Pac-Man tourney, cartoon hit Xbox Live

World Championships to give Xbox 360 owners a chance to meet Pac-creator Toru Iwatani; opportunity to see nearly forgotten early '80s TV show.

Who's the best Pac-Man player of all time? That would almost certainly be Billy Mitchell, who in 1999 played the world's first perfect game of Pac-Man, eating every fruit, all four ghosts with every power pellet and beating all 256 levels of the game without losing a life.

While Mitchell has essentially secured his status as "best ever," the title of "Best Pac-Man player on the Xbox 360 Live Arcade" is not so undisputed. To determine who can lay claim to that title, Microsoft and Namco Bandai have announced the Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship (presented by Quiznos). The best-scoring players from seven regions around the world (as well as one particularly rabid Pac-fan) will be flown to New York City for a final showdown, with the eventual champion to be crowned by Pac-Man creator Toru Iwatani.

Asia, Australia/New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and Mexico will each get to send its top-scoring player to the event, as determined by the Xbox Live leaderboards (existing leaderboard scores will be deleted before the contest begins "to provide a clean and fair slate for all gamers"). Europe and the US will each get to send two finalists. A dearth of talent can be partly made up by an abundance of heart, as the winner of a contest challenging residents of the US and Canada to submit videos showing why they're the biggest Pac-Man fan of all will round out the field as the 10th finalist.

Microsoft is looking to fuel the Pac-Mania by releasing episodes of the early 1980s Pac-Man cartoon on the Xbox Live Video Marketplace. In addition to giving Pac-Man arms, legs, and a fedora, the TV show also served as the visual inspiration for the Pac-Land arcade game. Each episode will cost 160 Microsoft points ($2).

The Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship leaderboard competition starts April 25 and runs through May 9. The finals in New York will take place June 5. The winner will receive one free Quiznos sandwich a week for 26 years, 100,000 Microsoft Points, and a one-of-a-kind Xbox 360 designed with a Pac-Man theme. To compete, players must register on the official Xbox Live tournament Web site starting April 24 at 5 p.m. PDT.

94 Comments

  • vamroc

    Posted Apr 20, 2007 7:41 am PT

    I remember that show and it's forgotten for a reason. Also forgotten for a reason Zelda, Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong jr, Space Ace, The Game Master, Saturday Super Arcade, and Quebert.

  • Gooper_Blooper

    Posted Apr 20, 2007 5:29 am PT

    XD @ the Quiznos prize.

  • kenesu96

    Posted Apr 20, 2007 1:35 am PT

    the movie was 'the wizard' while were requestion game based movies why not 'joysticks' or 'cloak and dagger' oops i gave away my age.

  • nesto423

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 7:52 pm PT

    omg ... this is old skool classic cartoons " ur just too young or never watched it when you were a kid" the caroon was bangin. ppppppppp pac power!!!!!!! "baby pac" was teh craziest!!! .... olskool!! "now only if they would release some other video game cartoons "captain n the game master" w/kid icarus , maybe the fred savage "nintendo movie" "dang forgot the name" but bangin!!!

  • okassar

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 3:25 pm PT

    Classic but no thank you.Maybe if it was free....

  • NYJets12

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 3:08 pm PT

    Is anyone really going to shell out $2 per ep for such a cheese fest? I mean, if this is part of a promotion, why are they charging for it?
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GREED!!

  • edhc44

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 12:26 pm PT

    Coming to you next summer: Elevator Action contest! (Now that would be nice...)

  • robotecha5

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 12:03 pm PT

    Oh no th Pac-Man cartoon was HORRIBLE.

  • LosDaddie

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 11:20 am PT

    Xbox Live continue to lead the way!!

    Go, Wii60!!

  • 3rd360

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 10:07 am PT

    that one of a kind 360 would be nice.

  • qiwihead

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 8:25 am PT

    Wow, 100,000 M$ is $1,250! Nice. But why the hell aren't they offering the Pac-Man cartoons for free? Is anyone really going to shell out $2 per ep for such a cheese fest? I mean, if this is part of a promotion, why are they charging for it?

  • kenesu96

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 6:01 am PT

    and i will also say that the pac man cartoon was great! it really gt into the lives of pac, pepper and baby pacman and their pets chompchomp and sourpuss, as well as expanding the universe of pac land. they never fully explained how mezmeron, being 10 times bigger than everyone in pacland didnt just go kill pac man himself, but it would probably ruin the continuity.

    and while were at it. lets see the CBS saturday supercade lineup in its entirety, which included donkey kong, q bert and pitfall, with others.

    its a good insight to cashing in on fads, when videogmes were considered to be a fad

  • Dups79

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 5:58 am PT

    So this is a "see who can find the patterns on the internet and follow them the best" contest. I would join it but I know I will be beaten by someone with less talent but more patience to learn all the patterns.

    In my opinion someone that makes it to level 50 without following any patterns is MUCH better then someone that simply learns the patterns and reaches level 256.

  • FiestaUnicorn

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 5:52 am PT

    why would anyone ever release the pacman cartoon on any type of media and not consider it some kind of punishment to those who don't remember how bad it is?

  • kenesu96

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 5:50 am PT

    i never understood how a truly perfect score would work, as after level 16 on pac man, the ghosts will no longer be affected by the power pellets, so how could anyone be able to eat all 4 ghosts, 4 tmes on each board?! no one has ever explained this!

    so you would have to sync up all 4 ghosts ontop of each other and run into them at the exact same time as they and you run into the power pellet . how can this even be done?

  • play_old_games

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 5:24 am PT

    Woah.

    I'm there, dude.

  • Sagacious_Tien

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 2:07 am PT

    Hmmm Quiznos...

