You might remember the first time you played Pac-Man, but you almost certainly won’t remember the last time. The ghost-eating, pill munching yellow pizza thing is celebrating his 45th birthday this year, and if you haven’t noticed, Namco’s classic (known originally as “Puck Man” in Japan) is popping up everywhere.
Pac-Man on Samsung TV
If you use a modern Samsung TV (the type with almost no bezel, Samsung SmartThings integration, and loads of streaming apps built in) then you might have seen its Game menu. Here, everything from Nvidia GeForce and Xbox Live can be found, along with a few “Instant Games.”
These can be installed on your TV — in the case of Pac-Man, it’s a 10MB download, which takes seconds on a modern internet connection.
Having played this twice, I have been disappointed by the speed of the game, which seems to lag. I get the feeling it would have been better to stream the game than install it!
Pac-Man on YouTube
A very similar version of the game can be found on a service called YouTube Playables. You’ll find this down the left-hand side of YouTube on your desktop browser, although curiously it doesn’t seem to be available on the mobile app.
Scroll through the menu to find it, or just use the Pac-Man SuperFast link to play it.
(The game has audio, I’ve recorded it without, for… reasons.)
This is a far better way to play the game, which lives up to its name as it really is quite fast. In fact, as you progress without being caught, the game speeds up, more and more!
Visually, it seems to be the same game, but the difference is that it doesn’t have the speed element, and plays much better than on Samsung TV.
Don’t forget Shadow Labyrinth!
No one can say they weren’t warned. Bandai-Namco announced its “Make an imPACt” campaign earlier this year to accompany Pac-Man‘s 45th anniversary. This included hardware tie-ins, sporting events, museum exhibits, and even new games, Shadow Labyrinth and the Pac-Man Simulator on Roblox.
Expected in mid-July, Shadow Labyrinth mixes third person adventure with, well, Pac-Man eating things.
Pac-Man in an exosuit was not on my 2025 bingo card. Happily, while Pac-Man heads into the future in true Japan style (it’s curious how this hasn’t happened before), we’ve got endless mazes to guide him around on every device.
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Christian Cawley is a writer and editor who covers consumer electronics, IT, and entertainment media. He has written for publications such as Computer Weekly, Linux Format, MakeUseOf.com, and Tech Radar.
He also produces podcasts, has a cigar box guitar, and of course, loves retro gaming.