My game analysis side is starting to seep into my recent obsession with Pac-Man 2, and now I'm realising that despite the joke people often parrot about PM2 being that it's unrecognisably distant to the original Pac-Man game, it's actually a game that better represents the soul of the first game than the World games or the current day maze games: a concept so kooky, experimental, and niche - counter-cultural even - that nobody could imagine it working without hindsight or playing the game for themselves.
That's the future I want for the Pac-Man IP: not more platformers or more mazes but rather a platform for the experimental, absurd, and wonderful ideas nobody would want to play without an iconic character on the box-er, download page PNG. Time's-a-changing. I have no ideas what these ideas would be, but that proves my point if anything: make Pac-Man the jack of all trades with an unexpected, bizarre trick at every turn.