet Festival, Golvis, a powerful green ghost and the main antagonist of the story, turns Pac-Girl, along with her father, sister, mother, Pac-Man, and Pac-Man's dog into balls and kidnaps them. Pac-Man escapes thanks to Krystal, a guardian fairy, and they journey to save Pac-Land.

After the Flaming Fortress boss battle, Pac-Girl thanks Pac-Man for saving her and then Pac-Man starts blushing. Krystal interrupts them and tells Pac-Man that to reach Golvis' UFO, he needs to be shot out of a cannon, to which he refuses, but Pac-Girl compliments Pac-Man on his bravery to do so, and he reluctantly agrees. After Pac-Man defeats Golvis, Pac-Girl and the others return to normal.

Pac-Man World series[]

Pac-Man World[]

Main article: Pac-Man World

In this game, Ms. Pac-Man, along with the rest of the Pac-Man family, is captured by Toc-Man's ghost henchmen. She is kidnapped while in her house and is put into a sack and taken to Toc-Man's headquarters. The henchmen were sent to, and meant to capture Pac-Man, but realized their mistake when they got back to the HQ. Ms. Pac-Man was then put in a large cage in a graveyard. Pac-Man rescues her at last, and she, along with the other former captives, helps out in the fight against Toc-Man.

Pac-Man World 2[]

Main article: Pac-Man World 2

Ms. Pac-Man does not physically appear in the game, though a picture frame of her is seen inside Pac-Man's house in the opening cutscene.

Pac-Man World 3[]

Main article: Pac-Man World 3

In this game, Ms. Pac-Man appears as a supporting character. She appears in the game's cutscenes, expressing her thoughts about Erwin, and how he has been attacking Pac-Man using Gogekka.

At the end of the game, she is annoyed to find Blinky and the other ghosts arriving at their front yard, and Blinky says they had only been living with them for a few months. When he asks what's for dinner, she responds "You are"; Pac-Man eats a power pellet and chases them off.

Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness[]

Main article: Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness

Ms. Pac-Man returns as the main character of a Pac-Man game for the first time since the original arcade game. In the game, Ms. Pac-Man aids Professor Pac-Man by using his invention, the Pactrometer, to save Professor Pac-Man, the Princess of the Enchanted Castle and the Wonders of Pac-Land from Mesmerelda.

Pac-Man: Adventures In Time[]

Main article: Pac-Man: Adventures in Time

In Pac-Man: Adventures in Time, Ms. Pac-Man appears as a playable character in the multiplayer modes. She also makes a cameo appearance in the first cutscene of the game in Pac-Man's family picture and is a recurring character in the game's unlockable "Videos".

Animated Series[]

Mspac-hb

Ms. Pac-Man from the television show.

Main article: Pac-Man (TV Series)

The 1982 animated series featured Ms. Pac-Man as a supporting character. She was often addressed as "Pepper" by her husband, whom she referred to as "Packy".

In the series, she is the mother of Pac-Baby and takes care of the family pets Chomp-Chomp and Sour Puss. Ms. Pac-Man often goes around helping Pac-Man with house chores, though Ms. Pac-Man also helps her husband out with defending the Power Pellets from the Ghost Monsters and Mezmeron when he needs help.

Other appearances[]

Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze[]

Main article: Ms. Pac-Man: Quest for the Golden Maze

In what is currently her final starring role, Ms. Pac-Man goes on an adventure to Cleopactra in order to find the Golden Maze hidden within the Temple of Dots.

Pac-Man World Rally[]

Main article: Pac-Man World Rally

Ms. Pac-Man is a playable character in Pac-Man World Rally. She is a middleweight character and has perfectly balanced statistics, in addition to being the fastest middleweight in the game.

Mario Kart series[]

Main articles: Mario Kart Arcade GP, Mario Kart Arcade GP 2

Ms. Pac-Man has appeared as a playable racer in several Mario Kart games, specifically the arcade ones. Alongside Mario and all his friends, she is joined by Pac-Man and Blinky. She does not appear in Mario Kart Arcade GP DX.

Super Smash Bros. series[]

Ms

Ms. Pac-Man in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Main articles: Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate


Super Smash Bros. for Wii U features a stage based off of Pac-Land, in which Ms. Pac-Man makes a cameo whenever the stage returns to Pac-Man's house, in the same fashion as the original game. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate sees the return of the Pac-Land stage, and Ms. Pac-Man reprises her role.

