Japan's Namco Museum Essentials is crossing the pond to America's PlayStation Network this July. The downloadable app will serve as a hub for various Namco arcade games, such as Pac-man, Galaga, Dig Dug, Dragon Spirit, Xevious, and a new 1080p "re-envisioned" Xevious: Resurrection. In addition to the standard gamut of features (trophies, leaderboards), players will be able to unlock PlayStation Home rewards to proudly display in their virtual apartments.

Namco Bandai will also be launching a new destination within PlayStation Home simultaneously with the release of Museum Essentials. It will serve as the hub for all of Namco Bandai's upcoming downloadable games and will include a virtual arcade featuring a trial version of Museum Essentials. In addition to the free demo, PlayStation Home items can be unlocked for those who visit the space. All in all, it looks as though Home fans (casual and hardcore) will have a lot to look forward to.

When video games collide with do-it-yourself know-how and just a little bit of magic, wonderful things happen. Case in point, just look at those Ms. Pac-Man shoes and Space Invaders soaps (which we have arranged in a single image for dramatic effect). With shoes like that, just walking becomes a game -- which it normally isn't, despite what Nintendo tells you -- as Pinky and Ms. Pac-Man engage in a cat-and-mouse chase all day long.

And then, when the long day is done and it's time to get clean, you'll have to defend yourself from a squadron of soapy space invaders. What better way to stave off the glycerine-infused hordes than to slowly melt them away until you have to snuff them out in the shower drain? Such is the fate of all soaps, but especially invading soaps from space.

Incidentally, if you want a pair of Ms. Pac-Man shoes of your own, the creators, Em & Sprout, have a few left in stock. There are a handful of Space Invaders soaps left too -- from the same company that brought us these -- so get a move on if you want some. Otherwise you'll have to hope they get restocked, or we suppose you could live without them.

[Via Wonderland]

Source: Em & Sprout - Ms Pac-Man Mary Janes
Source: Digital Soaps - Space Invaders soap set

Video games may hold the cure to the memory-plaguing Alzheimer's disease. It won't be Brain Age to the rescue, though. Classic 80s arcade icon Pac-Man holds a key in defeating the untreatable disease.

Researchers from Florida's Mayo Clinic have figured out a way to break down amyloid proteins associated with Alzheimer's. An insulin-degrading enzyme nicknamed "Pac-Man" works very much like the classic video game character by opening and closing, "gobbling up" amyloid proteins. Rebecca Wood, Chief Executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, called this new finding "fascinating," but noted that "the work is at very early stages in the laboratory."

We're all for naming potentially life-saving treatments after video game characters. Imagine the Katamari cure for cancer, or the Yoshi cure for the common cold. We're pretty sure even anti-game lobbyists would have to approve of our hobby then, right?

[Thanks, Andrew! (No, I'm not thanking myself.)]

When she's not busy appearing in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 or starring in commercials for amazing PS1 games, Jenny McCarthy is a gaming mom. Speaking to WhatTheyPlay this week, McCarthy says she started playing Pac-Man at the age of eight. "I even made my own Atari glove because I had blisters all over my hand from playing Pac-Man," she notes, saying her own mom bought her the game with an Atari 2600 as a reward for getting a vaccination shot.

While she claims she fell out of gaming because of "cheerleading and boys," gaming also apparently helped to keep her marriage to Double Dragon film star [actor] John Asher alive. "That's all we basically did; we just played video games. That saved our marriage -- playing video games." Her current significant other, Jim Carrey, reportedly has a Wii, though McCarthy says she's doing less gaming and more writing these days (having penned "six books in four years"). "I can't compete with these kids now. They've grown up with this kind of technology ... I'm like the brains behind the guy who's using the controller."

The benefits of Amazon.com's new Xbox Live Arcade Store continue to reveal themselves, as the two bestselling titles are Doom ($2.97) and Pac-Man C.E. ($4.97), both currently featured with discounted prices -- and both no-brainers for anyone who has previously passed on these two gems. Clearly, the Amazon option provides the possibility of more of these sweet discounts, in addition to perks like offering exact purchasing of games (instead of buying Microsoft Points in bulk), bonus money through participating credit cards, and potential sales tax dodging. But, a word to the wise: Check Amazon's prices against those listed on Xbox.com (80 Points = $1.00) before you buy, because some stated "discounts" are simply misleading.

