Ghosts (Pac-Man)

The Ghosts are the recurring antagonists in the Pac-Man franchise.

History
The enemies in Pac-Man are known variously as "ghosts," "goblins," and "monsters". Despite the seemingly random nature of the enemies, their movements are strictly deterministic, which players have used to their advantage. In an interview, creator Toru Iwatani stated that he had designed each enemy with its own distinct personality in order to keep the game from becoming impossibly difficult or boring to play. More recently, Iwatani described the enemy behaviors in more detail at the 2011 Game Developers Conference. He stated that the red enemy chases Pac-Man, and the pink and blue enemies try to position themselves in front of Pac-Man's mouth. Although he claimed that the orange enemy's behavior is random, a careful analysis of the game's code reveals that it actually chases Pac-Man most of the time, but also moves toward the lower-left corner of the maze when it gets too close to Pac-Man.

Known Ghosts
Below is the description of each Ghost.

Blinky
A red Ghost that is bad-tempered, bossy, crude, bratty, grouchy, dangerous, sarcastic, wimpy, and greedy. In the "Pac-Man World"-games this ghost is Clyde.

Blinky receives an speed boost after a number of pellets have been cleared. This mode has been informally referred to as "Cruise Elroy".

Inky
A cyan Ghost that is goofy, shy, and unpredictable

Pinky
A pink Ghost that is mischievous, persistent, and tricky. Pinky has a crush on Pac-Man.

Clyde
An orange Ghost that is ignorant, and goofy. In the animated series, he acts like the group. In the "Pac-Man World"-games this is Blinky.

Other Ghosts
As more Pac-Man games came out, more Ghosts have appeared:

Kinky
A yellow Ghost that appeared in Pac-Man Arrangement. He is also called Kinzo. Kinky is the scientist of the Ghosts who has the ability to combine with other Ghosts. When he combines with Blinky, Kinky becomes a bull-like ghost that can charge after Pac-Man. When he combines with Inky, Kinky's glasses appear on Inky's body. When he combines with Pinky, Kinky becomes a rabbit-like ghost that can hop from side to side. When he combines with Clyde, Kinky makes Clyde's body extremely large.

Orson
A greenish-gray intellectual Ghost who has reformed and is now an ally of Pac-Man.

Spooky
A dark gray Ghost in gray armor that is the King of the Ghosts in ancient times until he was sealed under Pac-Ville's largest tree by Sir Pac-A-Lot.

Funky
A jumping green Ghost that debuted in Pac-Mania. He has an interest in Sue.

Spunky
A jumping iron gray Ghost that debuted in Pac-Mania. She is a counterpart of Funky.

Sue
A female Ghost. In Ms. Pac-Man, Sue appeared alongside Blinky, Inky, and Pinky where she was an orange female Ghost counterpart of Clyde. In later Pac-Man games, Sue is a violet Ghost.

Tim
An orange Ghost that appeared exclusively as Clyde's replacement in Jr. Pac-Man.

Yum-Yum
A female red Ghost that debuted in Jr. Pac-Man. She is a relative of Blinky and has a romantic relationship with Jr. Pac-Man. Yum-Yum appears exclusively in Jr. Pac-Man's cutscenes.

In other media

 * Blinky, Inky, Pinky, Clyde, and Sue appear in the Pac-Man cartoon with Blinky and Pinky voiced by Chuck McCann, Inky voiced by Barry Gordon, Clyde voiced by Neil Ross, and Sue voiced by Susan Silo. The Ghost Monsters work for Mezmeron who assigns them the job of finding the Power Pellet Forest. In this cartoon, Clyde is the leader of the Ghost Monsters and gets annoyed with Inky's stupidity; Blinky is slow-witted, cowardly, and has grammar problems; Inky is dumb and loony; Pinky is slow-witted, tough, and can shapeshift; and Sue wore earings and was always defeated by Ms. Pac-Man. All of the male ghosts wore hats in the series. The episodes "Chomp Out Of the OK Corral" and "The Greatest Show In Pac-Land" featured the Ghost Monsters' 3-Year-Old Cousin named Dinky who was bratty & all the male ghosts can't stand him.


 * In the Tiny Toon Adventures episode "Gang Busters" Buster Bunny & Plucky Duck play Pac-Man using their eyeballs as the characters & Buster plays as the ghosts.


 * The ghosts appear in The Simpsons episode "Homer and Ned's Hail Mary Pass" were they are seen at Pac-Man's wedding. They also appear in the episode "I Married Marge" were Mr. Burns was playing Ms. Pac-Man and laughs when he eats the ghosts.


 * The Ghosts appear in the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II."


 * The Ghosts appear in the Family Guy episode "Stuck Together, Torn Apart" were they try to cheer up Pac-Man after Ms. Pac-Man left him. They are seen again in "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" were Stewie Griffin and Brian Griffin were playing Pac-Man. Brian tells Stewie to get the fruit, but Stewie says that there is a ghost in the way. In "Meet the Quagmires" the ghosts appear in the game Menstrual Ms. Pac-Man that Peter Griffin was playing. Ms. Pac-Man yells at the ghost for chasing her & the ghosts start complaining and swearing at her.


 * The Ghosts appear in the South Park trilogy "Imaginationland."


 * The Ghosts appear in the Robot Chicken episode "Tubba Bubba's Now Hubba-Hubba." In a segment that parodies Pac-Man with The Matrix, Pac-Man is seen fighting Inky and Pinky while in the Matrix and is shot. In "The Core, The Thief, His Wife, and His Lover," a segment parodying Ghost has Sam Wheat about to kiss Molly Jenson until he is eaten by Pac-Man. In "Fool's Goldfinger," the Ghosts appear with Pac-Man in a segment that details gay video game characters (though Pac-Man is not gay in real life). In "Butchered in Burbank," the Ghosts appear with Ms. Pac-Man and Pac-Man gets mad at them when they flirt with her.


 * Blinky, Inky, Pinky, and Clyde appear in Wreck-It Ralph. While Blinky, Inky, and Pinky appear in Game Central Station, Clyde (voiced by Kevin Deters) is shown to be the head of Bad-Anon (a support group for video game villains). When Wreck-It Ralph comments on how he doesn't want to be a villain anymore, Clyde is among the villains that react to this as he turns blue. After Wreck-It Ralph states how no villain gets any respect from the characters in the game that they are from, Clyde gets how he feels and that he'll have to accept what he is.


 * The Ghosts appear in the MAD segments "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Icarus" (where they were shown chasing Pac-Man) and ParaMorgan (where they were shown with other popular fictional ghosts).


 * The ghosts are set to appear in the upcoming TV series Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures.


 * The ghosts appear in the Annoying Orange episodes "Pacmania" and "TV OF TERROR".