I rarely shovel snow, and when I do get the odd bit of it here in the UK, it's hardly enough to justify buying a snow blower, let alone spending $6,399 on a robot to do it for me. But Yarbo has just put one of my favourite retro games, Pac-Man, on one of its autonomous snow-clearing machines and, well, I want one. I can't really explain why, other than that watching a giant yellow arcade character trundle around the driveway eating snow is more appealing than watching a normal snow blower do its thing, or plodding around myself with a shovel.
The Yarbo x Pac-Man machine is a limited-edition version of the company's Y40 Core and Snow Blower Gen 2, bringing the familiar arcade look to a machine that can navigate a designated area and clear snow without you having to stand outside in the cold. It uses tracked movement, RTK-GPS positioning, and intelligent path planning, plus a two-stage snow-throwing system designed to tackle everything from light cover to deep, wet snow. It can also recharge and pick up where it left off, something I can't say for myself after five minutes with a shovel.
Serious machinery sits beneath the nostalgia, but the Pac-Man bit makes me stop and look. Yarbo could have sold this as another expensive bit of outdoor tech, with all the usual talk of automation and saving time, but instead it's given the thing a character most of us recognise from an arcade cabinet, an old console or that period when games were something you played in the pub while waiting for your food. It's the sort of instantly recognisable design that makes Pac-Man one of gaming's most memorable logos.
Yarbo plays on my gaming nostalgia
The full system costs $6,399 and is available through Yarbo's website and Amazon. It's not coming to the UK, at least for now. Buy an eligible system between 22 October and 2 November, and you'll also get a plough blade thrown in, a rather practical extra for a machine dressed up as a video game character.
Pac-Man celebrated its 45th anniversary last year, and here in the UK we could run around a real maze in a very British bit of in-real-life lunacy. The character has spent decades escaping the maze and has turned up in just about everything, from unexpected design Easter eggs to the odd Pac-Man Google Doodle that can swallow an entire morning. A robotic snow blower is still a fairly unexpected destination, though, and I'm curious how many people will look at this and start imagining one in their own garden.
That's the funny thing about nostalgia branding. Brands are increasingly using nostalgia to hook us, and I can see why it works here. I don't need this machine, I don't have the weather for it, and I can't imagine ever making a sensible argument for spending that much money on one. But make it look like Pac-Man, and suddenly I'm picturing it scooting around the driveway, chomping through snow while I watch from the warmth indoors. Now give me a Kirby robot that hoovers up cut grass, and let's really see where this tech game's branding can go.
Take a look at limited edition Yarbo x Pac-Man.
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Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creative Bloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and video game titles Play and Official PlayStation Magazine. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on digital art, VFX and video games and tech, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5.