Review: Pac-Man World 2 (GameCube)

In this review, we eat some fruit in the GameCube game Pac-Man World 2. We find out how well this adventure game plays.

This game was released in 2002. It is the second game in this sub-series. While we have a fair bit of experience playing other games in this franchise, none were related to this particular sub-series.

The story is that Pac-Man is sleeping in his house. During the night, the four ghosts appear and find the tree i the middle of the village. Taking advantage of not being seen so late at night, the ghosts steal the five golden fruit. While horsing around, they unknowingly unleash an even scarier character, Spooky. Having finally been unleashed, he tells the four other ghosts that he has a plan to take over Pac World. The four ghosts decide to go along with this plan.

When you wake up the next day, you find out what has happened. After receiving some backstory, you set of on your adventure to retrieve the golden fruit and seal Spooky away under the tree again.

You start in Pac-Man Village which offers a few features. One feature is the ability to utilize the arcade. Collect enough coins and you’ll be able to unlock some of these classics. These include Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Pac-Mania to name a few.

Interestingly enough, the beginning world is also its own level. There are Pac dots to collect, fruit to obtain, coins to collect, power pellets to munch on, and ghosts to take out. Some of these items are among the hardest items to reach especially given that you haven’t even completed any tutorial level yet. So, there is no shame for not getting every fruit in this level.

Once you leave the first area, you’ll be on a world map which features spaces to denote each level. The world map is largely linear, so beating one level will unlock the next level. The only level that breaks with the linear nature is the very last level in the game.

As for the levels themselves, you get a bunch of things to collect. The most common item are Pac dots. Usually, they range into the three figure numbers, so there is going to be a bunch to collect. Meanwhile, there are other items to collect. Specifically, these are the fruit in each level. You can collect apples, oranges, strawberries, cherries, and melons. How many are in each level varies widely (anywhere from 1 to at least 30). If you collect all of one category, a ring and a message will briefly appear telling you that everything has been collected.

In addition to this, there are the Galaxian’s. There is a maximum of one for each level. Named after another game called Galaxian, collecting this item will trigger a special sub-level.

The sub-level is basically a standard Pac Man mini-game (only with much better graphics). Mazes vary widely, but they follow the same standard rules of the original Pac Man. You have to collect all of the dots to beat the level. You have three lives. There are four power pellets that turn ghosts blue, enabling you to eat them for extra points. Additionally, a target fruit will appear occasionally in the middle of the maze for bonus points. Warps can appear on the sides, permitting you to move from one side to another. Touching the ghosts will kill you. An additional power pellet can appear in the middle of the maze which is about the only point that the rules deviate from the original game. Beat the mini-game level to move on.

While those items will contribute to your overall total, other items will generally help your adventure while not counting towards your total. Collect a Pac Man wedge item to increase your health by one (you get four hits total. this includes nothing left in your health meter). The Pac Man logo will grant an extra free life. Coins can contribute to unlocking features in the game such as new mini-games back at Pac village (visit the arcade to access).

Power pellets operate just like you would expect. Collecting one turns the ghosts blue and you can eat the ghosts for extra points. Unlike the mini-games and original Pac Man, however, the ghosts do not return while you are on the level.

A red pellet is just like any other pellet. The critical difference is that you get the chance to fly through the level on a pre-determined path, eating all of the pellets on that path along the way.

Meanwhile, a metal ball will turn Pac Man into being temporarily invulnerable (save for pits of course). This allows Pac Man to not take damage from regular hits. It also allows him to walk over some pools of lava without taking damage. Some enemies can only be defeated while Pac Man is in this state as well. Also, Pac Man will sink in water, allowing him to collect items on the bottom of the lake beds. Note that the effects are only temporary, so being efficient in your movements can go a long way.

Also along the way, Pac Man can encounter switches. Some switches (mainly brown ones), will open up Pac Pellet flight paths. Blue switches can activate or deactivate certain features on the level. Sometimes, they even spawn pellets and fruit along the way.

In addition to this are three types of bounce pads. Performing a butt bounce will enable you to gain air. Red and white bounce pads will launch Pac Man up a small distance. Blue bounce pads, meanwhile, will launch Pac Man up a considerable distance. Finally, bounce pads with arrows will allow Pac Man to follow a path in a certain direction. All of these will enable Pac Man to reach other areas in different levels.

Over top of this are chests and crates. Crates can be found floating in the air while others are on the ground. A simple attack will break them open, revealing their contents. Chests, meanwhile, are a bit harder to crack open. You have to have collected all the fruit in the level that is shown on the label. Otherwise, you can’t break them open.

Along the way, Pac Man can encounter enemies. Many can be defeated with a simple attack. Others require specific attacks (i.e. the ram requiring a charge attack, then butt bounce while they are stunned to defeat). A few enemies are ghosts that can only be defeated by the power pellet. Some enemies will drop fruit, so it’s worth sticking around to see the full animation of defeating one in some cases.

