Time Flies When You’re Running a Maze, Fleeing From Ghosts
Is it really Pac-Man‘s 41st birthday already? It feels like just yesterday we were reporting on the hungry yellow semi-circle’s big 40th. Time may have ceased to have any meaning in the pandemic, but Pac-Man’s anniversary is still worth making a big deal about, and Bandai Namco agrees. This year, the company decided to celebrate with a number of activities and partnerships designed to get Pac-Man fans active–or rather, PAC-TIVE–in mind, body, and in their communities. Oh, and there’s a surreal theme song and music video by WEiRDCORE to go along with it, written, produced, and performed by musical artist Yaeji featuring DiAN. We’re not quite sure what to make of this video, to be honest, but the song is already stuck in our heads.
This year, Bandai Namco has partnered up with Giants Enterprises–that’s the entrepreneurial arm of the San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball team–and the National Basketball Association to get gamers outside, or at least moving their bodies. If you’re into running, you can register today for the Giant Race’s 2021RUN series. This is a year-long, baseball-focused fitness program that includes monthly virtual challenges as well as four races. Complete the monthly challenges and you’ll win one of 12 exclusive pins, including a special “Join the PAC” Pac-Man pin only available for May. You might have to work pretty fast to get that pin at this point, though.
On the NBA front, there’ll be more merchandise as well as one last chance to play the NBA All-Star Event within Pac-Man Mobile. Because nothing says baseball quite like Pac-Man, we guess. To be honest, we still don’t really understand how this collaboration came to be, but we aren’t exactly complaining. More Pac-Man is never a bad thing.
What would you like to see from Pac-Man next? Let us know down in the comments, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook.