Secret Level – Episode 6 “Pac-Man” Recap & Review

Pac-Man

Bet you didn’t have a Pac-Man episode on your bingo cards today, right? But alas, here we are. Episode 6 of Secret Level whisks us off to an alternate world, where a test-tube cracks open and paves way for a humanoid creature to awaken. An AI construct called Puck shows and points out that he’s the Chosen, and only he can escape the maze.

Sporting a robe, the Chosen heads out into a vast jungle full of fruit (the same ones you collect in-game). He also soon finds a sword too. His purpose here is to eat, or face being eaten. The subtitles list this guy as Swordsman so that seems like a good enough name for our protagonist!

Swordsman soon finds himself thrust into this manic world, with creatures of varying sizes attacking him. Swordsman continues to run from the Ghosts, but Puck believes that he can thwart them by eating the foes. However, he’s also told not to eat their eyes.

After eating heartily, Swordsman shows up at a temple, where it’s easily defeated. However, Puck suddenly sprouts a mouth and ends up inside the humanoid. It embraces the creature, growing monstrously large. As it approaches the end of the maze, Swordsman reaches inside and pulls Puck out of his chest, killing himself in the process.

The maze closes, and Puck headbutts the door constantly, pointing out that there’s “strength in repetition”.

The Episode Review

This is one of the more unusual and unique episodes in Secret Level and it works surprisingly well. The idea of turning Pac-Man into this dystopian nightmare where there’s no way out, and Puck is this sinister, horrific creature hell-bent on escaping no matter what, is a nice way of changing the dynamic of the game.

The animation is great across the board too and there are a lot of nods to the game. Personally, I feel like the sword should have been changed for some sort of relic, just so it harks back to the game, and upon holding this relic, make the wearer invincible, but that’s a minor quibble in what’s otherwise an enjoyable slice of animation. Will Puck ever escape the maze?