Pac-Man is celebrating his 30th Anniversary this year. And he deserves to celebrate, as his arcade game is the most successful coin-operated game out there. But even though Pac-Man is considered the first video game character with personality, there are four other game characters who share the same anniversary! That’s right, the four ghosts who chase after Pac-Man in the maze! So in the ‘spirit’ of Halloween, this blog is in honor of the ghost monsters in the Pac-Games. Read on, and you’ll learn there’s more than just Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde.

Even though Pac-Man is my favorite video game and favorite video game character, I like the ghosts just as much, if not more than, the Pac himself. Heck, when you first turn on a Pac-Man arcade machine, the first things you see are the ghost monsters! I read an interview once with Toru Iwatani, creator of Pac-Man, and he said originally, all the ghosts were one color, but he changed them to bring out their personalities. And their personalities really show up in the gameplay, too, as each ghost has different behaviors and movements. Now we’ll take a closer look at each and every ghost in every Pac-Man game!

Blinky

In the first game, the ghosts would line up on the attract demo screen and the game would list their ‘character’ and ‘nickname.’ Blinky’s character was ‘Shadow.’ Some places got confused and thought Shadow was his name, but ‘shadow’ is actually Blinky’s ‘characteristic,’ as he follows Pac-Man around like a shadow in the maze.

Blinky was always the first out of the ghost hideout in the maze, so he was kind of considered the leader. However, in the Pac-Man cartoon, Blinky was the cowardly one while Clyde was the leader. I think the Hanna-Barbera developed Pac-Man cartoon influenced Namco’s designs on the ghosts later on (especially in Pac-Land and Pac-Mania), because in some later Namco Pac-Games, the red ghost is called Clyde and the orange one is Blinky!

Blinky pretty much stayed the same until Pac-Mania, where he got a new trait. If you stayed on one maze too long, Blinky would get angry eyes and move around the maze really fast. And in Pac-Land, the ghosts retained their hats they wore on the cartoon, as the game was based on it.

In the mid 90’s, Namco made a couple of arcade classic collections that had updated versions of the classics you could play, too. In Pac-Man Arrangement, Blinky got a new power. He would grow bull horns and dash at Pac-Man at super speed if he saw him.

In the puzzle game, Pac-Attack, Blinky (or a bunch of Blinkys) were the main ghosts. In this game, as well as the original, you can see the ghost monsters have feet, while in other games; they float around like real ghosts. In Pac-Man: Adventures in Time for the PC, if you stayed in the maze too long, Blinky from the future would come and chase you in a Terminator-like spoof.

And in some of the 3-D Pac-Man World games and later maze titles, Blinky and the ghosts were bosses and usually drove giant robot ghosts. In Pac-Man World 3, you could even play as Blinky in some stages, and he had a “Boo” attack that would scare enemies away.

Pinky

In Japan, the original four ghosts had different names that I can’t remember. Except Pinky. In the US, Pinky’s characteristic was ‘Speedy’ as she was fast enough to head Pac-Man off at the pass. This trait carried over into Pac-Mania as well.

In the cartoon, Pinky was a male ghost with an ironic deep voice and tough guy attitude. But Namco has made it clear, especially in the new Pac-Games, that Pinky is female. In Pac-Man Arrangement, Pinky’s power was to grow rabbit ears and she could jump super high and try to land on, or near, Pac-Man. Pinky was the other ghost you could play as in Pac-Man World 3, and she could make invisible platforms appear.

Inky

He’s the light blue one, and probably my favorite of the ghost monsters. I don’t know why, really. In the original game, his characteristic was ‘Bashful’ because usually, he would try and stay far away from Pac-Man as possible.

In the cartoon, Inky was goofy, stupid, and silly. He could also take out anything he wanted out of his pockets. His googly eyes carried over into some Pac-Games as well, such as Pac-Land and Pac-Mania. In Pac-Man Arrangement, Inky’s power let him don sunglasses and make a mirror image of himself who could still catch Pac-Man!

I’ll also mention that Inky and the other four main ghosts have been in a couple of racing games. In Pac-Man World Rally (A Mario Kart ripoff), each ghost drove a specific car. Only one I can remember is the one Inky drove, because it looked like a Pole Position car. In Ridge Racer V, there was a special mode where you could race as Pac-Man and had to beat the four ghosts in scooters. And finally, Blinky was a playable character in the Namco made Mario Kart Arcade GP.

