Promotional games featuring Pac-Man

Promotional artwork for Red Bull Pac-Man.

This page details officially licensed Pac-Man games which are designed to promote a specific product or brand. Their main intention is merely to advertise, and are often very basic compared to other Pac-Man titles. They were generally released as mobile or online games, and occasionally as arcade machines with very limited print numbers. Their digital versions often become completely inaccessible once each promotion was over.

Pac-Man Party Scramble

Pac-Man Party Scramble is a Flash game produced some time around 2011. The game is a generic "match 3" puzzle game, reusing artwork from the Wii game Pac-Man Party.

In the bottom-right corner of the title screen, there is a giant notice reading "Sponsored by: Journeys" and "Journeys Kidz"; referring to the shoe stores of the same name. Despite this, the game is otherwise completely unrelated to Journeys. It is known that around this same time period, a sweepstakes was held where the Journeys company gave away copies of Pac-Man Party; however, the actual origin of the Party Scramble game is unclear.

Pac-Man Award

Pac-Man Award (פקמן פרס) is a Hebrew, web-based game released in 2015. The game was created to promote a series of Pac-Man popsicles by Good Humor, which were available in Israel at the time. The game itself is a loose adaption of the original Pac-Man; the in-game characters are modeled after the designs seen in Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures.

Pretz Pac-Man

Pretz Pac-Man is an HTML game released in 2017 to promote the Japanese snack Pretz. It is based on the original arcade game, but Pac-Man eats Pretz in a maze with a giant capital letter in the center. A code from the Pretz box would be entered to unlock access to the game.

EME-MAN

EME-MAN is a Pac-Man game released in 2017 on the Japanese Coca-Cola app; it promotes the Georgia European line of coffee products. Gameplay is almost identical to the original Pac-Man, but the Ghosts are slower, Fruits are coffee products, Power Pellets are coffee beans, Pac-Dots are red, and the maze is a shade of cyan (identical to Pac-Man Plus's maze color).

Reese's Pac-Man

Reese's Pac-Man is an online game released in 2017 (?) to promote Reese's peanut butter cups. It is loosely based on a TV commercial aired around the same time, with Pac-Man and the Ghosts being replaced by Reese's cups. In addition to an HTML5-based release, it was also playable via Snapchat.

PA-3 × Pac-Man Special Game

PA-3 × Pac-Man Special Game is an online game released in 2018 to promote PA-3, a yogurt released by Meiji Dairies. The game is just a recreation of the first level of Pac-Man with food surrounding the maze. In addition to the new maze graphics, there is a form of Stamina bar that decreases over time. The lower the stamina gets, the slower Pac-Man moves. However, eating a fruit (or PA-3 bottle) will restore the meter and Pac-Man's speed to full.

Red Bull Pac-Man

Red Bull Pac-Man is a game released in 2018 to advertise Red Bull energy drinks. It is a modified version of Pac-Man which featured new mazes and power-ups.

The game was released as an arcade machine, which was distributed in gas stations and department stores. It was also available as a downloadable pack for the iOS and Android version of Pac-Man, accessed via a code which was on actual Red Bull cans.

Another application based on Red Bull Pac-Man was accessible via a 7-Eleven "7Rewards" app; this version was developed by Zappar, and was based on AR technology. Little further information is known, however, and it is unclear if there was a gameplay portion.

million x Pac-Man

million x Pac-Man is a game released in 2019 to promote a line of men's perfume by Paco Rabanne.

Unlike the other titles, million x Pac-Man is considerably different than the original Pac-Man. The maze's dots continuously respawn, and it is impossible to eat them all. Pac-Man charges up a "Snap" meter, and upon eating 28 Pac-Dots, he is able to cause something strange to happen when launched. These abilities include:

