Though I’m not sure about yours, my initial reaction to this was basically “Uh… what!?” People – actual people – are trying to make a Pac-Man reality TV show. The fact that Pac-Man is a fictional, disembodied floating head doesn’t seem to be stopping them.
The US production company Merv Griffin Entertainment has teamed up with Namco Bandai, and intends to make a “big, crazy Wipeout-type event with a lot of energy. The idea we have is to take what Pac-Man is and bring it to life, to bring what is essentially the world’s biggest game of tag to television.” There is no word yet on whether ghosts, fruits, or pill-filled mazes will be included.
For those who don’t know, the TV show Wipeout has nothing to do with the speedy futuristic racing game wipEout. It features contestants running around intricate obstacle courses, getting thrown into pools of water in the name of entertainment. Merv Griffin’s president, Roy Bank, will executive-produce the Pac-Man project, and is currently shopping around the concept to various TV networks.
Now that I think about the whole thing, it (maybe) might not be too bad. Giant robotic ghosts that chase hapless contestants around a dark, terrifying maze, as the air is filled with random computerised beeping noises? Perhaps the contests get to drive a Pac-Man head around to collect balls or something… I’m almost tempted to watch the first episode out of sheer curiosity.
A Pac-Man TV show was first teased at E3 2010, but no one seemed to take the idea very seriously. That version of the show was very different and actually much stranger: it starred Pac-Man as a high-school teenager, “an overeater who must protect the three-dimensional world from ghosts.”
Source: Kotaku
+1 I love this idea. Only joking!
Hey, it could be a lot worse. I mean it's still a horrible idea, but it could be worse.