Pac-Man Museum+ will introduce a new character, Pac-Mom

Pac-Man Museum+ is coming next month, and it’s meant to be a journey through Pac-Man history. It will look back, but it will also introduce a totally new character: Pac-Mom. She’s really just a re-skinned sprite, but she’ll be replacing the beloved Ms. Pac-Man for legal reasons.

The news comes from Games Asylum, and the outlet explained the reasoning on Twitter. AtGames still holds the rights to Ms. Pac-Man, which prevents Bandai Namco from including her likeness in Pac-Man Museum+. For the foreseeable future, all Pac-Man games will instead feature Pac-Mom, who wears a pink-purple headband and gloves, versus Ms. Pac-Man’s signature red bow and orange gloves. She still plays the same role though, and given that she and Pac-Man do have a kid together, the name Pac-Mom is sufficient. Unfortunately, she’ll be stuck as a stay-at-home mom for Pac-Man Museum+, as the same rights prevent Ms. Pac-Man from being part of the collection.

Pac-Man Museum+ actually puts you in Pac-Man’s shoes — the conceit is that he’s playing his old games and building an arcade room of his own. You’ll earn prizes to decorate the arcade room as you see fit. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, Pac & Pal, Pac-Land, Pac-Mania, Pac-Attack, Pac-In-Time, Pac-Man Arrangement (1996), Pac-Man Arrangement (2005), Pac-Man Championship Edition, Pac ‘n Roll Remix, Pac-Motos, and Pac-Man Battle Royale fill out the collection. Pac-Man Museum+ has a May 27 release date, and it’s headed to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, with backward compatibility on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. It’ll also be available on day one on Game Pass.