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Fellow 80s kids, our old friend Pac-Man is back. And how is he already 45 years old? New Halloween google doodle Here to challenge us with a scary version of the arcade classic game On our computers and other devices, with some fun twists.
Pac-Man himself is shown wearing various Halloween costumes, and the energy pellets he chews are bloodshot eyeballs. The revived version of the game celebrates Pac-Man’s 45th anniversary, which can’t be right, because that means I’m no longer 12, but… uh, forget I said anything.
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When I first played Google’s Halloween 2025 Doodle game, Pac-Man was dressed as a mummy, but when I played again later, he was dressed as a frog and later appeared wearing a strawberry hat. Keep updating – you may see additional Halloween costumes. He’ll probably get them all at Spirit Halloween.
Read more: The best games of 2025 so far
In the past, I’ve put a lot of games in the arcades at Maplewood Mall in Minnesota, but I’ve never really gotten over a Pac-Man game, as much as I loved it. I’m not much better at the Google Doodle version. It’s a real challenge on desktop, where you have to use the arrow keys to keep Pac-Man moving.
My CNET colleague John Skillings was relieved to find an easier way to play.
“On a phone or iPad, Pac-Man graphics just need to move your finger across the touchscreen,” he said. “Much better!”
Eight levels? I didn’t even finish one!
Pac-Man Google Doodle features eight levels, four of which are unique haunted house mazes. I couldn’t even pass one, but your mileage may vary.
“Pay close attention inside each house, as its design directly reflects the personality of the iconic ghost that haunts it,” Google says on its Doodle page.
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the Google Doodle trend in 1998 when they went to Burning Man. They redesigned the Google search engine logo with a simple stick figure graphic behind the second “o” in the word Google, meaning it’s an out-of-office message.
Since then, Google Doodles have become more elaborate, honoring everything from space missions to the invention of the bar code, and often including games and interactive elements. Pac-Man has made its way to Google Doodle before, starting in 2010 To celebrate the game’s 30th anniversary.
Arcade machines may come and go, but the ghosts of games past live on forever.