Pac-Land will debut a new character to replace Ms. Pac-Man. Although the new character does not veer away that much from what Ms. Pac-Man used to look like.

Enter "Pac-Mom," the new character taking Ms. Pac-Man's place in Pac-Land.

Pac-Mom's First Appearance

While playing the game for the first time, fans have noticed something that appears to be a little off — Pac-Man's wife long-time wife has deserted her husband!

When every level in Pac-Land is completed, Pac-Man returns to his home with his wife, Ms. Pac-Man, and their daughter, Baby Pac-Man. If you're a die-hard Pac-Man fan, you'll be aware that Ms. Pac-Man has a fairly iconic appearance, complete with a red bow in her "hair," red lips, and red booties. Baby Pac-Man also has a similar appearance.

However, Pac-Man has returned home to a slightly different-looking family. The red bow turned became a pink hat, and the red booties turned into pink heels. With that, numerous fans have taken to Twitter to talk about the change and pointed out the lack of Ms. Pac-Man that they have grown accustomed to.

Why Replace Ms. Pac-Man With Pac-Mom?

It was Ms. Pac-Man and Baby Pac-Man who appeared alongside each other in the original Pac-Land. According to Polygon, in the 1984 side-scroller Pac-Land, Ms. Pac-Man was the wife of Mr. Pac-Man. However, in today's recent reveal in the Pac-Land rerelease, the character of Ms. Pac-Man is no longer the the same.

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Originally, Ms. Pac-Man appears in nearly all of the games, sporting her trademark red bow and boots. In the new release, Pac-Mom's color appears to be pink; it is now replaced by a pink hat and pink heels. Another change is that the child's appearance has been altered, with a pacifier being replaced with what appears to be a rattle, and a bow being replaced with a flower.

As a result of the fact that she wasn't actually created by Bandai Namco, but rather by a group of Americans for a game that started out as a Pac-Man mod and eventually gained Namco's approval, the company has set up a unique royalty arrangement for the character.

Because of the arrangement, Bandai Namco has been required to pay royalties on each and every occasion the character has been used. Despite the fact that the original creators of Ms. Pac-Man went bankrupt a long time ago, their royalties interest has since been acquired by another company: AtGames

Ms. Pac-Man has been involved in a number of lengthy legal battles throughout her career. No, Namco did not invent Ms. Pac-Man, nor did they design the game or the character.

Interestingly, the game is actually a modded version of another game called Crazy Otto, which was an enhanced version of Pac-Man developed by the General Computer Corporation (GCC).

All of the legal royalty battles of Ms. Pac-Man have been quite known publicly. However, numerous fans are under the assumption that Ms. Pac-Man's appearance in this re-release is simply a result of the publisher's refusal to pay royalties, which is particularly ironic given that this is the first time she's been scheduled to appear in a new game in nearly a decade. 

Pac-Man: Pac-Land Re-release

Nintendo Life reported that Pac-Land is now available on the Nintendo Switch, largely through the efforts of Arcade Archives and Hamster. Those who have been looking forward to playing this 1984 arcade classic now have the opportunity to do so, just a few weeks before the release of Pac-Man Museum +.

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