Google Celebrates Pac-Man’s 30th Birthday with Playable Pac-Man Logo

What’s the best way for Google to celebrate the 30th anniversary of one of the most beloved and recognizable video game characters in the world? Why, make a Google logo that looks like a Pac-Man map. And hell, why not make it playable? And on top of that, why not make it co-op to?

Head on over to Google and you’ll see the above logo. Clicking once on the “Insert Coin” button allows you to play a game of Google Pac-Man using the arrow keys (or, I’m told, swipes for you iPhone users). Clicking the button a second time allows you or a friend to jump in as Ms. Pac-Man using the WASD control method.

Google’s press release had this to say about the programming of the logo/game:

To pay the homage that Pac-Man deserves as a ground-breaking innovation in the gaming world, Google equipped the doodle with many unique characteristics from the original Pac-Man game. From preserving the distinct personalities of the ghosts Inky (blue: fickle), Blinky (red: chaser), Pinky (pink: ambusher) and Clyde (orange: slow) to re-creating programming bugs from the original game like a “kill screen” on level 256, Sr. User Experience designer at Google, Marcin Wichary, along with Google doodler, Ryan Germick, remained as faithful to the spirit of Pac-Man as possible.

So enjoy Google Pac-Man while you can folks, it’ll be nothing more than a memory tomorrow.