History Fridge / Pixels

* There was actually a Smurfs games for the Atari and UsefulNotes/ColecoVision in the early eighties, hence the appearance of one among the aliens.

** Perhaps they were on a GenerationShip that was just looking to find a planet that could support life, unaware that there was already live on it (like in Literature/AuRora)

** Nah, they honored the 'rules of war' (AKA video game mechanics). They only launch a full scale attack after one of the protagonists used a cheat code. And leave peacefully after they lose. They even restore the Pac-Man developer's arm that was eaten.

*** Also, the president straight up says they have now talked to the aliens and cleared the misunderstanding (presumably using Q*Bert as a mediator).

* Why did Pac-Man bite off his creator's arm? That wasn't his creator, it was an actor. [[spoiler:The real Iwatani is actually a cameo in the film]].

* Also connected to Pac-Man, each of the four Arcaders have a car which best describes their patterns. Iwatani was driving Inky, who would follow Pac-Man, much like how he tried to approach Pac-Man. Blinky and Pinky, driven by the two Arcaders who are best friends, actually work together to trap Pac-Man - which leads to all three hits. Finally, Clyde, driven by [[spoiler:the cheating]] Eddie Plant, is the most erratic, which suits Eddie's [[spoiler:cheating nature at the time]].

** Nah, they honored the 'rules of war' (AKA video game mechanics). They only launch a full scale attack after [[spoiler:one of the protagonists used a cheat code]]. And leave peacefully after they lose. They even [[spoiler:restore the Pac-Man developer's arm that was eaten]].

*** Also, each game (VideoGame/{{Galaga}}, VideoGame/{{Arkanoid}}, VideoGame/{{Centipede}}, VideoGame/{{Pac Man}} and VideoGame/{{Donkey Kong}}) is considered a stage in a multiplayer game, with each side having three Lives. Earth loses the first two stages, losing two Lives in the process, but wins the third, taking a Life from the Invaders. Pac-Man went to Earth, taking away another Life, but [[spoiler:Eddie's cheating]] leads to the Invaders taking away Earth's last Life. However, the persistence of the Arcaders led to them being granted one last Life - which led to the battle with Donkey Kong, which they went on to win. Potentially also FridgeBrilliance as well?

* Based on the ArtisticLicenseAstronomy entry: What if the alien invaders were ''already'' within the solar system, hell-bent on exterminating humans (for whatever reason) and our space probe just gave them the excuse they needed and some super-cool ideas for how to go about it?

*** Also, each game (VideoGame/{{Galaga}}, VideoGame/{{Arkanoid}}, VideoGame/{{Centipede}}, VideoGame/{{Pac Man}} and VideoGame/{{Donkey Kong}}) is considered a stage in a multiplayer game, with each side having three Lives. Earth loses the first two stages, losing two Lives in the process, but wins the third, taking a Life from the Invaders. Pac-Man went to Earth, taking away another Life, but [[spoiler:Eddie's cheating]] leads to the Invaders taking away Earth's last Life. However, the persistence of the Arcaders led to them being granted one last Life - which led to the battle with Donkey Kong, which they went on to win. Potentially also FridgeBrilliance as well?

*** Also, each game (VideoGame/{{Galaga}}, VideoGame/{{Arkanoid}}, VideoGame/{{Centipede}}, VideoGame/{{Pac Man}} and VideoGame/{{Donkey Kong}}) is considered a stage in a multiplayer game, with each side having three Lives. Earth loses the first two stages, losing two Lives in the process, but wins the third, taking a Life from the Invaders. Pac-Man went to Earth, taking away another Life, but [[spoiler:Eddie's cheating]] leads to the Invaders taking away Earth's last Life. However, the persistence of the Arcaders led to them being granted one last Life - which led to the battle with Donkey Kong, which they went on to win. Potentially also FridgeBrilliance as well?

