Pac Man World 2 review

I'm just gonna be honest, this was the only Pac Man World game I ever played. I never had a PlayStation, and I had no interest, let alone the knowledge on the later titles, and for better or worse, I never played the Game Boy Advance adaptations. Naturally I'm the best candidate to do a review on a game in the series while giving a cliff-note take on the franchise itself.

Pac-History

Pac Man is a simple arcade game. No matter the version, it kept its core structure, gobble up the dots and the occasional power pellet and repeat until you die enough times. Over the years, more games were introduced and attempted to try new things to spice the series up. Ms. Pac Man, beyond a gender-swapped character headlining, had a color-swapped maze and moving fruits (obviously they were stationary in the original Pac-Man.), Pac & Pal had a female ghost take items from around the maze, though ironically this helps you clear the level (minus whatever points you would've received of course), Pac Man Jr. utilized a much wider board and Baby Pac Man had a pinball section which when played, affects what turns up in the maze portion, and Pac Mania gave you the ability to jump, had more ghosts and a 3D motif, and that's just going by the arcade versions.

The console games are, relatively, a different story. They abandoned the maze motif almost flat out, almost as if straight-up Pac Man games were tainted by a certain company way back when. Some were pretty cool, Pac Attack especially, but trust me, duds exist, I'm looking at you Pac Man 2: The New Adventures, with your mildly intuitive point and click nature, it's amazing how this had the audacity to declare itself a sequel, like this was the direction Namco wanted to go, and yes, Namco developed and published the game wholesale. There was also Pac in Time, which I never heard of but discovered that it was a re-skin of an older title by its developer Kalisto.

In 1999, to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of our beloved ghost gobbler, Namco went for their most ambitious Pac Man game yet. Within the late-90s where many game characters were making the leap to 3D, starting with Mario in 96' (along with Bubsy but who gives a shit), Sonic in 98' (by official standards, Sonic Jam was first but that was just a selection aesthetic with small mini games as part of a compilation), and Pac-Man thew its hat into the ring as well, and well, people loved it. It was essentially an expansion on what was established in Pac-Man, keeping it within the sensibilities of 3D games, gotta have story and whatever else was mandatory at the time.

The first went over well, so a sequel was inevitable. After a number of compilations and otherwise forgettable titles, we got Pac Man World 2 in 2002. The game sold well, becoming players choice titles for the GameCube, XBOX and PlayStation 2. I bring this up because I actually owned the Player's Choice copy of Pac Man World 2. To get you up to speed, that copy gave you this game, as well as a co-op version of Pac-Man, Pac-Man Vs. (to sum up, you need a Game Boy Advance link cable, it seemed like it would be possible to just play with four players, but I guess they just saw an opportunity and went for it.)

Premise

During a sleepy night in Pac-Village, our classic rogues gallery of ghosts, Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde venture around seeking to cause mischief. They discover a tree in the middle of the village, bearing five golden fruits, and they take them. Rather than just run away with them knowing full well their primary enemy is in the area, they just play around with the fruits. This exists to establish our true villain, a Medieval ghost named Spooky.

Pac-Man catches onto this after receiving info. from Professor Pac and sets out to reclaim the fruit and trap Spooky to prevent him from unleashing hell on all of Pac Land.

Gameplay

It's a 3D explorative game. It's your job to make it to the end of the level while contending with any obstacles and enemies along the way. A standard for any 3D game, but, they found a way to make it interesting. There're items you need to collect, okay they're not mandatory, but they have a psychological hold. You see them and you want to get them, and my god there're so many. Among these, there're pac-dots which typically help show you the way. Occasionally, they're hidden in crates for the record. You could also collect fruit, among the variety are cherries, strawberries, oranges, apples and melons, some are easy to spot while others require a little problem solving or simply a proper jump angle.

Next there're tokens scattered throughout each level, these tend to be harder to find. While some are easy to point out, some are in obscure areas, are unveiled when you kill certain enemies or are in places that if you're not careful, you'll die trying to get it, and believe it or not but these tokens serve a purpose. In Pac-Village, the tokens unlock games in the arcade (they have the original Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, Ms. Pac-Man and Pac Attack, plus a jukebox where you could play any song from any level.) and all are locked behind token walls. The tokens are also put toward repairing a museum, which we'll get to in a while. Finally, you get Galaxians, and these are pretty damn cool. They could be found in relatively obscure areas or once you defeat a certain enemy. When you get one, you'll be transported to a classic Pac-Man like maze. You have to complete the maze to get the galaxian at the end, and completed mazes will be made available at the arcade, provided you have a hard time getting enough tokens for the other Pac-Man games.