Currently, at #6 on Amazon's XBLA bestseller list is the original Geometry Wars, which claims to be priced at a 50 percent discount -- wrong! Five dollars is the actual price of the game on Xbox Marketplace, and the presumed "broader" demographic now shopping for XBLA games on Amazon should be careful, as one would be better served to double down and purchase the superior sequel (#16 on the list) for ten. Alas, we're preaching to the choir here -- you, dear reader, already know this. (Whaddya gonna do, ya know?) Just take note of the real discounts, as they're good ones, and forget about those "others" being misled by the fake ones.

[Thanks, Chad]

With game applications taking up nearly half the list (12 of 25), the rankings for iPhone apps released this week by internet information company comScore may be aimed at advertisers, but tells us a ton about the newest gaming platform. For instance, of the 15 million iPhone users in the US, 32 percent (nearly one in every three) have installed Tap Tap Revenge, making it the most popular application by an ice cold five percent.

Furthermore, of the 12 game applications listed, 75 percent of them were developed by small startup companies or, in one case, a single individual. Actually, aside from Pac-Man, Hangman, Sudoku, and a version of Solitaire, all the games are original IP, with number one title Tap Tap Revenge serving as the prime example. We're starting to understand why the iPhone dominated the IGF this year and will likely continue to do so for years to come.

Do you ever find yourself with too much free time whilst trolling around on Facebook? Between writing ominous truths in our acquaintances' honesty boxes, and attempting to form La Résistance against the new new Facebook, our time is admittedly limited -- though we might try to pencil in a brief session with Namco's recently launched, Facebookified versions of Pac-Man and Dig Dug.

The two games have some neat additional functionality, such as the ability to track stats and achievements on your Facebook profile. Sadly, the games can't be played in-browser -- it requires a small download to play. Even sadder: It's not free. Bumping the game up from a trial version to full version costs $9.99. We'll stick to our honesty box assaults -- anonymously hurting people's feelings is free, and far more satisfying.

Hirokazu Yasuhara, who designed much of the original Sonic the Hedgehog at Sega and worked on Jak games and Uncharted for Naughty Dog, is now at Namco Bandai, and working on a new Pac-Man game, to celebrate the beloved circle's 30th anniversary in 2010.

Namco Bandai America's Makoto Iwai told Gamasutra, "As a group, we feel like we should do something to make him come back. So, there's one project that we started working on, and [Yasuhara is] part of it." Iwai said that the new game design was "sort of meeting his wish 100 percent, in a sense," referring to an earlier statement by Yasuhara that he wanted to make a new character action game.

Does Pac-Man's original maze-style gameplay count as "character action," or do we have a new Pac-Land sort of affair to look forward to? After the last Pac-Man game, we will eagerly devour whatever delicious fruit (by which we mean games) Namco Bandai sends out into the maze (by which we mean, um, the retail or downloadable market).

As Hollywood continues to deny us the Vin Diesel-starring Pac-Man feature film we all know is coming, amateurs have filled in the gap with their own takes on how gaming's pizza-shaped patriarch could make the leap to the big screen.

We've already seen Pac-Man the action hero, now Tyler Russel and Stanley Wong bring us a much more honest, unflinching vision: Pac-Man unstoppable force of saffron terror. Watch what happens when four innocent ghosts are terrorized by the insatiable yellow menace, but be warned: It isn't pretty.

Sure, they think they'll get her, but truth is, she's got a power pellet hidden under that coat. (Via WebUrbanist; thanks, Sam) Check out the highlights for today:

Joystiquery
Podcast Rodeo for August 5: Ear Factor

News
Mega Man 9 getting intentional bugs, flicker
'Bikini Samurai Squad' slashes Stateside on 360
Times: iPhone could be in 'same league' as DS, PSP
Atlus to inject PS2 with Eternal Poison this November
Warhawk Trophy patch goes online Aug 27
Avary is working on Wolfenstein flick 'right now'
Left 4 Dead on PS3? 4geddaboudit ... 4 now
Xbox 360 Avatars only in 'E' titles
Final Fantasy XIII coming to Xbox 360 in Taiwan
Ken Levine dances around new project
Stuff Magazine reveals new Guitar Hero World Tour tracks
Got some cash? Valve 'happy' to talk acquisition
ESA receives $282,794 reimbursement from California
Media Molecule teases new LittleBigPlanet reveal
Hell hath no Fury, neither does anyone else now
THQ boss declares console cycles dead
Metal Gear brings in solid profits for Konami Q1
BioWare envisions console-specific Dragon Age
Gears of War 2 to feature optional gore filter
Wahlberg: Max Payne 'is my favourite role so far'
Capcom: Spyborgs undergoing 'significant overhaul'
Deca Sports reaches 700,000 units shipped
NCSoft summons its chi for martial arts MMO
Some humans destroy Destroy All Humans! PSP
Half of Rare working on secret projects
LucasArts hiring testers for extra-super-secret MMO
Burnout Paradise 'Bikes Pack' throttles back to September
Carmack turned down Quake MMO offers