Sonic Dash[]

Main article: Sonic Dash

Ms. Pac-Man appeared as an unlockable character in Sonic Dash during the PAC-MAN Event. The character could be unlocked by collecting 600 PAC-MAN items between February 26, 2018 and March 4, 2018; it is currently impossible to unlock her legitimately.

"Replacement" characters[]

There are several characters in recent Pac-Man-related media that serve the same role as Ms. Pac-Man, but feature different names and altered designs. These "replacements" of Ms. Pac-Man are assumed to be created due to legal issues regarding the Ms. Pac-Man property, which arose around 2008. For further information on this subject, see History of Ms. Pac-Man legal issues.

Pac-Man Girl[]

Mspacman-mrmpm

Pac-Man Girl in Mega Run meets Pac-Man

"Pac-Man Girl" (パックマンガール Pakkuman Gāru) is an unlockable character in Mega Run meets Pac-Man, a mobile game released in 2015. Pac-Man Girl has a small yellow bow and lacks eyebrows and eyelashes.

Due to Mega Run meets Pac-Man being a Catalog IP game, it is unclear how much input Namco actually had into the character; outside of approving the appearance itself.

Pac-Marie[]

Pacstore-pacmarie2

Pac-Marie from "Pac-Store"

"Pac-Marie" (パックマリー Pakku Marī) is a character created for Pac-Store; a series of pop-up retail stores, originating around 2016 in Japan. She was created alongside "Pac-Little", a counterpart to Jr. Pac-Man.

Pac-Marie has a large, pink-colored bow and a long ponytail. Notably, she is not stated to be a love interest to Pac-Man at all, only being referred to as one of his "longtime friends". Pac-Marie enjoys taking selfies with her phone. Pac-Marie was not utilized outside of the Pac-Store locations and merchandise, though Pac-Store itself continued until 2019 (in certain regions).

Notably, Pac-Marie's main promotional artwork is directly modeled after an older piece of Ms. Pac-Man artwork. Additionally, most Japanese Pac-Store locations featured original Ms. Pac-Man and Jr. Pac-Man machines in the store (imported from the United States) to play, likely to connect the characters further.

Pac-Mom[]

Img chara boy mom

"Pac-Mom" (right) alongside "Pac-Boy" (left) in Pac-Man World Re-Pac

"Pac-Mom" (パック・マム Pakku Mamu) is the most recent replacement for Ms. Pac-Man, appearing in several pieces of media, most notably Pac-Man games on video game consoles. The character first appeared in the announcement trailer for Pac-Man Museum +, following the Bandai Namco v. AtGames lawsuit and an undisclosed settlement regarding the Ms. Pac-Man royalty rights. Her creation was alongside "Pac-Boy" and "Pac-Sis", counterparts to Jr. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man, respectively.

Compared to Pac-Man Girl and Pac-Marie, Pac-Mom's design is a much greater departure from Ms. Pac-Man. Instead of a standard bow, Pac-Mom wears a large sun-hat with a ribbon wrapped around it. Her design somewhat resembles that of Ms. Pac-Man's mother, seemingly by intention. In 3D appearances, Pac-Mom has eye whites (as opposed to the long-standardized pie-shaped eyes that several Pac-People characters use, including Pac-Man), lacks a nose (with the exception of her appearance in the edited versions of Pac-Land, in which she has a nose), has much more thinner legs (similar to her earlier Bally Midway designs) and more spread-out glove sockets. In 2D appearances, she has standard pie-shaped eyes like the rest of the cast and in some cases, a nose too (such as her appearance in Pac-Land).

In a rather drastic procedure, Pac-Mom's role is generally to replace Ms. Pac-Man entirely in re-releases of older Pac-Man titles. Her first appearance was in the Arcade Archives version of Pac-Land, released in April 2022; this port replaces Ms. Pac-Man's end-of-level graphic with Pac-Mom. Pac-Mom would also appear in Pac-Man Museum +; where she replaces Ms, Pac-Man’s appearances in all the included games where she is featured (Pac-Land, Pac-Attack and Pac-In-Time), in addition in Pac-Man World Re-Pac, once again as Ms. Pac-Man's stand-in.

