ReMix:Pac-Man "You Had Me at Yellow" 5:55

Happy Birthday, Pac-Man!

Pac-Man's 42 years young today, eternally yellow, circular, and hungry! We celebrate with a double-barrel blast of OCR newcomers honoring the Namco arcade game's legendary quarter- and Power Pellet-eater!

If you've heard "Glass Cage" by Israfel, then you're aware that it's actually possible to get a LOT of mileage out of the blink(y)-and-you'll miss it start theme. (If you haven't heard it, leave for that link, go fix that, and come on back!) Whereas GreatBlakes went half-time in "Vice," our second Puck-Man tribute is a grand glitchy affair by Bortcle, who got old man Larry over here laughing at the ReMix title as if I'd never heard a corny Dad joke in my life. :-P The ReMixer, clocking in with a wild, nearly 6-minute bull ride, writes in:

"Actually, I am also inspired by the Pac-Man World 2 & 3 games' gameplay sound effects for making this remix, however the original start-up and intermission themes are what those are derived from anyway, so they still remain the clearly thematic arps featured in this remix."

When you've evaluated thousands of video game arrangements like I have, you already know a familiar musician's adage: it ain't the sounds you use, it's how you use 'em. The sound palette's got a lot of familiar bread-and-butter components, but the way it's assembled and produced absolutely bowled over the judges, including prophetik music:

"oh, this is really fun. tons of source right off the bat, big fat soundscape. love the super fat sidechaining. i appreciate that there's a lot of changing textures and creative synth work to keep it moving. there's so many crazy shifts everywhere that it's hard to point one that i really like the most, but i think my favorite part is the clicky kick that's throughout. arrangement is great - usually five seconds of melodic content and a five-minute mix is a recipe for copypasta, but this is fresh and creative to the last few seconds."

Meanwhile, UK judge DarkSim couldn't help wrap up the decision without invoking one of Pac-Man's classic fruit flavors:

"What a joy! Everything about this had me smiling, from the title, through the saccharine intro, the psytrance middle section, and out the other side again.

No problems with the intro synth - it reminds me of Benny Benassi's 'Satisfaction'. Proper twisted saws there. The compression is almost comically high, although definitely intentional, and just serves to highlight what an absolutely in-your-face track this is. It's a bold move, as pushing the limits so hard means your sound design and production has nowhere to hide, but fortunately everything is on point here. The drop at 2:26 is pure filth. The beat switch at 3:17 is madness. It's hard to pick a favourite part of this - there are so many cherries on the top of this ReMix, you'll be chasing them around for many listens to come."

Nice work celebrating Pac-Man's big 4-2 by putting our birthday boy through the Bortcle blender; this is an absolute must-listen, don't ghost this track (HEY, you see what I did there? :-D)! Be sure to enjoy these two new & unique ways from GreatBlakes and Bortcle to honor Toshio Kai's unforgettable jingle, a brief yet bedrock piece of the history of video game music!