Both last year and the year before, I wrote summaries on both Pac-Man's 40th and 41st anniversary dates; explaining my personal opinions regarding the series, and the considerable disappointment that lies within. We're now two weeks shy of the 42nd anniversary, and I wasn't planning to make a post for the occasion or anything. However, a bizarre recent event, entirely out of left-field, has caused me to reconsider; so as was tradition, let's do a recap of Pac-Man's forty-second (...ish) celebration.
In my over-dramatic prior posts, I always asserted that creativity was the key to Pac-Man's success. I could discern that solely marketing off of the original arcade game - nothing more, nothing less - would get Pac-Man nowhere. At least some form of genuine uniqueness was needed; something 95 percent of Pac-Man games lacked from like, 2017 to 2021, which were all just slight variants of the 1980 formula.
So, did the forty-second bring some mythical Pac-Man game that meets my "creative" criteria? Well, in a strange way given the title's nature, yes. Pac-Man Museum + was just launched on various game platforms. While it's really just a bunch of old games included - nothing directly new - the variety of titles chosen is very strong. Pac-in-Time, Pac 'n Roll, and Pac-Man Arrangement are particularly good choices; and it's combined with a dozen other games past that! It definitely surpasses the original 2014 Pac-Man Museum (which was utterly lackluster at best), and the "Arcade Room" really adds a lot of charm to the whole package. If it weren't for the complete embarrassment that is "Pac-Mom", this would probably be the flat-out best way to play these games, period.
Of course, as I knew would be the case, Pac-Man Museum + has greatly boosted Pac-Man's popularity. To me, this stuff is just obvious; a fully unique work, which Museum + does just enough to qualify as, will garner much more attention than...a new Thanksgiving level in the Pac-Man mobile game, or whatever else they're doing these days. In fact, this is probably the most relevant Pac-Man has been since Ghostly Adventures first aired; which brings us to...Hmm. How can I logically explain this. I guess the best way is to quote Pac-Man himself.
"Aw man, I'm a meme!"
An unfathomable occurrence. Somehow, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures became a minor meme over the past half-week or so. Seemingly stemming from a single Twitter user stating how bad the "Pac is Back" theme song was; after that post garnered 60,000 likes, Pacster found his way into an "ironic" meme circle.
At first, it was standard critique; with a bunch of popular posts criticizing Ghostly Adventures for its...well, everything about it, really. The amount of things wrong with Ghostly Adventures are baffling. But after a few hours, an influx of popular posts praising Ghostly Adventures appeared; in the form of either sarcasm or a "so bad, it's good" outlook.
Which means...we've finally reached it. It's been almost nine years to-the-day when Ghostly Adventures aired its debut episode. And after all that time, we've now reached the point where Ghostly Adventures can be appreciated. Since GA's debut, very few have been willing to praise it; I've even seen people who are afraid to admit they like it (which you shouldn't be, mind you; like what you like). And even if much of it is through mockery and irony right now; the gaming crowd has finally found value in what effectively "killed Pac-Man" for practically a decade.
And it took one game - a singular, proper game release - to make that happen. I believe Pac-Man Museum Plus and this bizarre Ghostly Adventures meme wave, to some extent, are connected. Now that people have the bare minimum of satisfactory, new Pac-Man content, it's easier to view this past decade of Pac-disaster with a positive outlook. It may have been a long journey to get there, but it's fair to finally say...
The Pac is Back.
(And by the way, Pac-Man Live Studio finally released...on Facebook. Yes, the reason it didn't come out on time was due to Zuckerberg challenging Bezos to a distribution rights war. Let that sink in...)
Ireallydontcare123456789 (talk) 22:40, 7 June 2022 (UTC)Ireallydontcare123456789