Unlike prior Ms. Pac counterparts, Pac-Mom is directly shown to be a love interest to Pac-Man. In Pac-Man World Re-Pac, she often calls Pac-Man "darling" in dialogue, and at one point even refers to him as "[her] love".

Others[]

  • It has been theorized that Ms. Pac-Man's appearance as "Pac-Girl" in Pac 'n Roll may have been an early case of a replacement character. Due to Pac-Girl being a "past version" of Ms. Pac-Man, however (with "Pac-Girl" effectively being her maiden name), this is difficult to determine.
    • Both the game's manual and the Japanese website for the game outright states that Pac-Girl becomes "the future Ms. Pac-Man".[7] While making the intent clear, however, the specific wording used could make it legally vague.
  • Pacmanarrangementeurope difference

    The European version of Namco Museum Battle Collection omits both the Ms. Pac-Man game and character that appears in Pac-Man Arrangement (2005)

    The European version of Namco Museum Battle Collection; which removes the Ms. Pac-Man game from its lineup of classic arcade games, also replaces the second player's character from Ms. Pac-Man to a Pac-Man wearing a flower on its head in the multiplayer mode for Pac-Man Arrangement (2005). The floral Pac-Man features the same appearance as Ms. Pac-Man, with the exception being the flower in place of her bow. The floral Pac-Man character re-appears as the fourth player in the multiplayer game modes featured in Namco Museum Remix and Namco Museum Megamix.
    • An unreleased Pac-Man Party prototype for the Xbox 360 also featured sprites of the floral Pac-Man character, which went unused in the prototype; likely intended for the game's "United" multiplayer mode, in which two Pac-Men rescue each other by "kissing". The available prototype uses a green-colored Pac-Man in what was presumably the floral Pac-Man character's place.
  • Several Pac-Man mobile games, such as Pac-Man Reborn and Pac-Man Bounce, feature a Ms. Pac-Man lookalike with pink skin instead of yellow.
  • A character known as "Sanrio Pac-Man" was created in 2021, as part of the Hello Kitty ♥ Pac-Man cross-promotion. Being that Sanrio Pac-Man is literally a Pac-Man with a bow on its head, the character may be a bizarre loophole attempt at featuring Ms. Pac-Man.
  • The Arcade Archives release of Tinkle Pit removes the appearance of Ms. Pac-Man from the game; while a replacement character design was not used in place of Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man now takes over Ms. Pac-Man's cameo roles.

Characteristics[]

Personality[]

Ms jr baby pm2

Ms. Pac-Man with her children, Jr. Pac-Man & Baby Pac-Man.

Ms. Pac-Man is very kind and motherly, devoting most of her time to caring for her children. She is not as adventurous as her husband, but will still help out whenever she is called upon to. Just like Pac-Man, she enjoys eating and is good at navigating mazes. As seen in Maze Madness, she also has a knack for solving puzzles.

As Pac-Marie, she's described as a modern girl who likes fashion and is a bit too attached to social media. She also aspires to be a singer.

Appearance[]

Ms. Pac-Man looks similar to Pac-Man but has a large hairbow and eyelashes. Her nose and eyebrows are also smaller than Pac-Man's.

Her appearance was frequently altered between games. Originally she wore makeup and had a beauty mark, but some later incarnations of her do not. Sometimes she is wearing boots, while other games have her wearing heels. The colors of her bow, lipstick, gloves, and shoes are often different as well.

Trivia[]

  • Ms. Pac-Man is the first recurring character in the Pac-Man series to not be created by Namco or in Japan.
  • Though the character does not appear in the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures series, a sprite of her appears on the Pac-Man's Arcade Party cabinet seen in the TV series' first episode.
  • Toru Iwatani is not known to have publicly commented on Ms. Pac-Man despite questions from reporters.[2]
  • Ms. Pac-Man has been used as a sponsor for several breast cancer awareness programs, including promotions for Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness and the mobile ports of Pac-Man games for iOS and Android, notably the Ms. Pac-Man game being part of the promotions.[8]

Gallery[]

Character Artwork[]

Group Artwork[]

Wallpapers[]

References[]

[v · e · ?]
Advertisement