More beautiful than the day I lost you.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/72571/pac-man-world-2-re-pac-switch-2-review
In 2002 we were on the tail end of 3D platforming’s golden age. Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, and Spyro had enjoyed their time in the spotlight. There was a push to add ever increasing depth to the genre. For some this was adding elements of third person shooters, or perhaps a large seamless open-world. And then there was Pac-Man World 2. A follow up to the Playstation exclusive Pac-Man World, the sequel branched out to the Gamecube, Playstation 2, and Xbox. While it certainly carried with it some expanded ambition as compared to the original, it maintained a focus on simple, tight platforming. As a kid, I loved Pac-Man World 2, and it has always quietly occupied a space in my memory as one of the best 3D platformers of that generation. It had some awkwardness in its camera controls and level design wasn’t always even, but there was just something about it that stuck with me. Granted, a lot of that comes from being ten years-old when Pac-Man World 2 released.
So it was with a heart full of nostalgia that I sat down with Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac. What I found was much more than a simple, remastered nostalgia trip. But rather an exceedingly impressive effort to make Pac-Man World 2 live up to that nostalgia far more than the original actually does. As it turns out, when you address the few lingering issues in the original game, you wind up with an astoundingly good 3D platformer.
When the ghosts attack Pac-Village, steal the golden fruit, and unleash the powerful ghost Spooky it is up to Pac-Man to restore the village and put things right. You’ll set out across six regions to best the ghosts, recover the fruit, and foil Spooky’s plans for Pac-Land. While I doubt anyone is coming to Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac for the drama, the new and more extensive voice work does lend the story some fun new gravitas. Martin Sherman who played Pac-Man in Pac-Man World 3 returns to deliver fresh dialogue for this previously silent version of Pac-Man. Wormwood, as voiced by Xander Mobus also turns in a particularly great Saturday morning villain performance.
Each region of the overworld map contains a few linear 3D platforming stages and a boss fight. Contrary to what I was expecting, these stages are not 1:1 recreations of the originals. Rather, the developers seem to have been given the freedom to alter, expand, or rearrange, as felt appropriate. We can see it right in the very first stage, where a maze segment has been moved from the beginning of the stage to a point significantly later. Thorn bushes in the original game have been replaced with bear traps, removing the potential confusion with other foliage. Every area of this level is clearly taken from the original game, but rather than being a perfect recreation, it has been somewhat reimagined and in every instance, is an improvement on the original game design. Boss fights tell the same story. Bosses have been given new attacks and phases not seen in the original game. The first boss you’ll face is a large mechanical frog. In the original game you’d wait for him to stick out his tongue, use Pac-Man’s butt-bounce attack, and then wait for him to do it again. In Re-Pac, the frog now has several other attacks, and smaller explosive enemies also wander the field. You’ll have to dodge these new attacks while you wait for your opening. And when the frog does stick out its tongue, a well placed explosive enemy can be caught up in it, getting you an extra health pickup in addition to damaging the boss. It's as if they went back to 2002, took every piece of feedback the original game received, and then rebuilt it from scratch to solve all of those problems. It is utterly ridiculous how much work has clearly gone into touching up every inch of this game.
Pac-Man's movement was always a strong point for the original and it has been made even better here. Paired with a completely rebuilt camera system that holds up to modern standards, the simple act of exploring is now much more satisfying. My one complaint here is that by default Pac-Man’s Rev Roll move (a dash attack similar to the Spin Dash from Sonic the Hedgehog), is mapped to B. Aiming the Rev Roll is best done with the right stick which is awkward while holding B. I remapped this to the unused ZL button instead and found this worked much better. Having the action on B is more consistent with the original controls, but is one area where an obvious opportunity for improvement was missed.
The Switch 2 version of Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac comes with two graphics modes. Thankfully unlike in the Re-Pac version of the first Pac-Man World, performance is now the default selected option. This mode targets 60fps and manages to hit it the vast majority of the time. I did notice a one-off bug where after a cutscene, the camera seemed to be animating at a lower frame rate than the rest of the game. Restarting the level fixed this issue and I wasn’t able to re-create it again. Meanwhile the resolution mode boosts the output resolution slightly and targets 30fps instead. Much like the previous Re-Pac, there is really no reason to opt for resolution mode. The actual increase in resolution is minimal, and the effect on playability is substantial.
It is worth highlighting just how much content is included in Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac. Some of this is carried forward from the original game but this new version goes far beyond that. Each level has a series of missions that can be completed to unlock alternate costumes for Pac-Man, music that can be swapped out for the overworld music, and arcade games to be played in Pac-Village. Unfortunately, due to legal issues, Ms. Pac-Man is not playable in the arcade this time around but you do get access to the original Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, and Pac-Attack. After completing a level you’ll also unlock a time trial mode which also includes access to an online leaderboard. While I didn’t do time trials for every single stage, I did enjoy trying to outperform other reviewers in every boss fight. There is even some new post game content that I won't go into detail on.
I went into Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac expecting a nostalgic trip through a delightful yet flawed 3D platformer of my youth. Instead I got a lovingly re-imagined overhaul that exceeded my expectations in every way. This is now just an excellent 3D platformer with no need for qualifiers. Level design is varied with a nice gradient of difficulty and one-off mechanics in nearly every level. Every good idea from the original has been preserved and everything around it has been improved. While it isn’t technically an incredibly long game, it is dense with content and replayability. The Switch 2 version itself runs great outside of a rare technical hitch. Last but not least, they credit the entire original design team. The biggest negative I can give to Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac is that it makes it very hard to go back to the original.
Topic: Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac (Switch 2) Review (Read 97 times)
