Back in 1999, the original Pac-Man World was born. Pac-Man, no stranger by then to trying out different genres, joined the legion of 3D platformers that was sweeping through the gaming world. Now while Pac-Man World did ditch good old-fashioned 2D sprites for polygons and some leeway in the Z-axis, the game was and still is, primarily a 2D platformer.
The improbably named Tok-Man, who looks like a cheap steampunk knock-off of our hero, has sent his incompetent ghost goons to kidnap Pac-Man. But because they’re, well, incompetent, they instead bust in upon the makings of a party for Pac-Man and kidnap his entire extended family, and the dog too, simply because they all look the same. So Pac-Man sets off on an adventure to save his family and give Tok-Man the right royal whupping he deserves! Oh, and to eat a lot of ghosts in the process.
Wakka-Wakka!
It’s a simple enough setup to throw you into an adventure across Ghost Island and its various themed levels. There’s a pirate world, a funhouse world, an industrial world and, well, you get the idea. Ghost Island acts as a hub for you to journey into each of its themed levels. Each world is broken up into four levels, one of which is a boss fight, and completing one level unlocks the next and so. Complete two worlds and you get access to more worlds further on the island, before finally coming to the last world and the big bad who’s made you miss your cake.
Pac-Man has a charged-up dash, which can also be used to move platforms and a butt bounce that both flattens enemies and acts as a spring to push you higher into the air. You can chain bounces together, though the momentum does make continuous jumps slightly more imprecise. Nicely, Pac-Man can hang off the edges and pull himself up. Pellets are used to increase your score but also as a projectile attack and, if charged before thrown, an explosive. Rounding out his small but effective arsenal, are metal dots that turn you into metal Pac-Man for a short duration and power pellets to turn you into a giant, ghost nomming machine.
Levels are full of secrets and favour a fair amount of verticality along with backtracking, making them slightly more complicated than just pushing forward to the end. You can do that too, but then you’d be missing out on higher scores and some unlockables and chances at earning more lives. There’s a plethora of fruit to collect which is also used to unlock doors. Pac-Man’s name can be collected which gives you access to a bonus stage if you collect them all. The best unlockable though, are the themed mazes that play out like modified versions of Pac-Man’s original game design. Once unlocked, you can play them from the Hub area.
A Power Pellet A Day. . .
The level design itself, which does get harder as you go along, doesn’t do anything different from other platformers of this era. Where the game does show innovation is in the boss fights. Whether you’re bouncing cannonballs back at a sentient pirate ship, engaging in a Galaxian bullet hell fight or racing Mario Kart (or is that Pac-Kart?) style to the end of a level, the boss fights are fun and challengingly different.
If the game does get too difficult for you – and the later platforming sections can get slightly frustrating – there’s an Easy mode for you to drop into.
This remake is running on the Unity engine, bringing with it all the visual trappings of modern HD gaming. Assets have been rebuilt and the game sports a wonderfully clean visual aesthetic. The game also sports Resolution and Performance modes. In Resolution mode, the game runs at a higher resolution but with a slower frame rate and has some noticeable input lag, specifically when using Pac-Man’s bouncing move. Performance mode favours a faster, smoother frame rate with noticeable, more responsive input performance with a slight drop in resolution.
While the gameplay remains exactly the same, some changes have been made to the game’s visuals, opening cinematic and some of the levels. It’s not an entirely 100% accurate remake, but rather a spruced-up and improved one that makes the required changes where needed without sacrificing the core basics of the original.
It’s been nearly twenty years since I played the original Pac-Man World and during that time my memories of the game have faded, making playing the RePac edition feel as though I’m experiencing the game for the first time. While Pac-Man Word: RePac doesn’t reinvent the platforming wheel, it is a fun, challenging adventure with some great boss fights and a whimsical feel.
Fans of the original will feel like they’re revisiting an old friend with just enough of a fresh lick of paint to make the meeting exciting while new players if they can overlook the trappings of platformers past, will find a fun and entertainingly cheery game with one of gaming’s greatest and most cheerful ghost-busting characters.
Grab your copy here https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-games/PAC-MAN-WORLD-Re-PAC-2233046.html
Available on Nintendo Switch, Windows PC, Xbox and Playstation
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