You’ll also encounter some bosses. These bosses are generally found on stages of their own. They’ll have a health meter for you to reduce down to nothing. Four of these are the ghosts in their various contraptions while the fifth is Spooky himself. Find the weakness and exploit it all the while not falling into pits that are (with the exception of the first boss fight) inherent in these stages.

In addition to normal levels, there are a number of auto-scrolling or forced movement levels. A few will simply be you running away from a giant snowball, but others get you to put on things like skates, roller blades, or swim in flippers. In a few cases, you’ll even take control of a submarine and be forced to dodge or blow up mines all the while taking on enemy ships. These levels generally make collecting all the items much harder.

After you beat a non-boss level, you have the option to replay it. When you do, you have two options: either to take on the level again in an effort to get a better completion (yes, everything has to be re-collected to get a better completion percentage) or you can take on the time trial mode. Time trial mode is all about taking on the level and completing it as quickly as possible. In place of fruit, there are stop watches that will freeze time for the amount denoted on it. You can go for the high score of fastest time in these levels.

If you want an idea on how this game plays, all you have to do is think back to your days of playing Crash Bandicoot. Save for the occasional “maze-like” areas, a few mini-games, and the fact that you have fewer forms of attack, it pretty much plays just like a Crash Bandicoot game. You have a very linear path to follow and you even have an annoying boulder heading towards you as you run towards the camera.

The thing is, by the time Crash Bandicoot was around, there were plenty of adventure games that were more fully fledged 3D adventures instead of having a pseudo 3D feel to them. As such, you’d think that the developers just sat back, watched how the previous generation games played, then just took ideas that they liked and replaced the characters and items with Pac Man related symbols. What you get is a seemingly outdated style of play with very little in the way of innovation.

What does mask this old dated style of play is the fact that there are a number of levels with different features. This ranges from what you wear to the different elements you see on the levels (such as ice). There is even a timed challenge where you have a limited amount of time to defeat them. So, there is certainly variety to be had in the game.

The difficulty curve isn’t too bad. However, as you get into later parts of the game, you realize that the difficulty is certainly up there. What really saves this game is the fact that there are checkpoints along the way. While what you collect after the checkpoint has to be re-collected, your health is restored to full. So, in later levels, it becomes less a challenge of beating a level without losing a life and more about where you want to strategically die. Ideally, it’s just past the checkpoint so you can just restart with full health. So, this game can get quite difficult at times, but it is manageable thanks to the checkpoints.

The mini-games are a mixed bag, though. On the one hand, it’s great that they are in there. They really add to the overall experience of the game. On the other hand, some of the requirements to unlock them (especially Ms. Pac Man) can be quite high. You may not even get a chance to play them even though they can be a very nice distraction.

Probably the most annoying aspect of the game is the poorly handled camera. Sometimes, the camera doesn’t work all that well. You are even forced to tilt it up to get it over objects at times so you can scan an area. What you end up with is a nuisance system where you occasionally have to find yourself “fixing” the camera so you can keep going.

Generally speaking, this game might work reasonably well as a previous generation console game, but ends up popping up in a later console generation. The Crash Bandicoot style levels gives the impression that the developers were more about copying ideas they liked, then plastering Pac Man images and models everywhere after. While the features do mask this to a degree, it is rather apparent. The camera can be quite annoying, but the checkpoint system does make this game manageable from beginning to end. It’s an OK game, but can be rather dated.

The graphics are OK. It does show promise that Pac Man can actually make an appearance on this generation consoles, though the simplistic nature of the models does leave this game trailing behind other similar games. This includes games like Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, and Luigi’s Mansion. There is a decent amount of general effects, but nothing too impressive for a game of its time. It’s a decent effort, but nothing too amazing.

Audio is also OK. The music starts off OK, but gradually, it just becomes a game filled with the same track slightly rehashed in large portions of the game. There are a few exceptions, but I’m not sure I found the music to be particularly memorable. Sound effects are pretty standard. There is very little in the way of voice acting. So, a fairly average effort in my opinion.

Overall, if you are looking for a game that is refreshing and different, this game falls short of that. It would be an opportunity for the franchise to show how it can handle more modern console systems, but instead, it just took a handful of ideas from previous generation games and mixed in a few standard mazes throughout. The camera is pretty bad with a fairly regular need to fix it. The fact that this game constantly pushes players to replay large chunks of the levels to get all the items can be annoying at times. It can get difficult towards the later portion of the game, but the checkpoint system ultimately saves this game on that front. Graphics are OK, but nothing amazing and the audio is pretty average. An OK game, but if you’ve never played this one, you really aren’t missing much.

Overall
Furthest point in game: Beat the game (didn’t get 100%, but did usually hover around the 90% mark for the most part. Managed to get a number of levels at 100%, though). Unlocked all but one arcade game. Beat the time record on two levels.

General gameplay: 17/25
Replay value: 7/10
Graphics: 6/10
Audio: 3/5

Overall rating: 66%

Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.

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