Pop Culture References of Wizard101: Mirage – The PackMen

The PackMen, Pally, Percy and Madam PackMan – Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man from the Pac-Man video games
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Pally_PackMan
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Madam_PackMan
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/NPC:Percy_Packman
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Quest:PackMan_Fever
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Quest:Ghost_Maze
https://wiki.wizard101central.com/wiki/Creature:Chilly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms.Pac-Man
https://pacman.com/en/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man_Fever(song)

The Packmen help the nomads and merchants carry their loads and wares. Pally works for Guillermel. Madam Packman needs you to rescue her husband Percy from his Packman Fever in the Ghost Maze.

Percy has gotten ill from the Germ Ghosts; Chilly, Achey, Sneezy, and Cough. He needs Magic Medicine Balls and Magic Fruit to heal and defeat the Germ Ghosts. Percy needs your help to do this.

Pac-Man, originally called Puck Man in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. The player controls Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing dots called “Power Pellets” causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points.

Game development began in early 1979, directed by Toru Iwatani with a nine-man team. Iwatani wanted to create a game that could appeal to women as well as men, because most video games of the time had themes of war or sports. Although the inspiration for the Pac-Man character was the image of a pizza with a slice removed, Iwatani has said he also rounded out the Japanese character for mouth, kuchi. The in-game characters were made to be cute and colorful to appeal to younger players. The original Japanese title of Puck Man was derived from the Japanese phrase “Paku paku taberu” which refers to gobbling something up; the title was changed to Pac-Man for the North American release.

Pac-Man was a widespread critical and commercial success, leading to several sequels, merchandise, and two television series, as well as a hit single by Buckner & Garcia. The character of Pac-Man has become the official mascot of Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game remains one of the highest-grossing and best-selling games, generating more than $14 billion in revenue (as of 2016) and 43 million units in sales combined, and has an enduring commercial and cultural legacy, commonly listed as one of the greatest video games of all time.

Pac-Man is an action maze chase video game; the player controls the eponymous character through an enclosed maze. The objective of the game is to eat all of the dots placed in the maze while avoiding four colored ghosts—Blinky (red), Pinky (pink), Inky (cyan), and Clyde (orange)—who pursue Pac-Man. When Pac-Man eats all of the dots, the player advances to the next level. Levels are indicated by fruit icons at the bottom of the screen. In between levels are short cutscenes featuring Pac-Man and Blinky in humorous, comical situations.

Ms. Pac-Man is a 1982 maze arcade video game developed by General Computer Corporation and published by Midway. It is the first sequel to Pac-Man (1980) and the first entry in the series to not be made by Namco. Controlling the title character, Pac-Man’s wife, the player is tasked with eating all of the pellets in an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating the larger “power pellets” lets the player eat the ghosts, who turn blue and flee.

“Pac-Man Fever” is a hit single by Buckner & Garcia. Capitalizing on the video game craze of the early 1980s, the song, about the classic video game Pac-Man, peaked at number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States in March 1982.

The current list of all the (known) Mirage references can be found here.

Although I am well versed in Pop Culture references but I do not claim to have caught them all. Let me know your favorites in the comments and if I’ve missed one you caught, let me know so I can add it to the list.

Text for this article is excerpted from the linked wiki pages

PackMen and Germ Ghost images are from Wizard101, and are copyright of KingsIsle Entertainment

All Pac-Man images are copyright Namco

Image usage qualifies as fair use under US copyright law.