- blink-182 teamed up with PAC-MAN to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their 2001 hit album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.
- Fans can play a custom browser game featuring band-themed Easter eggs, such as the blue van from "The Rock Show," with optional music streaming.
- Band members star in a special episode of the animated YouTube series PAC-MAN: Snack Breaks, alongside a capsule drop of apparel and limited vinyl.
- This marks the first official brand partnership between blink-182 and PAC-MAN, following Mark Hoppus' viral Coachella 2023 arcade tee.
Pop-punk icons blink-182 have officially partnered with arcade legend PAC-MAN and Bandai Namco Entertainment to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their 2001 album, Take Off Your Pants and Jacket. The joint campaign includes an interactive browser game, a dedicated animated short, and limited-edition merchandise.
Available directly on the band’s website, the custom web game drops players into a retro maze filled with blink-182 Easter eggs, including bonus pickups and the blue van from “The Rock Show” music video. Players can also stream blink-182 tracks while navigating the maze.
The launch also features a band-centered episode of the YouTube animated series PAC-MAN: Snack Breaks, developed with animation studio Cartuna, starring animated caricatures of Mark Hoppus, Tom DeLonge, and Travis Barker.
The collaboration debuted earlier this summer at San Diego Comic-Con with an arcade booth, an exclusive vinyl pressing from Blood Records, and the official release of the PAC-MAN and 7-Eleven shirt Hoppus famously wore during the band’s Coachella 2023 reunion set.
This gaming crossover aligns with wider entertainment trends where musicians use interactive titles to deepen fan engagement. The campaign parallels how Travis Scott partnered with Rockstar Games for a GTA VI collaboration to tap core gamers, and how Joe Jonas partnered with Hay Day for the cozy anthem in-game music campaign to blend original music with digital gameplay.
This activation marks blink-182’s first official corporate partnership with PAC-MAN. Outside of this deal, DeLonge maintains signature instrument lines with Fender, while Barker has long partnered with footwear label DVS Shoes.
PAC-MAN holds its own history with top recording artists, having previously released a collaboration track with Gorillaz and apparel collections with DJ Steve Aoki.
The campaign arrives during a high-profile period for blink-182. Following their chart-topping reunion project One More Time…, the group reissued an expanded digital edition of Take Off Your Pants and Jacket with six bonus tracks. The trio has also booked headline slots at major European festivals, including Rock am Ring, Rock im Park, and Rock for People.
Takeaways
This partnership shows how heritage rock bands can celebrate career milestones without relying solely on standard physical album reissues.
By integrating the 25th anniversary of Take Off Your Pants and Jacket into a playable browser game and animated series, blink-182 and Bandai Namco give longtime fans an interactive playground while introducing early-2000s skate-punk aesthetics to gaming audiences.
Capitalizing on Mark Hoppus’s organic Coachella wardrobe moment also illustrates the value of turning spontaneous pop-culture viral moments into fully realized commercial campaigns.
What other classic 2000s alternative rock album would make a great retro video game crossover? Which blink-182 track fits best when escaping ghosts inside the PAC-MAN maze?
