Rhiannon Elizabeth Irons
There’s something very vellicating about video games. They increase motor and problem-solving skills while providing countless hours of entertainment.
Then an idea comes to form; let’s turn a beloved video game into a major motion picture. This is usually where things go south. And quickly.
Games like Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Tomb Raider have all had the game-to-movie experience. While Super Mario Bros and Street Fighter failed to impress (though Street Fighter is very much a guilty pleasure of mine), Resident Evil and Tomb Raider found a solid following, sparking interest among the masses.
No video game is off limits to Hollywood. Uncharted was the most recent title to get the movie adaptation treatment, and there are talks of Five Nights at Freddy’s coming to a big screen, or at least a streaming service, in the near future. Games like Doom and Angry Birds were given the movie makeover, receiving a lukewarm reception.
This transition from video game to movie got me thinking about a favourite game of mine from way back when; Pac-Man.
We all know of Pac-Man. Most of us have played the game at least once before. It truly is a classic. It even got a revamp on PS3 while a recent vintage arcade machine sold for over a million dollars.
So, if Pac-Man were to become a movie, what sort of movie would it be? Action? Thriller? Romantic-comedy focusing on how he met Mrs. Pac-Man? No. I believe it would be a horror movie.
Now, I know you’re sitting there, scratching your head, wondering how that is even possible, but hear me out. Pac-Man’s enemies are ghosts, and we all know that you cannot kill what’s already dead. You can try, but unless your ghost happens to be a man in a mask (and you’re a member of the Scooby gang), or you’re a demonologist like Ed and Lorraine Warren, you won’t get the best of them. The only way for Pac-Man to slow down his enemies was by using a Power Pill – which, in game, turns the ghosts blue which allows Pac-Man to eat them. It doesn’t kill them. It just causes them to regenerate, coming back faster and stronger than before.
If that isn’t daunting enough, the game itself is a continuous loop, seemingly never-ending. As time goes on and players level up, Power Pills became increasingly harder to find and are less effective.
Taking all that into consideration, here’s what it breaks down to; A no-win, never-ending quest with relentless enemies and extreme drug use.
That sounds like a pretty dark premise to me.
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