In between levels are short cutscenes featuring Pac-Man and Blinky in humorous, comical situations. Levels are indicated by fruit icons at the bottom of the screen. When Pac-Man eats all of the dots, the player advances to the next level. The objective of the game is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts-Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), and Clyde (orange)-who pursue Pac-Man. Pac-Man is an action maze chase video game the player controls the eponymous character through an enclosed maze. At bottom left is the player's life count, and at bottom right the level icon (in this case a cherry). The ghosts are in the center with Pac-Man below them. The game remains one of the highest-grossing and best-selling games, generating more than $14 billion in revenue (as of 2016 ) and 43 million units in sales combined, and has an enduring commercial and cultural legacy, commonly listed as one of the greatest video games of all time.

The character of Pac-Man has become the official mascot of Bandai Namco Entertainment. Pac-Man was a widespread critical and commercial success, leading to several sequels, merchandise, and two television series, as well as a hit single by Buckner & Garcia. The original Japanese title of Puck Man was derived from the Japanese phrase 'Paku paku taberu' which refers to gobbling something up the title was changed to Pac-Man for the North American release.

The in-game characters were made to be cute and colorful to appeal to younger players. Although the inspiration for the Pac-Man character was the image of a pizza with a slice removed, Iwatani has said he also rounded out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi ( Japanese: 口). Iwatani wanted to create a game that could appeal to women as well as men, because most video games of the time had themes of war or sports. Game development began in early 1979, directed by Toru Iwatani with a nine-man team. Eating large flashing dots called 'Power Pellets' causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points. The player controls Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Pac-Man, originally called Puck Man in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. Single-player, multiplayer (alternating turns)

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