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Review  Pac-Man World 2
- By Kevlar Gorilla
Pac-man has returned, and he’s on a mission. The four ghosts (Inky, Pinky, Blinky, and Clyde) invaded Pac-man’s home town and stole the five golden fruit off of the magical fruit tree and have inadvertently released the great evil ghost Spooky. It’s up to Pac-man to return the mystic (yet tasty) fruit and send Spooky back to whence he came. The ghosts are trying to change Pac-man’s way of life, and he’s not gonna take it anymore.
Gameplay:
There are approximately 25 levels separated into 6 worlds (valley, forest, snow, volcano, ocean, and ghost island). Each of which has it’s own boss. Pac-man travels linearly through each level to find the exit, collecting pac-dots, fruit, tokens, and other goodies along the way.
Most of the levels are simple run, jump, hit some switches, avoid/defeat enemies, and find the exit. Others consist Pac-man in a submarine or Pac-man on ice skates (and on a later level, in-line skates). Pac-man’s flip kick, butt bounce, and rev-roll round out his arsenal of nifty ways to get stuff down. In he eats a metal pac-dot, he becomes metallic, is impervious to fire, and sinks like a rock in water. If he eats a power pac-dot, he is able to consume any ghosts that taunt him. One thing that I noticed is that wherever there’s a ghost, there’s a power dot, so you never feel helpless. The gameplay is always varied, and I mean always. Once you think you’ve had enough jumping on k-boing blocks, on you go to skating down a mountain side on a frozen river. Once your done that, you enter the volcano level thinking ‘that was refreshing, I think I want to play more platform-adventure levels’... so you do.
Some stuff is hidden is crates, some in chests. You can only open certain chests if you have collected all of one specific type of fruit. Some switches open up pac-dot chains which reward you greatly for going back through a dangerous part of the level instead of continuing on to the safety of the checkpoint. If you hit a red pac-dot, Pac-man will be transported to a different area via a pac-dot chain, plus you obtain all the dots on said chain plus anything else in, or after the chain.
Pac-man’s life is dependant on a four-hit system. Four hits and you lose a life and start at the last check point. Check points come at exactly when you think you need them. The game is not so much ‘go from A to B’ as it is ‘manoeuver from A to B, and go to T if you feel like it’. If there’s a particularly difficult section in a level (eg: a slide), there is sure to be a few extra lives scattered about to give you as many chances as you think you may need. The entire game can be summed-up as one big giant lesson on ‘calculated risk’. You’ll find yourself questioning if you should jump onto the new trampoline that appeared or just jump to the next pac-dot chain. Walk around the pit, or jump overtop and get a pear while your there. The choice is yours.
The skating levels add more ‘jump and dodge’ action to the game, while the swimming and submarine levels give a ‘roll, shoot, and dodge’ texture. The swimming levels are plainly linear and don’t allow much movement. The submarine level allows you assert your well-accumulated aggression from the previous swimming levels against swarms of hapless ghosts. While some modes may be easier than others, they all compliment each other very well giving the game a nice easy flow.
Of course, you may get frustrated with a few sections of some levels, but there is almost always a helpful hint whenever you need it most. For example: in the volcano level, I see a sign that reads ‘press B to let go of a ledge’. ‘Fair enough’ I say. And continue. I then come to a narrow passage that has two ledges running parallel to each other with flames shooting out periodically. The trick is to jump back and forth by pressing B to dodge the flames. This shows that Namco really knows what they’re doing and made me want to play more.
As expected, there’s the pac-man arcade, in which, you can play Pac-man, Pac-attack, Pac-mania, Ms. Pac-man, and the in-game Pac-man stages, all while listening to the jukebox. Of course, you’ll have to work for them by collecting Namco Tokens hidden around the game.
Aesthetics:
Everything in the Pac-man World is very, very clean. That is, except for ghost island which is very, very foggy and dark. Everything has been paid some sort of attention. The frame rate is ultra-smooth and the draw distances are hardly limiting. Here are some examples: If you butt-bounce on ice, Pac-man does a simple slip and stumble animation complete with icy squeak. When you’re skating down the mountain side, the fog on the icy water is absolutely perfect. If you ‘accidentally’ hit a giant pipe in the submarine level, oil comes gushing out into the water just as oil in water should. Pac-man facial expression changes constantly. It’s really a hoot to watch. Of course, everything in Pac-man world looks exactly as it should, which means it might be able to look a bit better... if that makes any sense.
Computer generated movies introduce and end the tale of Pac-man world. Each is as nifty as the last and all keep the game flowing, right until the end. Since this is a PS2 port, there was supposed to be load-times, so at the beginning of each level you may catch a glimpse of what could be a loading screen, but it is shorter than the circle wipe into the real game.
Control:
A jumps, hitting A while in the air will perform a butt-bounce. Holding B will charge up the rev-roll, while releasing it will unbridle the fury that is Pac-man. Hitting B in the air will perform a flip-kick, while hitting A while charging or in the middle of a rev-roll will make Pac-man halt on a dime. This is all very useful.
R, L, and the C-stick are dedicated to the camera system, yet it doesn’t always work the way you want it to. The camera will never, ever, go though a solid object, so navigating a jumping puzzle in a stalactite-laden room is all that much more difficult. Yet, after a little practice, you may just suck it up and move on with your life.
Sound:
Each level has it’s own independent tunes and general ambiance. I’m dually impressed. Pac-man’s trademark ‘wakka-wakka’ and stage clear sounds come into play nicely and cleanly. Nothing big is out of place and there are little to no annoyances.
Multiplayer:
In the arcade, you can play 2P alternating Pac-man, but that’s about it.
OVERALL:
After you beat Spooky initially, the new ‘time trial’ option is available in every level. There are approximatly 8 Namco tokens (plus two bonus tokens) in each level, minus the boss levels, thus making a grand total of over 200 Namco coins to collect which adds a bit of replay. The two bonus tokens are obtained by getting the fastest time-trial time and by collecting all of the pac-dots and fruit and completing the level. However, collecting absolutely everything is near-impossible considering you can’t backtrack on the swimming and submarine levels, not to mention their initial difficulty. On your first round through the game, it may take you 8 hours, ignoring bonuses and just having fun. The game’s general length is probably it’s most deterring feature. This game is mostly definitely an enjoyable rent, yet purchasing the game would require a fair amount of patience and some money to burn.
The Lowdown on  Pac-Man World 2
| Aesthetics: Very Good |
Control: Above Average |
| Gameplay: Very Good |
Multiplayer: |
| Sound: Above Average |
Innovation: 4/6 |
| Lasting Appeal: 3/6 |
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Overall: Very Good!
"A Must-Buy"
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This game is:
Very Good
That teddy just wants to be loved
Sometimes, it's safest to jump
Weee !
Weird how sawblades always hang around in trees
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IN A
NUTSHELL: |
| The ghosts are trying to change Pac-man’s way of life, and he’s not gonna take it anymore. |
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