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I have fond memories of going to the local video rental shop on a Friday night as a kid. A wall of games I could select one or two of to take home for a week, more than I could ever dream of playing if I had to save up or wait for birthdays to get one game at a time. Sometimes these games were memorable masterpieces, but they didn’t have to be. Some were just a novel way to pass the time over a weekend.
Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac is one of those games. It doesn’t do anything particularly novel, it’s platforming gameplay feels like any number of similar games from the time. But despite that, it’s still a decent way to while away some hours traipsing through traditionally themed worlds saving the day.
As someone unfamiliar with Pac-Man lore (which is a thing, it seems!) I was surprised at how complex of a story setup there is here. There’s a whole society of Pac-people, complete with historic conflicts with The Ghosts and a great evil imprisoned underneath the village! It’s all a bit ridiculous, but I suppose it’s a little more inventive than another kidnapping.
The story really just serves the purpose of giving some narrative reason for our titular hero to leave the comfort of his village on a quest to defeat the big bad. Throughout a series of levels in familiarly themed worlds (we’re talking ice world, forest world, water world, real tried-and-true platformer stuff) you’ll make Pac-Man run, jump, kick, butt-bounce and dash to overcome platforming and combat challenges. There’s not really anything truly memorable about it’s gameplay. It’s worlds don’t demand much of you, and there’s not really anything in the levels or action you likely haven’t seen before.
Like many platformers out there, there are plenty of collectibles to gather in World 2. A bunch of different types of fruit, some of which unlock chests in levels which can be the secret to yet more collectibles. There are secret mazes to find, which grant access to traditional Pac-Man style overhead ghost maze levels. Each level also has three missions to complete, and in doing so you unlock new looks for Pac-Man. You can finish the game just fine by getting to the end of the levels, but searching for and finding all these various collectibles adds a little extra challenge and fun to proceedings.
The level of challenge is pretty minimal. Like I mentioned, you can add your own extra challenge by attempting to grab all the collectibles but overall the game is pretty breezy. Bosses at the end of each world amp things up a little bit, though outside of a ridiculously demanding final boss it’s nothing too wild. The game includes an easier mode called ‘Fairy Mode’ which makes Pac-Man invulnerable to damage as well as adding what the game calls ‘Fairy Blocks’ to levels to make some of the platforming challenges a bit less demanding.
Though Re-PAC seems like a pretty straightforward remake of a PS2 game, I was surprised at the effort the development team has gone to in improving this game for a new era. Looking at gameplay footage from the original, things like boss behaviours have adjusted and level traversal methods have been changed to be clearer and easier to interact with. Even little quality of life changes like not being immediately transported to a maze when you find one and instead accessing them at your own leisure later improve things by letting you stay in the groove with a level. It feels like Re-PAC’s developers took the time to think about what worked and what might have been annoying in the original, and made thoughtful changes without detracting from the core game people remember.
Alongside quality of life changes, the team have made great use of modern hardware to make Re-PAC 2 look really appealing. It has the look of a playable CG animated show. Perfectly smooth animation, bright colours and detailed character models make the game pleasant to look at – especially in it’s story scenes. Music isn’t anything to write home about, but keeps accompanies the action appropriately enough.
Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac looks great and improves on the original in several ways – but it’s ultimately just kind of forgettable. It’s a decent enough way to while away some hours over a weekend (it took me about 5 hours to get to the end, complete with a lot of final boss retries and some fussing around in levels for collectibles) but compared to it’s peers now and even at the time – it’s hard to imagine choosing to play it over countless other platforming greats.