If 2015’s Super Mario Maker has left you aching to remake other old school video games into hellishly difficult nightmares, you could be in luck. Japanese publisher Bandai Namco has recently filed a trademark for an unknown project titled “Pac-Man Maker.” The application was submitted on April 18th and is currently being reviewed by the European Union.
Bandai Namco hasn’t yet announced any new Pac-Man games, and this trademark doesn’t necessarily mean they’re working on one right now. Companies are known to file for trademarks to prepare for future products, or sometimes just to protect their own intellectual properties. Bandai Namco is also a big player when it comes to the arcade business, so there’s a good chance this might not even be a home console game. The company’s previous Pac-Man related product was Pac-Man Wild Edition, a slot machine for casinos.
The most recent mainstream video game to star the yellow dot-muncher, on the other hand, is Pac-Man Championship Edition 2, an arcade game for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC that was released sometime last year. So honestly, this new “Pac-Man Maker” could fall either way. Still, the idea of being able to create your own Pac-Man mazes and share them with friends has many fans of retro arcade games cheering for the possibility.
Maybe Capcom and Sega should get in on this “build-your-own-levels” style of games and trademark “Mega Man Maker” and “Sonic Maker” now. It would definitely be the best Sonic game Sega would have released in recent history.