Rumors & Speculation
Rumor: Concept art from Halo: Fall of Reach movie
Rumor: GTA Chinatown Wars detailed in survey
Rumor: Rock Band 2 an Xbox 360 exclusive for just one month

Culture & Community
Diablo designer judging fan art for MTV
E3 awards: Fallout 3 = Best of Show; LittleBigPlanet = Best Console game
Wii hack zaps annoying health warning, region coding

If you're one of the few that's already in the Home beta, you may have already experienced the underwhelming virtual arcade, located in the Games Space within Home. The new version being released for Japan will expand the arcade offerings, and the new choices look yummy. Namco Bandai is offering seven games within Home, with four revealed already: Dig Dug, Galaga, Pac-Man and Xevious. Three more "secret" games will be revealed later.

More intriguing, a 2D Home-exclusive version of echochrome can also be accessed from within Home. With more and more game offerings being added to the online service, we're confident that everyone will want to access the virtual world at least once -- if only to play these games.

[Via Joystiq & Siliconera]

Sony has begun accepting applications for the next beta phase of Home ... in Japan. PS3 users can put their names in the hat (from which 10,000 will be chosen) directly from a new option in the Japanese PlayStation Store. Successful applicants will be notified via email before the beta officially kicks off at the end of August.

In related news, classic arcade games from Namco are showing up as virtual coin-ops in the Japanese Home client. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, and Xevious have been rolled out so far, with three "secret" titles still on the way. It's interesting to note that Home users – at least in the beta – can play these games for free, whereas they are paid downloads on Xbox Live Arcade. We'll have to wait and see if this holds true for Home games from Namco and other publishers in the open beta (which is supposed to hit by year's end).

Source – Engadget
Source – Siliconera

Okay, so Sony's upcoming PSN release, The Last Guy, isn't anything like what we speculated it might be. In fact, the game is incredibly simple looking, although, through an interesting twist, it has a grandiose scale. The game's creators have used Google Earth satellite imagery to build its stages, turning actual streets into Pac-Man like mazes where players will be chased by some monsters and headed off at intersections by others as they lead survivors to "escape zones."

If Sony's clever, it's built the game to change over time as the real-world cityscape does – but that's just our hopefulness. If not, maybe it's saving that for a sequel prequel called The Next-to-Last Guy. While we dream, The Last Guy will hit the Japanese PlayStation Store on July 31 for 500 Yen (about $4.75). It looks like a totally bonkers romp that'd go over well in the West with some localized city maps.

[Via Siliconera]

What are these perfect for? Making a fabric-based stop-motion Mario animation, that's what. This latest batch of buttons from Etsy craftsman Spooon features easily movable characters and items, each faithfully recreated from original NES sprites. Why, nab a set of these handy control buttons, and you'll have hours of fun manually moving our plucky hero through all kinds of pinning adventures.

Better yet, Spooon also whipped up a bunch of magnets featuring Space Invaders and Pac-man characters, so there's no real need to ever leave your kitchen. Sit by the fridge and enjoy! The sets are available in button ($8) or magnet ($10) form, so the choice of creating a retro fridge or bag is entirely up to you. The store is open for business, so take a crafty trip down nostalgia street.

[Via technabob]

The Castlevania film adaptation is stepping back into the limelight, and it's bringing a rather bizarre friend with him. Crystal Sky Pictures has signed a "$200 million theatrical slate financing deal" with Grosvenor Park to produce five films, according to Variety, with two of those being Castlevania and -- no, really! -- Pac-Man.

Originally penned by Paul W.S. "I didn't make Boogie Nights" Anderson (Resident Evil), Castlevania was put on hold during the writer's strike. The adaptation is still being co-produced by Rogue Pictures. Crystal Sky Pictures is also producing the Tekken film with Sony's Screen Gems.

If anyone's curious, here's our pitch for Pac-Man: The Film:

It's the year 2185. Human life has been all but eradicated, and sole survivors scramble to collect resources in a labyrinthine cave of unknown secrets. Using their spherical harvesting pods, each team takes a turn gathering. But something goes horribly wrong as one expedition team gets trapped and is forced to finish its mission while running away from haunting memories of the past...