Namco Films

Background
Namco Films was the short-lived movie production of Japanese entertainment company Namco (now part of Bandai Namco). Their only production was Mirai Ninja (retitled Cyber Ninja in the United States, Warlord in Canada, and Robo Ninja in the UK), notable for being the very first film adaptation of a video game.

(October 1988)


Nickname: "Space Pac-Man"

Logo: On a black space background, the camera spans around space until, out of almost nowhere, Pac-Man, Namco's official mascot and the title character from the legendary video game, floats out from the screen away from us. Jumping down, he lands on the "NAMCO" logo letters, and the first three light up, but he leaves the C and O, but they light up by themselves. The company sign logo turns 90 degrees to the right to face us. Then, from the left, Pac-Man jumps on top of the logo (a la the Marvel Productions "CGI Spidey" logo) and happily gives his regular pose to the camera, holding his hand up. The Namco letters then shine.

FX/SFX: CGI animation; quite an early method for its time.

Music/Sounds: Starts with a synth rock guitar chord with whooshing sounds for Pac-Man's appearance. Three small synth trumpets note are played in tune to Pac-Man's steps. We end we a synth horn fanfare and a video game-like sound for the letters.

Availability: Extremely rare. Only known to appear on the aforementioned Mirai Ninja and its respective localizations, which are available on both VHS and DVD.

Editor's Note: None.