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The Pac-Man Tamagotchi (パックマン たまごっち) is a licensed Tamagotchi Nano model and a collaboration between Tamagotchi and fellow Bandai Namco franchise Pac-Man. It was announced on November 1st, 2019, and was released in March 2020, as part of the celebration Pac-Man's 40th anniversary [1].

Background[]

Pac-Man is an arcade video game that was first released by Namco in 1980. In the game, the player has to navigate the titular Pac-Man across a blue neon-esque maze, consuming Pac-Dots while evading four color-coordinated ghosts; Blinky in red, Pinky in pink, Inky in cyan, and Clyde in orange. In each corner of the maze is a Power Pellet, which turns the ghosts blue and makes them temporarily vulnerable and edible. Sometimes, fruit will also appear on the maze, which award bonus points after consumption. The objective is to clear the maze off of Pac-Dots, after which the game will proceed to a new maze, sometimes with a short cutscene beforehand. If Pac-Man runs into a ghost without the effect of a Power Pellet, he loses a life. The game ends when Pac-Man loses all of his lives.

Design[]

While the Pac-Man Tamagotchi retains the same size and shape as previous Tamagotchi Nano variants, it has a new mold for the front half of the body. Instead of the teardrop frame and outer shell being two separate molds, the Pac-Man Tamagotchi has them together as one mold, making the frame's outline more shallow. This allows graphics to be printed over the outline, as seen on the black shell. In addition, it has a new style of ball chain not used on previous models.

Features[]

Birth and Growth[]

The Pac-Man Tamagotchi has two growth stages; Baby and Adult. The baby stage is 24 hours long, while the Adult stage will continue until it either dies from neglect or departs. There are seven adult characters; which adult the baby becomes depends on which baby the Tamagotchi began with and the quality of care it is given. Every adult also has an alternate form of them riding on top of Pac-Man; the conditions needed to evolve into this form must be met within 24 hours of the Tamagotchi becoming an adult.

Buttons[]

Pressing the A button opens the main menu, with the options to feed or to play the minigames. The meal is a bowl of rice, and the snack is cherries. If the user fails to fill the Hungry or Happy meters for a prolonged period, the Tamagotchi will sulk, facing away from the screen with three lines over its head. Pressing the A button will cheer it up.

Pressing the C button will show an animation depending if the Hungry or Happy meters are empty. If it's hungry, it will face away and a dizzy swirl will appear. If it's unhappy, it will face away and a scowl animation will appear. If neither meter is empty, the Tamagotchi will perform a Close Up.

At 10 AM, 2 PM, and 6 PM, the Tamagotchi will perform a Close Up on its own. It will not perform the Close Up on if it's being chased by ghosts, surrounded by bugs, or sulking.

The babies sleep at 8 PM, and the adults sleep at 10 PM. Pressing A will open the menu to turn the lights on or off. The Tamagotchi will wake at 7 AM, turning on the lights on its own.

Minigames[]

The Pac-Man Tamagotchi features two mingames: Pac Game and Catch Game. They each have three tiers of scores: "Great Success", "Success", and "Failure".

  • Pac Game: The user controls Pac-Man and moves him between three different rows to collect dots and avoid ghosts. Pressing A moves him up, and B moves him down. Eating 25 or more dots counts as "Great Success", eating 15-24 dots counts as "Success", and eating 14 or less dots (or touching a ghost) counts as "Failure". Pressing C closes the game.
  • Catch Game: The user turns Pac-Man to face left, right, or upward to catch fruit and dots while avoiding ghosts. Pac-Man can also collect Power Pellets, enabling him to eat ghosts. Pressing A turns him left, C turns him right, and B makes him look up. Eating 8 or more objects without touching any ghosts counts as "Great Success". Eating 5-7 objects, or at least 5 objects but getting touched by up to two ghosts, counts as "Success". Eating four or less objects, or getting touched by three ghosts, counts as "Failure". Pressing A and C together closes the game.

If the game ends in a "Failure", a black screen flashing the words "Game Over" will appear. If the game ends in a "Success", it will show the Tamagotchi's happy animation. If the game ends in a "Great Success", it will show the Tamagotchi celebrating with Pac-Man before playing a Pac-Man intermission animation; Pac-Man will be chased by a ghost before turning large and chasing it in turn. A "Success" game fills one Happy heart, while a "Great Success" game fills two Happy hearts.

Ghost and Bug Attacks[]

Periodically throughout the Tamagotchi's life, it may be attacked by one of the four ghosts. Pressing the A button will summon Pac-Man to chase the ghost away. If left unattended, more ghosts will appear, until there are four. If the user still fails to stop the ghosts after a prolonged period, the screen will become corrupted by bugs. Like the ghosts, pressing A will summon Pac-Man to chase it away. Both the ghosts and the bugs will appear alongside the Tamagotchi while it's asleep. While ghosts or bugs are on the screen, the user will not be able to feed, play games, or check status with the C button, but can still turn the sound on or off and view the clock screen.

Death and Departure[]

The Pac-Man Tamagotchi has three Death sequences:

  • Death: If the user's Tamagotchi gets bugs and fails to clear them away in time, the bugs will overwhelm the screen. The user's Tamagotchi will become Obaketchi, and will be seen floating next to a ghost.
  • Running Away: If the user fails to cheer up the Tamagotchi when it's sulking, it will put on a backpack and run away. The screen will show gusts of wind blowing.
  • Departure: If the user takes good care of the Tamagotchi, never allowing it to sulk for too long and chases all of the ghosts away, the Tamagotchi will leave once enough care mistakes are made. It will appear standing next to Pac-Man, perform a final Close-Up, and walk away through the left side of the screen. Pac-Man will appear idling from one side of the screen to the other, and back again.

In all three instances, pressing A and C together will make a new egg appear.

Gallery[]

Promotional Images[]

Packaging[]

Sprites[]

Video[]

Trivia[]

  • This Nano release marks the first of several things:
    • This is the first Nano to not be released in Japan.
    • This is the first time an English-exclusive release has used Obaketchi on the Death screen.
    • This is the first time another Bandai Namco property has appeared on a Tamagotchi release.
    • This is the first licensed Nano to have colored buttons instead of white.
    • This is the first Nano to have a third growth stage.
    • This is the first Nano to change the clock screen, the lights on/off screen, and the sound on/off screen.
  • Many sprites are lifted from other Tamagotchi versions:
  • This is the second time Tamagotchi has crossed over with Pac-Man, the first being Mario Kart Arcade GP 2, which featured Mametchi, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Blinky as playable drivers.
  • The Pac-Man Tamagotchi was featured at the London Toy Fair 2020 and the New York Toy Fair 2020.
  • The bug attacks are a reference to the Map 256 glitch in the original Pac-Man game.
  • The Pac-Man Tamagotchi includes a number of sound effects from the classic Pac-Man arcade game. In turn, the standard Tamagotchi sound effects are modified to give an arcade sound effect feel.
  • The international distribution of the Pac-Man Tamagotchi outside of North America was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

External Links[]

Instruction Manuals[]

References[]

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