• Invulnerability: Pac-Man doesn't take any damage from Ghosts and can eat them like a Power Pellet would allow. However, the Ghosts don't turn blue and they only give 100 points, the score never increasing.
• Lava: A ring of lava appears around the border of the Maze that damages Pac-Man. Every time this effect happens during a game, the amount of lava rings increases by 1.
• Hazard: A random Pac-Dot in the maze will become electrified, damaging Pac-Man if he comes in contact with it. Every time this effect happens during a game, the amount of electrified Pac-Dots increases by 1.
• Barricade: A wall will appear within a random spot of the Maze. Every time this effect happens during a game, the amount of barricades increases by 1.
• Bomb: A bomb will appear somewhere in the Maze and destroys all Pac-Dots (and Pac-Man) if he's caught in the explosion. Much like the bombs in Bomberman, it fires in 4 directions until the blast hits a wall. Every time this effect happens during a game, the amount of bombs increases by 1.
• No-Clip: Pac-Man can freely travel through walls within the Maze, but not through the Maze's borders.
• +1 HP: Pac-Man gains an extra life.
• +1 Ghost: Adds another Ghost to the Maze.
• Double Score: Makes Pac-Dots twice as big, twice the points value, and fill up the Snap meter twice as fast.
• Slow Down: Causes Ghosts to move much slower than usual.
• Fog: A small patch of Fog appears in the level, blocking the player's view for only a few seconds. Every time this effect happens during a game, the size of the fog cloud increases, covering up more of the screen each time.

The game was initially released as an online HTML game. An arcade machine of the game was also produced, which is completely gold-colored.

KFC Gaming Bucket

In 2019, a promotion was held in mainland China between Namco and KFC. For a limited time, KFC (of China) allowed for home delivery within their mobile app. Orders placed for delivery arrived in "Gaming Buckets", themed after either Pac-Man, Galaga, or Battle City. Scanning a QR code on the bucket allowed the user to play a KFC-themed version of the respective game on their phone.

In the Pac-Man game, the player eats fried chicken and burgers instead of Pac-Dots; Galaga has the aliens' formation spell out "KFC", and Battle City has "KFC" written in the game's walls. A high-score ranking table was available for each game. Coupons and other rewards could be won from playing the games.

Kipling x Pac-Man - "Play the Pac"

Kipling x Pac-Man - "Play the Pac" was a Snapchat filter which acted as a loose adaption of Pac-Man. It was published in February of 2020 by Kipling, following the announcement of various Pac-Man-themed suitcases and bags manufactured by the company.

As the game uses Snapchat's camera, the player's face is on screen at all times. The player must open their mouth to eat "dots" flying at the screen, while "dodging" ghosts by closing their mouth. Players who reached high scores were eligible to win free or discounted Kipling products.

Morinaga Pac-Man mini

Morinaga Pac-Man mini is an online game first published in March of 2020. Released by Morinaga, it promotes their "Hi-Chew Mini" and "Caramel Mini" candies. While defunct, this game is still fully playable via the Internet Archive.

The Hi-Chew and Caramel Mini candies encouraged "flavor mixing" by eating two specific flavors at once, forming a "new" flavor when combined. The game is adapted from the arcade original, though the Power Pellets are replaced with the respective candies; the Ghosts will turn into the actual candy flavors formed by mixing.

There are both "Normal" and "Special" game modes. In a standard game, the maze would be randomly selected to be either a Hi-Chew or Caramel maze. In the special game, the two mazes appear side-by-side, both being played at once. The special game was accessed via the UPC code on an actual candy box; this can still be played today by entering a known code, 166 and 001.

Ideal Life, The Beans You Want Are Here

During Pac-Man's 40th anniversary, a promotion was held on Tmall; a website operated by the Alibaba Group, a company in mainland China. The promotion, titled "Taobao x Alifish x Pac-Man", reportedly featured an AR game titled Ideal Life, The Beans You Want Are Here (理想生活，想要的豆在这里); however, little further information about the game is known.

Promotional images from the event show 8-bit renditions of various Chinese company mascots (most of which are owned by Alibaba). However, one game screenshot indicates that the game is just a variant of the original Pac-Man, with presents scattered throughout the maze.

Sabritas Pac-Man

Sabritas Pac-Man was released in 2020, in collaboration with Sabritas; effectively the Mexican version of Frito-Lay. During this promotion, Pac-Man Tazos were included in specially-marked potato chip bags, alongside a giveaway promotion and a special online game.

