10 Hopeless Video Game Protagonists
4. Pac-Man (Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures)
Anybody who’s heard of video games before knows Pac-Man. The pellet-gobbling, ghost-terrorising hockey puck might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think ‘hopeless’ but that’s only until you consider the 1994 quasi-sequel, Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures.
Playing out as a point-and-click of sorts, this SNES and Genesis title saw Pac-Man walking along by himself while players aimed a reticle at the screen to shoot parts of the environment.
In doing so, they were able to dislodge trinkets, awaken sleeping animals and even harass the little yellow guy by aiming square between his eyes. As a result, Pac-Man’s mood would change, refusing to listen to the player if he got too arrogant or too sulky.
As well as being at the whim of his own emotions, this new iteration also introduced audiences to a hero that was terrified of the ghosts he’d frequently encountered before, running around the screen in a frenzy whenever they appeared; even the boxart saw him screaming for his life as he mounts a paraglider. Yet despite all of his reservations, he’s still able to defeat the Ghost Witch (which is a thing, apparently) and save Pac-City from the Gum Monster (also real things).