Clyde

Last out of the box, the orange ghost’s characteristic is ‘Pokey’ because he is slow and stupid in the maze. But in the cartoon, he was the leader of the ghosts and had kind of a cartoon gangster persona. Later, in Pac-Man Arrangement, Clyde’s power was to cry out big dots that, if Pac-Man ate them, would slow him down.

Sue

Ms. Pac-Man wasn’t originally made by Namco. It was made in the US by Midway (who owned the US rights back then) and Ms. Pac-Man’s game was originally just a hack. For some reason, they decided to change the orange ghost’s name from Clyde to Sue, though Sue had the same characteristics of Clyde.

In the cartoon, Sue was the fifth ghost and the only female. She was purple and had eye shadow and lashes. She was also smarter than the other four ghosts and sassier, too. Sue is another example of how the cartoon influenced Namco’s Pac-Games. She was in Pac-Land and would chase him to prevent him from going backwards in the stage. In Pac-Mania, she was still purple and had the cartoon styled eyes. Sue kind of replaced Blinky’s characteristic of following Pac around in Pac-Mania, too. Sue hasn’t appeared in any recent Pac-Man games as Pinky has kind of replaced her as the token female ghost.

I have to tell a funny story related to Sue the ghost monster. You see, my real life grandmother’s name is Sue, and my grandfather’s name was Clyde (he always went by “Buddy,” though). So I like to joke around sometimes and say that I’m part Ghost Monster! Maybe that’s why I like Pac-Man games so much!

Tim

Midway made a few other Pac-Games when they had the rights to Pac-Man. One was Pac-Man Jr. Namco bought the rights to Ms. Pac-Man because it made money, but since I don’t think they got the rights to Jr. Pac-Man, Namco just pretends it doesn’t exist. Which is a shame, because Jr. Pac-Man is pretty fun. It’s basically just like Ms. Pac-Man, except the mazes are bigger and scroll across about three screens. Anyhow, just like Clyde was replaced with Sue in Ms. Pac-Man, in Jr. Pac-Man, the orange ghost was now called Tim. Not sure why, but there you go.

Yum-Yum

Another new ghost debuted in Jr. Pac-Man. In the ‘coffee break’ intermissions, Yum-Yum was a little red girl ghost with a white bow that Jr. Pac-Man befriended despite Ms. Pac-Man’s and Blinky’s objections. And Yum-Yum hasn’t been in any game since.

Cartoon Ghosts: Dinky and Myrtle

There were a couple of ghosts exclusive to the Pac-Man cartoon back in the 80’s. One was Dinky, a little bratty kid ghost who the other five had to babysit in a couple of episodes. I think even in one episode, Dinky and Pac-Baby became friends, similar to Jr. Pac-Man and Yum-Yum.

In another cartoon episode called Pac-Van Winkle, Pac-Man dreams of taking a LONG nap and wakes up to find Pac-Land overrun with ghosts. One of the ghosts was called Myrtle. That in itself isn’t very important. But remember when I said my grandparents were named Clyde and Sue? Well that was on my dad’s side of the family. On my mom’s side, my grandmother was named Myrtle. Just more ‘proof’ that I’m related to ghost monsters. 🙂

Miru

Miru isn’t really a ghost. But I put her on this list anyway because she MIGHT be. In the little known game Pac & Pal, Miru (her Japanese name), was a little green ball with feet and eyes and she had a bow in her head. She would take fruit and bring it back to the ghosts’ hideout for whatever reason. She was more of a pest, because if you missed getting the fruit, you’d lose the bonus points. Not much of a ‘pal’ if you ask me.

Funky

Pac-Mania was a 3-D isometric arcade game where you could jump over the ghosts in the maze. It’s also one of my favorite Pac-Games. In later levels, you would encounter these green ghosts who could also jump, so you had a hard time avoiding them. In the Japanese game, these green ghosts were called ‘Commons’ probably because more than one would appear in mazes with higher difficulties. But in the US version, the green ghost and his clones were named Funky.

Spunky

Also in Pac-Mania was a dark charcoal grey ghost. He could jump, too. But, if you had good timing, you could jump over the green Funky ghost still. But not the grey one. I don’t think he was named in the arcade version, but I seem to remember the instruction booklet to the home console version of Pac-Mania calling him Spunky.

