Namco Made Their Own Version of Jr Pac-Man. Here’s Why

Every Saturday morning back in the 80s, we were blessed with cartoons. A portion of the cartoons featured video game characters. An animation studio known as "Ruby-Spears" was responsible for the production of almost all of the video game-related cartoons, and Pac-Man was one of them. In the cartoon, the ghosts did have a higher authority that would instruct them on various ways to eliminate Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Baby Pac-Man. Pac-man had a dog maned "Chomp-Chomp" and a cat. (I have forgotten his name) You might be able to find this cartoon here on YT.

Well, we now know Pac-Man was cheating on Ms. Pac-Man and had a secret second family with Pac-Mom and Pac Jr. 🤣

i think it's interesting how they tried to include jr pac man in the game but couldn't make it as good as it could have been due to the game being stuck in copyright purgatory. Great video as always Pojr!

If Pac-Man 2 got a Sega CD version in 1995, then instead of Pac Jr. or Ms. Pac-Man it would have Super Pac-Man.

Pojr and Jeremy Parish is always a great Wednesday morning video game double feature.

Pac-Man 2 wasn't the first time the ghosts "responded to a higher power." If you ever watched the ABC Saturday morning Pac-Man cartoon, the "ghost monsters" as they were called were under orders from a male wizard named Mezmeron. Also I agree about the Pac-Man 2 name. To me the true Pac-Man 2 ended up being Pac-Man Championship Edition. Could say that about Pac-Man Arrangement in the arcade as well.

I really enjoy this kind of stories that shed a light on little known facts or characters. And yes, I remember playing Pac-Man 2 only to feel extremely confused at the gameplay and everything! But anyways, it wasn't the first time a direct sequel doesn't look "direct" or plays like a "sequel".

Actually, Namco might have actually bought the copyright years later. In the game Pac Man World Rally, "Jr. Pac Man" is a playable character, and in the opening copyrights at the beginning of the game, they list the trademark for the original Jr. Pac Man 1983 game as being owned by Namco.

Pac-Man has mental anguish

Also a Generation Later, they Legally Replace Ms. Pac-Man for Pac-Mom.

The lawsuit POJR is referring to is that GCC developed ROM hacks for the game Missle Command. The hack was called "Super Missle Attack."

I'm all for this being the official sequel to Pac-Man. What made Pac-Man great was that it was an original game idea. It makes sense that the sequel should also be an original game idea.

Great job on the research on this one. I love seeing younger folks taking interest in the games from my childhood.

5:09 In fairness, the Hanna Barbera cartoon did this too.

It's a shame Jr. Pac-Man really only exists via emulation these days. There ARE arcade cabinets floating around that contain the game (I actually discovered Jr. Pac-Man on a multicade cabinet I used to play as a kid), but they're few and far between.

Lovely video, good job. You should look into Baby Pac-Man in the future, very interesting concept

YOOOO thanks for shouting me out, you rule! This video's great. Touches on a couple things I missed in my video!

Pacman 2 was one of my favourite Genesis games. There was nothing like that on the console.

While I was always aware that Namco own Pac-Man and a bit of Ms. Pac-Man, I never thought they that they never own Jr. Pac-Man considering how similar each games are. Just imagine if Nintendo own Donkey Kong but not Donkey Kong Country, oh will we ever get to see the games re-released on GBA & modern consoles.

I'm sad we never got a full widescreen version of Pac-Man Jr where because the shape of the maze it would fit on a widescreen television without having to scroll.