ive never played this but the extremely strange adventure game (?!) Pac Man 2 The New Adventures is clearly riffing on/trying to elaborate on its visual style & perspective on the Pac-Man
Namco was really trying to figure out “what defines Pac as a mascot character in the Mario/Sonic era?” and i guess for awhile they hit on “smiling dipshit round man who runs around doing stuff out of your direct control”