[[AC: Fridge Logic]]
* During the fight against Pac-Man, one character wins by using a cheat code to teleport his ghost car. There are several problems with this plot point. First, Pac-Man is an arcade game, and those games almost always disable any hypothetical cheat codes the developers may have put in (cheat codes are typically created to make things easier on the testers). Second, there's no reason for a game like Pac-Man to have a cheat code that only applies to an enemy. Third, It's stated that he also used this cheat code on a tournament, and somehow wasn't noticed by any of the thousands of people who watched it. Fourth, even if there was a cheat code in Pac-Man that allowed you to teleport a ghost, the ghost cars were just ordinary, earthling-made cars. There would be no way to input the cheat code on the car, and even if that was possible, it would still be impossible for a normal car to teleport by itself -- the aliens would have to teleport the car for him.
** Which on reflection would explain how the aliens knew he cheated, but also opens up the question of why they played along with it.
*** I think that NewPowersAsThePlotDemands and MST3KMantra explain this best.
** He probably took a shortcut through an alley that wasn't on the city street maps. Any actual "cheat code" use would have been to spoof the tracking system which the military was using to monitor the cars' locations. The aliens presumably hacked the feed and noted the discrepancy.

* There was actually a Smurfs games for the Atari and ColecoVision in the early eighties, hence the appearance of one among the aliens.

* Also connected to Pac-Man, each of the four Arcaders have a car which best describes their patterns. Iwatani was driving Inkey, who would follow Pac-Man, much like how he tried to approach Pac-Man. Blinky and Pinky, driven by the two Arcaders who are best friends, actually work together to trap Pac-Man - which leads to all three hits. Finally, Clyde, driven by [[spoiler:the cheating]] Eddie Plant, is the most erratic, which suits Eddie's [[spoiler:cheating nature at the time]].

*** I think that NewPowersAsThePlotDemands and MST3KMantra explain this best.

*** I think RuleOfCool and MST3KMantra explain this best.

** Which on reflection would explain how the aliens knew he cheated, but also opens up the question of why they played along with it.

* All the reviews complain about how women are only used as trophies in the movie. None of the actual trophies were women, and it can be argued that Q*bert changed into Lady Lisa by choice. The trophies in order were the Air Force sergeant, the Indian man, the dog from Duck Hunt, Q*bert, and [[spoiler: Matty due to Eddie Plant's cheating]].
** The reviews aren't talking about the literal trophies in the movie, they're talking about how the women on the movie are metaphorically treated by the writers as trophies for the male characters.
*** Or were they?

** Alternately, the aliens had no knowledge of who created those games on Earth, so the alien Pac-Man didn't care about someone claiming to be his "creator".

* Also connected to Pac-Man, each of the four Arcaders have a car which best describes their patterns. Iwatani was driving Inkey, who would follow Pac-Man, much like how he tried to... Well, this troper is not so sure how he'd fit, but we won't know due to how quickly he was taken out of the running. Blinky and Pinky, driven by the two Arcaders who are best friends, actually work together to trap Pac-Man - which leads to all three hits. Finally, Clide, driven by the [[spoiler:cheating]] Eddie Plant, is the most erratic, which suits Eddie's [[spoiler:cheating nature at the time]].

* There were actually a Smurfs games for the Atari and ColecoVision in the early eighties, hence the appearance of one among the aliens.

*** Also, each game (VideoGame/{{Galaga}}, VideoGame/{{Arkanoid}}, VideoGame/{{Centipede}}, VideoGame/{{Pac Man}} and VideoGame/{{Donkey Kong}}) is considered a stage in a multiplayer game, with each side having three Lives. Earth loses the first two stages, losing two Lives in the process, but wins the third, taking a Life from the Invaders. Pac-Man went to Earth, taking away another Life, but [[spoiler:Eddie's cheating]] leads to the Invaders taking away Earth's last Life. However, the persistence of the Arcaders led to them being granted one last Life - which led to the battle with Donkey Kong, which they went on to win. Potentially also [[FridgeBrilliance Fridge Brilliance]] as well?

** Changed by choice to have sex with Josh Gad? As if.

*** Also, each game ({{Galaga}}, {{Arkanoid}}, {{Centipede}}, {{Pac-Man}} and {{Donkey Kong}}) is considered a stage in a multiplayer game, with each side having three Lives. Earth loses the first two stages, losing two Lives in the process, but wins the third, taking a Life from the Invaders. Pac-Man went to Earth, taking away another Life, but [[spoiler:Eddie's cheating]] leads to the Invaders taking away Earth's last Life. However, the persistence of the Arcaders led to them being granted one last Life - which led to the battle with Donkey Kong, which they went on to win. Potentially also [[FridgeBrilliance Fridge Brilliance]] as well?

* There was actually a Smurfs game for the Atari in the early eighties, hence the appearance of one among the aliens.