Kinky

Really poor choice of names, Namco. Anyway, remember when I was talking about the four main ghosts and mentioned them getting new powers in Pac-Man Arrangement? Well, Kinky is how they got those powers. Kinky was a yellow ghosts wearing glasses. He would start out of the ghost’s hideout blue, so you could eat him right away if you wanted to. Which was always a good idea, because if Kinky managed to collide with one of the other ghosts, he would merge with them and give them their special power, making it more difficult for Pac to navigate around the maze. I think giving the ghosts powers was a very cool idea, though.

Pac-Pix Ghosts

Pac-Pix was a brilliant early DS title where you had to draw Pac-Men to eat all the ghosts. These ghosts were different from before. Some had numbers and you had to eat them in order, some had shields, etc. Each had a name but they weren’t very memorable. One of the ghosts was still named Pinky, though.

Ghost Leaders

In the cartoon and some of the more-story driven Pac-Games, the ghosts were taking orders from a higher power. There were many different ones, and since some of them were ghosts, too, we’ll take a look at them as well.

The first was Mezmeron. He was the ghosts’ leader in the cartoon. He was kind of like Dr. Robotnik. He was a bald wizard with an air conditioner grate on his mouth. He was always after the Power Pellet Forest and ordered the ghosts to go find it. He was also the laziest cartoon villain of all time, as he just sat and watched the ghosts do everything from his TV. His size was pretty inconsistent in the show. Sometimes, he was no bigger than the Pac-People. Other times, he towered over Pac-Land. If that was the case, he could just walk outside his lair and probably find the forest himself!

In Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures, the Ghost Witch ordered the ghosts to steal kids’ ABC gum so she could make a giant gum monster. The Ghost Witch and the gum monster returned in Pac-In-Time, a horrible platformer that was originally a European PC game starring a furball. In Ms. Pac-Man: Maze Madness, the villainess was another witch named Mesmerelda. But she turned out to be not so bad after all.

In the first Pac-Man World title, the main bad guy was a robotic Pac-Man named Toc-Man (Namcot spelled backwards). When you defeated him, you learn that he was piloted by a little white ghost monster named Orson. Of course, you would only know his name was Orson if you unlocked the Pixar-like outtakes. In Pac-Man World 2, the ghosts steal the golden fruit to release a powerful ghost who has been imprisoned since medieval times. His name was Spooky and he had a spear and helmet. In Pac-Man World 3, the main bad guy was a mad scientist named Irwin who took over the Ghost World and captured Inky and Clyde, so the other ghosts enlist Pac-Man for help. Pac-Man World 3 wasn’t a very good game at all, though.

And finally, in Pac N Roll for the DS, the boss ghost is Golvis. He’s a fat green rock n roll ghost with a guitar. He’s kind of a lame leader, though. I don’t even think the other ghosts liked him.

The Ghosts’ Future

And that’s all about the Pac-Man Ghost Monsters! I hope I didn’t miss any! One thing’s for sure, all the ghosts, no matter how different; always react the same way when Pac eats a power pellet! They turn blue and you can eat them for a short while. Who knows what the future will bring for Pac-Man’s antagonists? I know they’ll be back in Pac-Man Championship Edition DX and Pac-Man Battle Royale. Who knows if any new ghosts will show up? Also, in Pac-Man Party, an upcoming Wii game, Pac-Man and the ghosts get a new, redesigned look. The ghosts are different sizes now, and some have little swirls of ‘hair.’ In a way, I kind of like the redesigns because it makes them look different and more unique. But we’ll see when the game comes out.

There’s a rumor about a new Pac-Man CG cartoon being made. I saw a preview of it online once. While I can’t blame them for trying to be different from the old H-B one, I’m not sure I like the idea of a new cartoon. For one, I read that Pac-Man will be a high school student, when the games make it clear he’s a family man with a wife and kids. Also, I’ve heard the ghosts will be Pac-Man ‘s friends in the cartoon, which doesn’t make much sense either. But, since I do like the ghosts, maybe them being friends with Pac-Man might be kind of cool for a change. Who knows?

In the comments section, tell me who YOUR favorite Pac-Man ghost monsters are!

Tags: Misc