Secret Level reinterprets Pac-Man through a creepy Black Mirror lens

Prime Videos Secret level does primarily numbers-based, brand-friendly tweaks to gaming features, such as Unreal tournament, Dungeons and dragonsAnd Warhammer 40,000 in his 15 animated short films. Not so because of the way it is adopted Pac Mana game that the show’s creators reimagined in the most gruesome way possible. That episode, “Circle,” might be Secret level‘s most viscerally violent take on a beloved gaming franchise.

It is also the Secret level episode that strays furthest from the source material: an abstract, story-free, 40-year-old arcade game. This makes it one of the most intriguing animated short films from the anthology.

“Circle” interprets the concepts of Pac-Man – food, ghosts, endless series of mazes – in a very liberal way. The episode focuses on a reluctant warrior who is brought out of hibernation and ordered to eat (and eat, and eat) his prey to grow stronger so he can survive the deadly flora and fauna of a strange alien planet. Guiding that warrior to consume and find a way out of a figurative maze is a golden orb named Puck.

Puck, played by The MandalorianEmily’s Emily Swallow is clearly telegraphed as a cold, mercenary swordsman from the episode. But it is not clear what extreme lengths she is willing to go to in the name of her survival, and what the struggle of the maze is. Real means until the final moments of the episode. Like many Netflix episodes, it’s bleak Black mirror“Circle” makes viewers feel like they’ve been punched in the gut at the end. And any kids who go looking for a cute Pac-Man TV show will probably be traumatized by it Secret level‘s choices.

But ‘Circle’ remains true to the themes of Pac Man in broad terms. Dropped into a dark world with seemingly no clear exit, the swordsman fights his way through his enemies, hoping to quench an unquenchable thirst. It’s just not that are hunger that drives the action, it belongs to Puck.

With survival games and roguelikes still very much in vogue, perhaps the people who make Pac-Man will find a whole new audience thanks to Secret level. As far as game-to-TV adaptations go, this one feels like a pretty good inspiration for a new take on Pac-Man for audiences with a taste for gore. It’s at least the only episode of it Secret level that will spark the most conversations, if only because of how wild the swing was in adapting a beloved and family-friendly mascot like Pac-Man.

The first eight episodes of Secret level are now streaming on Prime Video. New episodes will be released on December 17.