Sabritas Pac-Man is just an HTML port of the original Pac-Man game. There are no true gameplay differences; save for the Power Pellets being the Sabritas mascot, and various inaccuracies with the port itself. Strangely, the game seems to be a modified version of an unofficial "HTML5 Pacman" game, created by Dale Harvey in 2010; it is unknown if the Sabritas reskin was used with permission from Harvey.

Various real-world prizes could be won from playing the HTML5 game, including the Pac-Man Micro Player and Pocket Player from My Arcade (oddly, the former was shown as an entirely different, seemingly bootleg machine in marketing material).

In 2022, the promotion was held in additional markets using the Frito-Lay name, promoted with the same set of Pac-Man Tazos. It is unknown if the game software differs from the Sabritas version.

Pizza Fly

Pizza Fly was a tie-in game with PizzaMarzano; a pizza chain that is seemingly most prevalent in mainland China. The game was released on WeChat, a Chinese messaging service, in late 2020.

The promotion was likely intended to loosely tie into the alleged "pizza" origin story for Pac-Man. Little is actually known about the Pizza Fly game itself, however.

Project ABC Pac-Man Squat Challenge

Project ABC Pac-Man Squat Challenge (reportedly short for Project "Astellas, Bandai Namco, anti-Coronavirus" Pac-Man Squat Challenge) is an application released in January of 2021. Notably, it was published by Bandai Namco themselves rather than a licensee.

Project ABC was released in collaboration with Astellas Pharma - a Japanese pharmaceutical company. As the game's title suggests, the player must physically "squat"; making the app effectively an exercising tool. In a press release, Namco stated that the app was intended to encourage exercise during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While arguably for the "greater good" compared to other promotional games, Project ABC was still heavily promotional in nature. Users would be divided into two "teams", which would be selected by the player. Of the polls held, one promoted Namco's The Idolmaster: Shiny Colors game, while the other (a question about rice) states it was "Provided by Otafuku Sauce Co., Ltd"; oddly, no further polls were held. This may suggest the app was intended to conduct market research through its "teams", though this cannot be entirely confirmed.

Pizza Hut Arcade: Pac-Man

Following the PizzaMarzano promotion, a similar tie-in with Pizza Hut was held in North America in 2021. During this promotion, pizza boxes would have an image of the Pac-Man maze on top of them. By visiting a website and scanning the box image, an AR version of Pac-Man - officially titled Pizza Hut Arcade: Pac-Man - could be played on the user's phone.

A TV commercial starring Craig Robinson was also produced for the campaign.

LOL - Hasse Toh Phasse x Pac-Man

LOL - Hasse Toh Phasse x Pac-Man (sometimes shortened to just "LOL Pac-Man") was a game released in 2021, based on an Amazon Prime video series. It was a very poor quality version of Pac-Man, where the player controlled one of ten "Hasse Toh Phasse" cast members' heads. The game was, without exaggeration, borderline unplayable; with unresponsive controls, and a bizarre effect where characters' animations would stutter and warp backwards during movement (which is even visible in promotional material). A strange song with lyrics played in-game at all times; notably, its lyrics refer to "[coming] with the white stuff", seemingly insinuating cocaine.

Pac'N-Watch

Pac'N-Watch is a game released in 2021 by Casio, following a series of Pac-Man-themed watches produced by the company.

In Pac'N-Watch, two mazes are shown side-by-side: the left maze shows a layout of dots the player must eat, while the right maze is navigated by the player. The player must match the contents of the left maze on their righthand maze, while avoiding eating additional dots. The game is five levels long; upon beating the final level, it is revealed that the eaten dot trails spell out "CASIO" across the five mazes.

OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man promotional game

In late 2021, a "Pac-Man Edition" Nord 2 smartphone by was released by OnePlus. As part of a 48-hour giveaway campaign (where contestants could win either earphones or the Pac-Man Nord 2 phone itself), a variation of the original Pac-Man was released online. In this variant, the ghosts are replaced with four circular, colored faces - with no other changes whatsoever.

