Pac-Man E1 Grand Prix (パックマンE1グランプリ Pakkuman E1 Guranpuri) is a Japanese educational racing game. It was released in 2010 by Namco Bandai Games in conjunction with "E1 Grand Prix", a series of events held by automobile manufacturer Nissan to incentivize eco-friendly driving.[2][3]
Overview[]
Pac-Man E1 Grand Prix is intended to teach players about the rules of eco-driving (i.e. driving while being energy-efficient towards the environment). In the game, the player controls Pac-Man in a car, and must drive while obeying traffic rules and using their breaks gently. If Pac-Man fails to obey the laws of the road, Mappy will appear and write him a ticket, and the player will not be able to obtain a high score.
Pac-Man E1 Grand Prix was developed internally at Bandai Namco in the company's "New Product Development" department (in which Hideo Yoshizawa, the producer of Pac-Pix, served as manager at the time).[1] The game's sound design was composed by Yukiko Yamamoto.[4] The game was released in the form of an arcade machine, but was exclusively featured at various E1 Grand Prix events in Japan. A copy is reportedly still held in the Nissan Global Headquarters Gallery in Yokohoma.[5]
Trivia[]
- The original Pac-Man E1 Grand Prix machine design uses casing similar to a typical driving arcade machine. However, the machine held in Nissan Gallery was later replaced with a generic cabinet made of cardboard.[5]
- This is technically the first-released game to use Pac-Man's temporary 2010s redesign; this design would later be used in Pac-Man Party, alongside redesigns of the Ghosts (who do not seem to appear in E1 Grand Prix).
- In addition to Mappy's major role, many other classic Namco characters make cameos in the game. These include Pooka, Fygar, Don-chan and Katsu-chan from Taiko no Tatsujin, Xandra from Valkyrie no Bōken, an alien from Cosmo Gang, the enemies from Libble Rabble, and the blocks from Kotoba no Puzzle.
- Pac-Man's license plate reads "23-765", which is Japanese "goroawase" wordplay for "Nissan-Namco".
- The plastic Pac-Man model on the side of the machine somewhat resembles the later-released "Pac Panic Spinners", a line of Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures toys released in 2013.
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://x.com/yoshi_clonoa/status/1916877697021866273
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20100328150521/http://e1gp.jp/e1gp/cgi/Faq.cgi
- ↑ https://www.nissan.co.jp/OPTIONAL-PARTS/NAVIOM/N32/NAVI/CONTENTS/guid-18c6c0db-a7a8-4e7c-8444-700823fc6e95.html
- ↑ https://x.com/yyyamamo/status/1024268631436230656
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 https://x.com/yoshi_clonoa/status/1916877699588714573
External links[]
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