Pac-Man World

You'd think that turning an arcade classic from the early 80s into a 3d platformer would be a recipe for disaster, however it looks like the developers found a way for Pac man to compete with the mascots of the day with this entry even if isn’t among the best the genre or ps1 overall has to offer.

My biggest issue here is that while the graphics are decent for their time, the same can't be said for the colour scheme as despite having levels that take place in a pirate bay and funfair (among others) the overall art direction is similar to that of the tomb raider franchise which really clashes with the happy go lucky nature of our hero (although it's acceptable in the tomb and outer space levels.) Pac man himself controls really well for the most part, my main issues stem from his swimming mechanics as they're clunky as hell and I also occasionally have issues with his dash attack, specifically whenever it's required to charge up a steep hill which can thankfully be worked around with him bouncing up these areas instead. Other than those two issues (which sadly do cost this game a perfect score from me) I have little to complain about. The story is fairly basic as its your typical rescue mission as the ghosts kidnap our hero's entire family, although hilariously they only wanted him and kidnapped everyone else due to not realising they're not him. Pac man makes for a good 3d platformer protagonist as aside from the issues with swimming and dashing, he controls excellently here as he can both butt stomp enemies and throw pellets at them to kill them. The game also remembers it's arcade roots by having Pac man collect power pellets in order to eat the ghosts of each level and even has bonus stages specifically dedicated to doing this in the style of the arcade original, the only thing is he doesn't change his gameplay style as eating these pellets only make the otherwise invulnerable ghosts vulnerable for him to eat. Even the fruit collectibles of the arcade classic are well utilised as they now serve as keys to doors that offer our hero extra rewards as well as them activating a bonus round at the end of each level where we can play slots in order to earn extra prizes. There's so much more to say about what this game has to offer, but I think you get the point with why it's flawed but awesome.

I should also mention the remake as that doesn't have its own page on this site, it's basically a perfect game as it fixes the two issues I have with the original. The colour scheme is a lot better now given how it no longer is restricted to 32-bit graphics whilst Pac man's controls have been tweaked so that they're no longer clunky like they were before. It adds the extra benefit of our hero reverting to his classic gameplay whenever he eats a power pellet both in the regular levels as well as in the throwback bonus stages which goes to show how much love and care was put into this remake.

It’s a surprisingly good transition from an arcade classic to 3d, its not particularly complicated, however it’s a ton of fun and worth checking out.