Dry Crystal × Pac-Man

Dry Crystal × Pac-Man is an AR game released in collaboration with Dry Crystal, a brand of beer produced by Asahi Breweries, in 2023. The game is conceptually similar to Pizza Hut Arcade: Pac-Man; the beer can is scanned into an AR reader on a phone, displaying a playable Pac-Man game onto the can.

Pac-Man x Dsquared2

Pac-Man x Dsquared2 is an AR game released on Instagram and TikTok in 2023. Released to advertise a Dsquared2 line of Pac-Man clothing, the player uses their face to control Pac-Man and collect the Dsquared merchandise.

Oreo Pac-Man

In January of 2024, Nabisco released a "limited edition" line of Oreo brand cookies themed after Pac-Man, featuring multiple designs and shapes based on the game. By scanning each Pac-Man Oreo design with the user's phone (similar to a QR code), a new maze is unlocked, which can be played in an online Pac-Man game.

The Oreo Pac-Man campaign also featured a giveaway campaign; with prizes including "Oreo Pac-Man"-branded self-contained handhelds and Arcade1UP machines, and a grand prize of a trip to Japan.

Despite Nabisco being an American company, the Pac-Man Oreos and its campaign were only released/held in Europe.

Pac-Man X Sushi Shop: The Video Game

Pac-Man X Sushi Shop: The Video Game is an online game released in 2024; it is tied to a French-operated fast food chain, being released alongside a Pac-Man promotion at the restaurants. The game is a timed, two-level variant of the original Pac-Man with the Power Pellets replaced by sushi; the gameplay is otherwise unaltered.

Additional Pac-Man + Tournaments levels

Several Pac-Man promotions, rather than having separately-coded games, were instead added to Pac-Man + Tournaments - the iOS/Android version of Pac-Man - as "Story Mode" levels. These are sometimes dubbed as individual "games" in promotional material, despite moreso being stages in a preexisting game. This method of distribution is similar to the earlier Red Bull Pac-Man promotion; though that title can more accurately be labeled a separate game, due to it having a full arcade machine. The following promotional levels were released through Pac-Man + Tournaments:

• 7-Eleven X Pac-Man (2023) - A promotion with 7-Eleven; the maze designs use 7-Eleven's logo coloring, and fruits are replaced with objects such as donuts and Slurpees.
• Fanta X Pac-Man (March 2024) - A promotion with Fanta. Pac-Man wears an orange slice on his head, and there are many oranges scattered across the level; Power Pellets are replaced with soda cans. This promotion initially launched in Brazil, and later expanded to Mexico; it is otherwise exclusive to those regions.

Trivia

• As the criteria for what denotes a "promotional game" can be vague, there are several other titles not listed here which can arguably be considered promotional in nature. This mainly includes character-licensed games, such as Hello Kitty ♥ Pac-Man; these are generally considered more of "crossovers" with the Pac-Man brand, and are much less blatant in terms of marketing.
• In the aforementioned Pizza Hut and Oreo promotions, as well as the 7-Eleven promotion, several different "home" arcade machines (such as Arcade1UPs) with the respective business' names were produced as giveaway prizes. However, these machines play the original Pac-Man arcade game(s) rather than newly-created titles.
  • A 2016 promotion with Outdoor Products featured a giveaway of specially-branded Pac-Man machines; oddly, these machines were based on bootleg iCade 60-in-1 hardware.
  • A set of Fanta Pac-Man machines were produced for various promotional events in Brazil and Mexico, including an arcade located in Six Flags Mexico. Inexplicably, the machines appear to run an assortment of vintage Pac-Man bootleg hacks, including a Pac-Man conversion on Galaxian hardware and Ms. Pac-Man Championship Edition.

External links

• Reese's Pac-Man (no longer playable)
• PA-3 x Pac-Man Special (archive.org)
• million x Pac-Man (archive.org, no longer playable)
• Morinaga Pac-Man Mini (archive.org)
• Project ABC Pac-Man Squat Challenge (no longer playable)
• Pac'N-Watch
• OnePlus Nord 2 Pac-Man promotional game (archive.org)
• Pac-Man X Sushi Shop: The Video Game