Amazon’s PAC-MAN Episode of “Secret Level” is an Interesting Strategy
Earlier this year, Amazon began its marketing cycle for its new animated video game anthology series, Secret Level. Helmed by Tim Miller of Netflix’s Love Death + Robots, the series brought promise of original stories set in varying universes from different video games episode to episode. While some await the episode based on Firewalk’s Concord—which launched earlier this year and shut down two weeks later—or Capcom’s Mega Man to see if it is the silver lining critics have foretold, one name and its attached episode has left questions in its wake since the reveal of the series: PAC-MAN.
Yeah, him.
Challenged with not just an original story, but a complete reinterpretation of the franchise’s “mythos”, almost everyone who viewed the PAC-MAN episode was confused by its contents. This went from diehard fans new and old to even people who just knew OF the series and its titular character. The question wasn’t how this sprouted from the franchise, but why? Why do all this for seemingly no reason over a series that it wouldn’t have been much of a challenge to figure out an original story around?
And at last Thursday’s 10th annual Game Awards ceremony, we finally got our answer during the pre-show.
Yes, the reveal of PAC-MAN’s next playable endeavor turned out to be a tie-in game for the aforementioned episode of Secret Level. Or at least, that was how things seemed until a follow-up interview with Tim Miller on the episode was released following the announcement of Bandai Namco’s Shadow Labyrinth.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Miller revealed that while he and the Secret Level team were given full creative control of the episode, the developers wanted to possibly point them in a direction or two by revealing sneak peeks of Shadow Labyrinth as it was made. “What they showed us was so fucked up…[i]f you gave me a million years to guess what the next PAC-MAN game would be, I wouldn’t have got there.” Miller spoke, mirroring the sentiments of what many fans would be telling themselves during the Game Awards.
The announcement didn’t leave a bad taste in fans’ mouths or come at a bad time, it was just strange to announce in the way they did. Prior to its reveal, those involved with the Secret Level episode such as the protagonist’s voice actor Aleks Le claimed it was an original reinterpretation of the original game. And now that Shadow Labyrinth is out in the open, those involved claim it was actually the other way around. Those watching the Game Awards weren’t sure what to expect until Puck showed up on screen (or maybe Pooka and its iconic explosion sound effect from Dig-Dug). However, those watching Secret Level for the yellow circle knew what was coming the moment the Bandai Namco logo preceded the specific environment the reveal began with. What was perhaps stranger was Bandai Namco’s following announcement for a Netflix Games exclusive (???) from the creator of SEGA’s Shenmue and Virtua Fighter series, but that’s a topic for another day.
Amazon’s Secret Level launched on December 10th with its first eight episodes, and today is slated to release its final seven including those mentioned above, as well as ones based on games such as Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, and Honor of Kings.
Secret Level is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.