Onto the game, Pac-Man has three abilities, two of which have previously appeared in Pac Man World, the butt-bounce, aka your obligatory ground point and the Rev-Roll, aka a dash attack. This game throws in a jump kick as well, which thankfully there're plenty of opportunities to use it. Of your enemies, you get to deal with ghosts, with power pellets littered around for your convenience. You also encounter bears, rams, bats, spiders, I'm going by general names for anyone who may not be familiar with the game's terminology. We also get cameos from Pookas, of Dig Dug, who for the record also appeared in the first Pac-Man World.

The game has you travel through six different areas, each housing three areas and a boss, the forest, the treetops, the mountains, a volcano, the ocean and Ghost World. Fortunately, these levels are discussed in detail, and I mean thorough detail, on the Pac-Man wiki, with which going there is ideal for refreshers.

The Forest

The forest primarily exists to help you come to grips with your abilities and clue you in on what you'll encounter through the rest of the game. You start out with a level detailing your basic abilities and giving you opportunities to perform them. Next you encounter one of the more endearing headaches of platforming, pitfalls. Yes we need a challenge, I get that. Given the previous level, it's like going from coffee with creamer to straight-up black. Anyway after that, you go through what amounts to a relatively filler-type area. It's mostly about hiking around the cliffside and finding your way up to a higher platform by activating a number of pac-dot trails. The highlight of this is learning how to stop in the middle of your rev roll move. Admittedly, this is crucial given the platforming aspect.

It all concludes with a boss fight. You encounter one of each ghost every four levels. They typically commander giant ghost-shaped robots, but Clyde, or Blinky as this game likes to call him, is different, he don't need no mechanical ghost, he's goin' in with a giant frog, probably because it's, ironically, one of the easier boss battles, first boss. To do this, you just have to butt-bounce on its tongue when it does an attack, pay no mind to the swaying motions, you could still easily land your mark. Then you have to rev roll into the frog's mouth to knock out its main power source. Do that and you'll be rewarded with the golden cherry.

The Treetops

The challenge gradually increases from this point. We get more platforming, more enemies and a trampoline mechanic that only sparsely appears after this part of the map. You start off with an introduction to the first level's gimmick, trampolines you activate by butt bouncing on them. The red and white ones have a short range, while the blue ones give you a higher jump and the ramp-shaped ones send you to a much farther area. This particular level concludes with a section mirroring the Pac-Man maze, though ironically you'll find a galaxian in this level. The next level introduces saws as platform hazards, with the challenge increasing because there's fruit you could collect. Then you get another hazard, fire floors which kill you instantly, but around the second half they become less common. Apparently these woods were victim to the Treetop Cutting Industry, it going down a decade prior to Pac-Man visiting it.

Inky's the next ghost you encounter. Just rev roll into him a couple of times while dodging his saw blade attacks. You'll get a golden strawberry for your troubles. Personally I consider this area my favorite out of the others, there's something about the dark woods that really resonates with me for some reason.

The Mountains

The difficulty hike continues as you venture atop and throughout the snowy mountains. Here you encounter rev roll rams. Just give them a taste of their own medicine and you'll be fine. For collectibles, it's a matter of being on the right path and keeping your eyes peeled for obscure areas. Plus there're patches of freezing water, which obviously kills you, and I bring that up because you'd find these on a frozen waterfall, where one slip can kill your progress, at worst you.

Pac-Man channels his inner Indiana Jones in the next part, where a giant snowball comes tumbling down. It's tricky, but ironically it's a bit more bearable, probably because the final stretch isn't a sheet of ice that could kill you if you don't bail at the right time. The only thing that bugged me about this was that there was a galaxian I couldn't find, turns out that it was off the edge of a mountain. I could safely say that the galaxian could be achieved through a leap of faith. Well, then again, beyond a completionist run this just amounts to unlocking another maze you could play on your own volition.

Remember that frozen waterfall aspect? It's back with a moderate vengeance. You get to ice skate down to the end, and the moderate part just applies to getting every collectible. It takes some quick thinking because you could only hike backwards so far.

Pinky's the next boss here, and the snow motif compliments her ice cold nature quite nicely. This time you get to butt bounce on the top of the head of Pinky's machine to cause damage. To the victor goes the golden apple.

The Volcano

The hike peaks here, namely because this game has an excuse to include one-hit deaths in the form of lava. First you venture through a series of dark chasms to get into the volcano. Afterwards you get to the next level and have to find a way to drain the lava from the volcano to get the exit, but be warned, once you get down the lava will start rising back up. This culminates in a literal passage to hell, where you encounter more lava as you struggle to make it to the end, just to face the ultimate devil himself.

