Pac-Man[a] is a fictional character and the titular protagonist of Bandai Namco Entertainment's video game franchise of the same name.

[7] Pac-Man's most common antagonists are the Ghost Gang — Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde that are determined to defeat him to accomplish their goals, which change throughout the series.

The idea of Pac-Man was taken from both the image of a pizza with a slice removed and from rounding out the Japanese symbol 口 (kuchi, lit.

The title was changed in international releases to avoid it sounding too similar to an expletive (the Japanese pronunciation of paku being similar to 'pucku') and due to fear of arcade cabinets being vandalised by altering the P in 'Puck-Man' to an F. Pac-Man has the highest-brand awareness of any video game character in North America, becoming an icon in video games and pop culture.

[12] The arcade created an official art on the original Puck-Man designed by Namco artist Tadashi Yamashita, portraying him as a yellow circle with a large mouth as well as hands, feet, eyes and a long nose.

The North American Pac-Man artwork by Midway went a different way and depicted him as a yellow circle with legs and large red eyes.

In-game Pac-Man was represented as a two-dimensional sprite of a simple yellow circle with a mouth, which is his current design as of 2018.

His design went through two minor changes from the Puck-Man cabinet art over the years, the first made his nose smaller in 1997 and the second altered his eyes and shoes in 2010.

Pac-Man is also a playable character in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, co-developed by Sora Ltd. and Bandai Namco Games.

The series revolves around a teenage[26] Pac-Man (aka Pacster or Pac), who protects his world from ghosts alongside his high school friends.

[34] In August 2024, it was announced that Pac-Man would be adapted in video game anthology series Secret Level created by Tim Miller for release on Amazon Prime Video,[35] voiced in the episode "PAC-Man: Circle" by Emily Swallow, depicted as Puck, a robot trapped in a "maze", manipulating a series of cloned swordsmen in an attempt to escape.

These lists include those from the staff teams of The Independent,[40] Tom's Guide,[41] Time,[42] HobbyConsolas,[43] Empire,[44] GamesRadar+,[45] and reader polls from the Guinness World Records and BAFTA, which had over 13,000 and 4,000 voters respectively.

[36][44][41] Alex Wade wrote that Pac-Man in his original form is "instantly recognizable to gamers and non-gamers", despite being no more than what he viewed as a superficial character, "effectively no more than an automaton" that relied completely on the player for actions and featured no other unique characteristics.

"[44] Empire's Willow Green wrote that Pac-Man was the "definitive symbol" of the video game medium, comparable in levels of widespread cultural recognition as Darth Vader from Star Wars,[44] and the editorial team of Tom's Guide described him as "timeless" and "universally recognizable," to a point where any lore the character could've had was irrelevant.

[49] Jaakko Suominen and Saara Ala-Luopa wrote that Pac-Man was a "root icon" in video games alongside the enemies from Space Invaders, as well as a leading example of the "retro-gaming economy," which revolves around nostalgia from those who were either around to experience the time period, as well as those who simply enjoy the products and themes of the time period (an idea they referred to as "armchair nostalgia").

They highlighted this with the numerous pieces of official and unofficial merchandise of the character's original design, as well as graffiti designs of the character present throughout the world and "adaptations" of the Pac-Man game that were posted onto YouTube, typically demonstrating Pac-Man and the Ghosts chasing each-other in bizarre locations such as a golf course.