Inky (ghost)

Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde, collectively known as the Ghost Gang, are a quartet of colorful ghost characters from the ''Pac-Man'' video game franchise. Created by Toru Iwatani, they first appear in the 1980 arcade game ''Pac-Man'' as the sole antagonists. The ghosts have appeared in every ''Pac-Man'' game since, sometimes becoming minor antagonists or allies to Pac-Man, such as in ''Pac-Man World'' and the ''Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures'' animated series.

Some entries in the series went on to add other ghosts to the group, such as Sue in '' Ms. Pac-Man'', Tim in '' Jr. Pac-Man'', and Funky and Spunky in ''Pac-Mania''; however, these did not appear in most later games. The group has since gained a positive reception and are cited as some of the most recognizable video game villains of all time.

Concept and creation

The ghosts were created by Toru Iwatani, who was the head designer for the original ''Pac-Man'' arcade game. The idea for the ghosts was made from Iwatani's desire to create a video game that could attract women and younger players, particularly couples, at a time where most video games were "war"-type games or ''Space Invaders'' clones. In turn, he made the in-game characters cute and colorful, a trait borrowed from Iwatani's previous game ''Cutie Q'' (1979), which featured similar "kawaii" characters. Iwatani cited Casper the Friendly Ghost or ''Little Ghost Q-Taro'' as inspiration for the ghosts. Their simplistic design was also attributed to the limitations of the hardware at the time, only being able to display a certain amount of colors for a sprite. To prevent the game from becoming impossibly difficult or too boring to play, each of the ghosts were programmed to have their own distinct traits — the red ghost would directly chase Pac-Man, the pink and blue ghosts would position themselves in front of him, and the orange ghost would be random.

Originally, all four of the ghosts were meant to be red instead of multicolored, as ordered by Namco president Masaya Nakamura — Iwatani was against the idea, as he wanted the ghosts to be distinguishable from one another. Although he was admittedly afraid of Nakamura, he conducted a survey with his colleagues that asked if they wanted single-colored enemies or multicolored enemies. After being presented with a 40-to-0 result in favor of multicolored ghosts, Nakamura agreed to the decision. The original Japanese version of the game had the ghosts named "Oikake", "Machibuse", "Kimagure" and "Otoboke", translating respectively to "chaser", "ambusher", "fickle" and "stupid". When the game was exported to the United States, Midway Games changed their names to "Shadow", "Speedy", "Bashful" and "Pokey", their nicknames being changed to "Blinky", "Pinky", "Inky" and "Clyde" respectively. Early promotional material would sometimes refer to the ghosts as "monsters" or "goblins".

Uproxx argues that the ghost are really just people in costumes, based on what is revealed between rounds in the game. A cutscene that appears after the 5th round of the game, shows the ghost Blinky chasing after Pac-Man, and his ghost costume snags on a nail and rips, revealing a leg underneath. In a later cutscene, Blinky has a rip in his ghost costume, then after going off screen, he is seen back on the screen dragging the red costume behind him.

Television series

In the 1982 ''Pac-Man'' series, the hero faced five Ghosts — four males wearing various styles of hats, and a female ghost named Sue, who wore earrings. The Ghost Monsters work for Mezmaron, who assigns them the job of finding the Power Pellet Forest.

The 2013 TV series ''Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures'' featured Pac-Man as a high-school student battling the ghost forces of Lord Betrayus. Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde act as secret allies to Pac-Man, hoping to one day be restored to life in exchange.

Reception

The ghosts have received a positive reception from critics and have been cited as one of the most recognizable video game villains of all time. ''IGN'' commented on each of the ghosts having their own personality and "adorable" design. '' Boy's Life'' praised their simplicity and determination, labeling them as one of the most recognizable villains in video game history. In their list of the 50 "coolest" video game villains, ''Complex'' ranked the ghosts in as the fourth, noting of their iconic design and recognition and for being "pretty tough customers" ''Metro UK'' listed them at second place in their list of the ten greatest video game villains of all time, praising their easy recognition and cute designs.

''Kotaku'' stated that the ghosts' artificial intelligence was still impressive by modern standards, being "smarter than you think". ''GamesRadar+'' liked each of the ghosts having their own unique AI and traits, while ''GameSpy'' said that the ghosts' intelligence is one of the game's "most endearing" aspects for adding a new layer of strategy to the game.

Inky alone was ranked the seventh greatest game villain of all time by Guinness World Records in 2013, based on reader votes.

References

{{Pac-Man series

Fictional quartets
Ghost characters in video games
Video game characters introduced in 1980
Villains in animated television series
Pac-Man characters