Clyde (Blinky technically), is the last of the individual ghost bosses, you just have to hit him from the top. This level is notorious for being the hardest level in the entire game, and for a good reason. Along with being set above lava, Clyde is the most relentless when it comes to attacks, and worst of all, his only weak spot has a bizarre hit-box. I suffered with this when I first played it, so I'm kinda relieved that it wasn't a pain in the ass because I somehow sucked.

The Ocean

Luckily, this game gives you a bit of a break. Here it's just a matter of making it to the end while dodging obstacles. Oh yeah, this is a swimming stage. Hope you savored the first two levels, because the next one is a submarine, and it's a bit more challenging than the previous levels. you just gotta hit the obstacles at the right time while keeping your limited and only relatively rechargeable torpedos in check. You could also get mines and a gun to aid you. What's fair to note is that the amount of fruits you need to get in these levels are lower, probably because they're a bit harder to come by here.

It culminates in Pac-Man facing all four ghosts who drive a submarine. You have to hit the propellers on the back, while dodging mines and the additional heavy artillery. For your reward, you get the golden banana, rounding off the golden fruit collection.

But it's not over.

Ghost World

The challenge returns, but this time it's not in the same vein as the volcano levels. It starts off with a retread of the ice-skating level, this time, with in-line skates as you venture down the boardwalk, avoiding loose platforms and the occasional enemy. Fairly straightforward, at least when compared to the next two levels. Take what you learned throughout the game into account when you get to the next level, don't be afraid to try new things, otherwise you'll be left pondering if you could make it to the next area with a rev roll of faith.

The next one is interesting. You encounter Wormwood, an evil twin of the golden fruit tree who admits that his only purpose is to keep Pac-Man preoccupied by having him go through a maze, and this maze doesn't fuck around, sometimes you gotta take a risk just to make sure you get to the right area. In time, Wormwood will challenge you to kill 20 skeletons, twice, within a certain time limit. Once you reach Wormwood, he dies and Spooky catches wind of this. Interestingly in the Game Boy Advance version you actually get to fight Wormwood, but whatever, you get to encounter a boss after this so it balances out.

Spooky

Remember that jump kick move? The one that has primarily been used to kill a small spattering of enemies and open hanging boxes? That's your prime method of dealing with Spooky here. Hit him enough times while dodging summoned enemies, fire and debris, and congratulations, your journey is over. I hope you'll come back to get the collectibles you've missed.

Extras

After you beat each level, you have the option to do a time trial. You job is to complete the level in the quickest time. Collectibles are replaced with clocks that freeze the counter. Oh, by the way, while the game does have a checkpoint system, for the sake of having a fair time count you get sent back to the beginning if you die.

Graphics

For something straight out of 2002, it held up pretty well. The graphics are appealing and complete with a smooth frame rate, not to mention it has a nice art style, complimenting the Pac-Man aesthetic with relative simplicity and a warm color scheme.

That is, for 2002.

Music

The soundtrack has typically been a defining factor for video games, and this one is no exception. At worst, for each level the songs are modest re-recordings with minimal differences. Then again, this could be used to give each level their own identity while keeping with the theme of each level. It seems like the developers couldn't decide what track they wanted to go with, so they just gave it to each level.

Whatever the case, the music compliments the levels nicely, and a personal stand out is the water levels' music.

What else?

I never beat this game 100%. I couldn't sack up and try to get the remaining fruit and tokens. As a result, I missed out on unlocking the museum. With 150 tokens, you could enter the museum and view concept art. Well, since I could no longer play the game, I looked it up, and tell me, what would you think the museum would be like? Do you get to explore a new area? Well...

It's a fucking slideshow.

I don't know if this is the standard for the other ports, but goddamn, what a letdown. I wouldn't be so upset had the tokens been easier to obtain, but here we are. I guess the concept art's interesting, but not 150 tokens interesting. Then again Ms. Pac-Man isn't worth 180 tokens, then again there's a bug on the GameCube version that affects the maze's colors.

Not to mention, there's no clear reward for doing everything 100%. I looked it up and couldn't get any indication of a reward, so I guess the collectibles just exist for replay value.

Overall

Beyond the gripes I gave for some petty shit, this is hands down one of my favorite games ever. It's challenging, just like any good game but it helps encourage you to sack up and beat the levels, there's a good variety of familiar and new enemies and Namco certainly hasn't forgotten their roots. There's certainly a lot to return to, well, if you could find the right amount of tokens, then you'd have the luxury of owning a basic Pac-Man compilation with a game built around it, sorta like a more fleshed-out Sonic Jam.

It certainly deserved to be one of the best selling Pac-Man games of all time, proving that you don't need to go all out to keep your mascot relevant, just make a damn good game and work off of what worked in older titles, and this is coming from someone who draws the line after Sonic Heroes.