Pac-Man finds his voice

By Ellie Gibson Published 27 October, 2005

Well, borrows some actor's.

Pac-Man has never been the most vocal of characters, having had nothing much to say for himself other than the odd "wocka wocka" for the past two and a half decades.

But to celebrate his 25th birthday, Namco is giving our pill popping friend a very special gift - the power of speech.

Actor Martin Sherman, whose performance credits include Gangs of New York, Band of Brothers and Batman Begins, will provide the yellow fella's voice in Pac-Man World 3 - much to the delight of Mark Estdale, the CEO for voice production company Outsource Media.

"Casting a voice for such a gaming icon was a challenge. I was expecting to just deal with his half-eaten cheeseness, "wocka wocka’" and his icon status but thankfully we were given a well-written and crafted script with lots of character to base the casting on," Estdale said.

"We whittled down 300 possibles to a short list of 15. Then working from the script we auditioned all the actors we felt could bring Pac-Man to life. The holy grail of casting is to find the voice that energises the character within the context and makes the character easy to identify with. Martin nailed him from the get go."

Sherman, who has also done voice overs for Second Sight, Timesplitters: Future Perfect and Driv3r, had this to say: "I’ve been the voice of many different characters but Pac-Man is without doubt the most fun and the most difficult - I mean, what is a yellow, ghost-eating circle supposed to sound like?

"Me, apparently! I had a great time recording this voice and can’t wait to see how people react to it."

Apparently Pac-Man will talk throughout the game, providing backstory information and interacting with other characters. You'll be able to hear what he sounds like in January, when Pac-Man World 3 is released on PC, PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PSP and DS.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Razz #1 6 years ago

    Of course it is!!! Pacman is one of most famous game characters ever. Recognised by 100's of millions of people!

  • Psi #2 6 years ago

    ...sorry this is like sooty rapping ffs it just doesn't work!

  • sickpuppysoftware #3 6 years ago

    Didn't pacman speak in the cartoon?

  • jiveguy #4 6 years ago

    Does pacman have lips?

  • RedboX #5 6 years ago

    this will be the same voiceless Pacman who used Marty Ingels's voice in the 80's cartoon of the same name?

  • smelly #6 6 years ago

    he spoke in futurama.. wacka wacka wacka...

    so.. deep growly voice? or high pitched mario style voice?

    Whatcha reacon?

  • Razz #7 6 years ago

    "this will be the same voiceless Pacman who used Marty Ingels's voice in the 80's cartoon of the same name? "

    Eurogamer sensationilism strikes again! :D

  • smelly #8 6 years ago

    "Eurogamer sensationilism strikes again"

    Bloody fanboys the lot of them! ;-)

  • Blerk #9 6 years ago

    But will he say 'bitch'? :-)

  • Razz #10 6 years ago

    Blerk. Your going to hell, you know that don't you? The Devil is waiting for you.

  • Blerk #11 6 years ago

    Yeah, I'll kick his lily arse. The big ponce.

  • Kiigan #12 6 years ago

    Pac Man doesn't speak. He also doesn't have arms, or eyes, or legs, or a goddamn hat. Leave him alone please!

  • symmetry #13 6 years ago

    DIE Pac-man, DIE!

    BLAM!

    And you Mario!

    BLAM!

    Come get some Donkey Kong!

    BLAM! BLAM!

    And your son!

    BLAM!

  • Huntcjna #14 6 years ago

    If hes not being voiced by fozy bear from the muppets then I am writing a letter of complaint to namco.

  • Fatfish #15 6 years ago

    quote from article - "...our pill popping friend..."

    CNN headline - 'Jack Thompson continues attack on video games industry, now claiming they don't just encourage violence, they promote the use of illicit drugs too'......

    All I can say is, hook me up and rack me out another line.... ;)

    Wocka, wocka, wocka (a la Fozzy bear).

    Edited by 1 at 27/10/05 @ 14:20

  • ecureuil #16 6 years ago

    What is it with developers having to make some stupid backstory to everything? It's been said many times before - we don't need to know why Pacman eats the dots, or why the little monkeys are in balls trying to collect bananas. Can't a game just be a game these days? Pacman does not need a voice, he never needed one and this is a waste of time.

  • rinoaMW #17 6 years ago

    Its true Manic, the public don't know anything about the external presures from customers and publishers on dev studios, its the way its always been it will never change. As long as they are allowed to bitch about it in some open forum then what do they care anyway?

    To be honest, he had to find his voice sooner or later, its called character development. In thE 8bit era it was a two-tone blip that sounded like a "Wakka". As far as i am aware (from what ive seen in video's of this and the earlier incarnations of it, as ive never played any of the games) he still does the traditonal "Wakka" when he eats a pill. Thats called heritage, and Pac-man fanboys will love it. The fact that he now talks as well, just brings him out of that 8bit era and into the 21st century.

    I don't think it will kill the series now Pac Man has been given a voice, after all Jak didn't find his till the 2nd game in the series... Maybe the old 'yella fella' is a bit late and behind the times, but i for one am glad that the devs have the conviction to make a stand, after all it can't be easy to give a voice to such an iconic and influential game character...

  • rinoaMW #18 6 years ago

    youre right Big_Bad_Blonde, it was originally "Puck-man", but was changed for the american market when it was that that the 80's american youth, with a small amount of creative input, might have graffiti'd it into something alittle less wholesome...

  • luisalis #19 6 years ago

    wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka wocka

  • louyfitz #20 6 years ago

    Oh no! I really don't like this idea, I mean some things shouldn't be changed.

    u wouldn't shave off Mazza's 'stash would ya???
    Edited by 1 at 28/10/05 @ 12:31