Pac-Man World Re-Pac – Waka Waka Time Again

I discovered this remaster existed practically by accident. I would sometimes contemplate how I wish I had beat the original game for PS1, and then sure enough, I stumbled upon it on the developer page via Steam and didn’t waste any time.

The story is straightforward. It’s Pac-Man’s birthday, and the ghosts are jealous so their leader Toc-Man orders them to kidnap Pac-Man. But Pac-Man himself is absent and only his family are abducted.

Pac-Man returns home to find it ransacked and embarks on a journey to Ghost Island to rescue his family.

I’m glad they didn’t change the soundtrack because it’s iconic in this game. My favourite scores are from the Space levels, I always end up humming them when they get stuck in my head. I also noticed they made some things easier in gameplay like giving Pac-Man a hover ability and offering an Easy Mode as well. Surprisingly, I used neither in my playthrough. Also before you start a level, you’ll be shown all the collectibles and even be notified if one is required in the next one like the key to free one of Pac-Man’s family members.

I personally find that while his rev-roll ability is useful, it hasn’t always been to scale every incline. I’ve managed to also make do with just the butt-bouncing.

The furthest I got was the Crazy Cannonade in the original game, but this time around, I ended up getting 100% in all the levels within the Pirate area.

They also introduced a new feature for taking out ghosts when Pac-Man eats a power pellet, he becomes Mega Pac-Man and can sometimes even devour all the ghosts in one go, basically he’s invincible. I’m not sure if this was even necessary but eh, whatever, it was cool.

The Ruins and Space levels are pretty fun, but Anubis Rex was my least favourite boss. Even my brother couldn’t beat him in the original game. For me it wasn’t the tornadoes or meteors. They actually made the former easier to evade in this remaster. I had trouble with platforming because of gradual decrease in space to move between the switches plus the mummies and direct attacks from the temple!

King Galaxian on the other hand, is definitely my favourite boss in this game. Not only is it a cool space battle but his tractor beam makes the same noise from Boss Galaga from the classic arcade game!

I actually beat the first three bosses during my first sitting so that’s something to be proud of.

When I got to the Funhouse, Factory, and Mansion levels, that’s when I felt some of my performance slip a little. The Funhouse levels were cool, except I hated that Spin Dizzy level. Some players have noted that the platforms don’t rotate as quickly as they do in the original game though.

The Factory and Mansion levels felt really long and one thing I don’t get at all is why did they change the names of all of Pac-Man’s family? Like instead of Ms. Pac-Man she’s replaced with Pac-Mom. Apparently it’s due to some legal issues, which always suck.

Anyway, it wasn’t too hard for me to defeat Toc-Man in the end. It turns out that if you rescue all of Pac-Man’s family, they will help you out during the final fight.

Overall, it’s a short but lovely remaster of a classic game. The mazes are fun, you also get access to the classic arcade game as well, so I can’t really say anything else on that regard. It’s well done with updated graphics and full of memories.