Pac-Man tourney, cartoon hit Xbox Live

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Apr 18, 2007 11:43 am PT

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.

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