  • TTDog

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 2:03 am PT

    "lovermanxxx: WTF - where is Europe?
    typical US 'World' Championship that does not cover the world, just selected territories. Best example has to be Baseball 'World' Series."

    They tried to include other countries with the "World Baseball Classic" last Spring, and got knocked out early doors.

  • lovermanxxx

    Posted Apr 19, 2007 12:15 am PT

    WTF - where is Europe?
    typical US 'World' Championship that does not cover the world, just selected territories. Best example has to be Baseball 'World' Series.
    what a joke.
    especially considering that on a head for head basis the UK is the Xboxs most saturated and profitable market.

  • K1LLSWITCH

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 10:41 pm PT

    RE: PacoL250

    Good point. But the A-Team did last more than one season and it's still beloved to this day by fans of the era, but the Pac-Man cartoon didn't last a season. Plus more free stuff would be nice.

  • PacoL250

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 10:24 pm PT

    @K1LLSWITCH: Well I wished they didn't charge for the A-Team DVDs either but I don't see that happening anytime soon. Although for something as old AND obscure as this, free would be good.

  • zsc4

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 9:54 pm PT

    Strange but okay. It will do good.

  • K1LLSWITCH

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 9:53 pm PT

    The Pac-Man cartoon is $2 a piece? The show was cancelled going on 20 years now. Why not give it away for free? It just amazes me that a cancelled TV show such as this is still making money even after death. A television show that should be free!

  • holenjd

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 9:03 pm PT

    I loved that cartoon!

  • TiRoSu13

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 8:50 pm PT

    That's a lot of Quiznos

  • nickbakopoulos

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 8:27 pm PT

    man I used to get up at 6am on a saturday morning to watch that cartoon.

    gold

  • GIJesse77

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 7:36 pm PT

    what, pac-man was made by japanease people? I guess i got to owe them one.

  • BigB10123

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 7:28 pm PT

    This is actually a cool idea.

  • The_Snog

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 7:17 pm PT

    Pac-man forever.

  • s3lFc0nTr0l

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 6:55 pm PT

    thats awwesome. lol. id have a -32% chance of winning and i dont even have the game but thats a sweet contest

  • GizmoVirus

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 6:41 pm PT

    PAC-Man rocks!

  • Flat_Line_____

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 6:20 pm PT

    AL13NK1LL3R pac-man sucks! its the worst game ever seriously.. i was born in the 80s and played this game and never like it
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    That's why to really appreciate it you needed to be born in the 70's when games like that hadn't been made yet. I mean you didn't HAVE to be born then , but it helped.

  • finaleve

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 5:43 pm PT

    Vulpis>NES actually, SNES had the Super Scope 6, but im amazed you got all that info down. miss that show.

    hunter8man>Do you realize what you said? I mean...seriously. Captain N stands for Captain NINTENDO in case you hadn't caught that ever.

    ...pac-man. I'm a big quiznos fan but i'm no match for this pac-match

  • Pete5506

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 5:38 pm PT

    cool

  • carddude

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 5:35 pm PT

    Geez! I thought you all had no life! LOL! JK. Dont be an emo kids!

  • rosssca

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 5:25 pm PT

    There needs to be more of these types of contests......Sony!!!

  • S2333

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 5:21 pm PT

    That prize is...different

  • AL13NK1LL3R

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 5:07 pm PT

    pac-man sucks! its the worst game ever seriously.. i was born in the 80s and played this game and never like it

  • Zam_basic

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 5:04 pm PT

    they cant be serious

  • KingSigy

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 4:29 pm PT

    Well, it sounds fun, and is definitely a way to get me playing Pac-Man again

  • peimbee

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 4:17 pm PT

    I LOVED the cartoon growing up. As long as they have the Christmas Comes to Pacland episode I'll be happy. CHOMP!!!

  • Tranceplant

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 4:01 pm PT

    This could be fun... I might pay for Pac-man then join next month.

  • GFofgaming

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 3:55 pm PT

    lol! this gonna be fun "The whole world will goWHACKO WHACKO WHACKO lol!. The prize...1 sandwitch a week...LOL!!

  • Vulpis

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 3:44 pm PT

    Enh...interesting contest, kinda weird prize (Probably *sponsored* by Quisnos...the length of time is kinda weird, though. Possibly some game reference...). The cartoon...it was an *80's* cartoon. Of course it's going to be viewed as 'garbage' in today's CGI-fetishist world. That's why we get crap like Michael Bay's so-called 'Transformers', and all the Uwe Boll stuff.

    Meanwhile...while I liked Supercade and Captain N (generally so-so, but had some really good episodes)...did any of the posters stop to engage their brains before asking about why these aren't on XBL? I mean, think about it--while they did have Q-Bert, Pitfall, and a few others, both Supercade and Captain N were based around *Nintendo* (or at the least primarily Nintendo exclusive at the time, and mostly still are...) characters--Donkey Kong, DK Jr. (before he became Diddy), Mario, Kid Icarus, Link and Zelda, Mother Brain, King Hippo, Eggplant Wizard, Simon Belmont, Megaman....not to mention Captain *N* (I mean, how *obvious* can you get) got his powers from a SNES Zapper and Control Pad...

  • prioritymail

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 3:30 pm PT

    who wants to see that cartoon again...

  • -HCMF-

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 3:07 pm PT

    oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook

  • biggamerhk

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 3:06 pm PT

    wow whatever . . .

  • ScreamDream

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 3:01 pm PT

    If you really want a chance at this, you must be able to get to the 5th key and an arcade stick would be a necessity.

  • Kayrod29

    Posted Apr 18, 2007 2:58 pm PT

    Wow, 100,000 points, you can buy every single arcade everytime it comes out

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