Pac-Land: Difference between revisions

The stage is a faithful recreation of the 1984 arcade game ''{{s|wikipedia|Pac-Land}}'', a side-scroller where Pac-Man sets off to return a lost fairy to her home. Starting at his house, Pac-Man goes left-to-right through three areas before reaching Fairyland. In exchange for returning the fairy, he receives a pair of Wing Shoes, which allow him to jump indefinitely. He then travels right-to-left through a fourth area to head home, after which the cycle repeats. Every area except the Castle is featured in this stage. While the original game's levels change as the game progresses, the Pac-Land stage has a predetermined layout that always remains the same. The game was loosely based on and named after the location of the {{s|wikipedia|Hanna-Barbera}} [[wikipedia:Pac-Man (TV series)|''Pac-Man'' cartoon]], and was modified for {{s|wikipedia|Bally Midway}}'s (publisher of the ''Pac-Man'' titles internationally in the '80s) US release by redesigning all of the Pac-Person characters (the ghosts already resembled their cartoon counterparts and the fairies were not in the TV show) to further appear closer to the Hanna-Barbera model sheets as opposed to their appearances from previous Japanese ''Pac-Man'' arcade cabinets used in the Japanese version, as well as adding cameos of Pac-Man's pets from the cartoon, though the actual levels in the game were not redesigned to fit the abstract architecture of Hanna-Barbera's version of Pac-Land. The level in ''Smash'' is based on the Japanese version, which can be noticed with a fairy appearing in the level introduction instead of Sour Puss or Chomp Chomp as well as Ms. Pac-Man appearing at the end of the level instead of Pepper Pac-Man. This game was also the first Namco-developed installment to feature the more anthropomorphic designs of the ''Pac-Man'' characters in-game.  

''Pac-Land'' is notable for being one of the first games to use {{s|wikipedia|parallax scrolling}} (where the foreground and background move at different speeds to simulate perspective), long before it became a gaming mainstay in the 16-bit era. This effect is replicated in the ''Smash'' stage.

Pushing a fire hydrant to grow is inspired by the Helmet power-up in the game, which could be obtained the same way. The Special Pac was an item found on the return trip that granted an extra life.

Ms. Pac-Man was a character not created by Namco, but by the General Computer Corporation for Midway, being the namesake of her debut game. ''Pac-Land'' was the first appearance of the character in Japan. Initially a Midway property, she would eventually be owned by Namco years later, with a portion of royalties for her appearances and merchandise owed to GCC - although, starting in the 2010s, a lawsuit over a failure on Bandai Namco's part to pay royalties would eventually lead to her being unnamed, replaced by look-alikes, or outright absent from ''Pac-Man'' titles and her existing starring roles being sold at a premium compared to other legacy ''Pac-Man'' titles, eventually culminating in the early 2020s with the creation of a consistent replacement character titled "Pac-Mom" after GCC's portion of the rights were bought by micro-console manufacturer AtGames, replacing Ms. Pac-Man not only in new titles such as ''Pac-Man World: Re-Pac'', but also through graphics modifications to rereleases of titles such as ''Pac-Land'' and ''Pac-In-Time''. ''Super Smash Bros. Ultimate'' is, to date, the final appearance of Ms. Pac-Man in a new title.

The setting of Pac-Land reappears in later ''Pac-Man'' games, but with different designs. Its most notable appearances afterwards are in ''{{s|wikipedia|Pac-Man World 2}}'' and ''{{s|wikipedia|Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures}}''.