User:Namcokid47/Ghost Gang
| Ghost Gang | |
|---|---|
| Pac-Man character | |
| First appearance |
|
| Last appearance | |
| Created by | Toru Iwatani |
| In-universe information | |
| Species | Ghost |
Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, collectively known as the Ghost Gang, are a quartet of characters from the Pac-Man video game franchise. Created by Toru Iwatani, they first appear in the 1980 arcade game Pac-Man as the main antagonists. The ghosts have appeared in every Pac-Man game since, sometimes becoming minor antagonists or allies to Pac-Man, such as in Pac-Man World and the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures animated series.
The group is comprised of four individuals; Blinky is the self-proclaimed leader, known for having a short temper, Pinky has a yandere-like relation with Pac-Man, Inky is rather timid, and Clyde is slow and clumsy. Some entries in the series would add other ghosts to the group, such as Sue in Ms. Pac-Man, Tim in Jr. Pac-Man, and Funky and Spunky in Pac-Mania, however these would be reverted in later games. The group has since gained a positive reception and is cited as one of the most recognizable video game villains of all time.
Concept and creation
[edit]The Ghost Gang was created by Toru Iwatani, who was the head designer for the original Pac-Man arcade game. The idea for the ghosts was made from Iwatani's desire to create a video game that could attract women and younger players, particularly couples, at a time where most video games were "war"-type games or Space Invaders clones. In turn, he made the in-game characters cute and colorful, a trait borrowed from Iwatani's previous game Cutie Q (1979), which featured similar "kawaii" characters.[1][2] The simplistic design was also attributed to the limitations of the hardware at the time, only being able to display a certain amount of colors for a sprite.[1] To prevent the game from becoming impossibly difficult or too boring to play, each of the ghosts were programmed to have their own distinct traits[3] — the red ghost would directly chase Pac-Man, the pink and blue ghosts would position themselves in front of him, and the orange ghost would be random.[3]
Originally, all four of the ghosts were meant to be red instead of multicolored, as ordered by Namco president Masaya Nakamura — Iwatani was against the idea, as he wanted the ghosts to be indistinguishable from one another.[4] Although he was admittedly afraid of Nakamura, he conducted a survey with his colleagues that asked if they wanted single-colored enemies or multicolored enemies. After being present with a 40 to 0 in favor of multicolored ghosts, Nakamura agreed to the decision.[4] The original Japanese version of the game had the ghosts named "Oikake", "Machibuse", "Kimagure" and "Otoboke", translating respectively to "chaser", "ambusher", "fickle" and "stupid".[5] When the game was exported to the United States, Midway Games instead changed their names to "Shadow", "Speedy", "Bashful" and "Pokey", their nicknames being changed to "Blinky", "Pinky", "Inky" and "Clyde" respectively.[5] Early promotional material would sometimes refer to the ghosts as "monsters" or "goblins".
Appearances
[edit]Reception
[edit]The Ghost Gang have received a positive reception from critics and have been cited as one of the most recognizable video game villains of all time. IGN commented on each of the ghosts having their own personality and "adorable" design, jokingly saying they were as terrifying as the zombies in the Resident Evil series.[6] Kotaku stated that the ghosts' artificial intelligence was still impressive by modern standards,[7] while GamesRadar+ liked each of the ghosts having their own unique AI and traits.[8] GameSpy said that the ghosts' intelligence is one of the game's "most endearing" aspects for adding a new layer of strategy to the game.[9] Boy's Life praised their simplicity and determination, labeling them as one of the most recognizable villains in video game history.[10] In their list of the 50 "coolest" video game villains, Complex ranked the ghosts in as the fourth, noting of their iconic design and recognition and for being "pretty tough customers"[11] Metro UK listed them at second place in their list of the ten greatest video game villains of all time, praising their easy recognition and cute designs.[12] Inky alone was ranked the seventh greatest game villain of all time by Guinness World Records in 2013, based on reader votes.[13]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Purchese, Robert (20 May 2010). "Iwatani: Pac-Man was made for women". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 4 March 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ Kohler, Chris (2005). Power-Up: How Japanese Video Games Gave the World an Extra Life. BradyGames. p. 51-52. ISBN 0-7440-0424-1. Retrieved July 16, 2019.
- ^ a b Mateas, Michael (2003). "Expressive AI: Games and Artificial Intelligence" (PDF). Proceedings of Level Up: Digital Games Research Conference, Utrecht, Netherlands.
- ^ a b England, Lucy (11 June 2015). "When Pac-Man was invented there was a huge internal fight with the CEO over what colour the ghosts should be". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 7 August 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ a b DeMaria, Rusel; Wilson, Johnny L. (December 18, 2003). High Score!: The Illustrated History of Electronic Games (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. ISBN 0-07-222428-2.
- ^ "Pac-Man Ghosts (Pinky, Blinky, etc.) is number 7". IGN. Archived from the original on 19 July 2010. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ Grayson, Nathan (4 February 2015). "Pac-Man Ghosts Are Smarter Than You Think". Kotaku. Archived from the original on 19 March 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ Kelly, Stephen (5 February 2013). "Top 10 Videogame Bad Guys". GamesRadar+. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ GameSpy Staff (25 February 2011). "GameSpy's Top 50 Arcade Games of All-Time - Pac-Man". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ "The 5 Greatest Video Game Baddies of All-Time". Boy's Life. 9 September 2015. Archived from the original on 9 April 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ Kamer, Foster; Vincent, Brittany (1 November 2012). "The 50 Coolest Video Game Villains of All Time". Complex. Archived from the original on 8 May 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ GameCentral (17 September 2017). "10 best bad guys in video games". Metro UK. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 19 August 2019.
- ^ Nichols, Scott (24 January 2013). "Guinness World Records counts down top 50 video game villains". Digital Spy. Retrieved 19 August 2019.