Over the years, we’ve seen quite a few Namco Museum and especially Pac-Man collections come to various platforms. The Switch itself is home to his four different releases of Pac-Man. If you count his three different releases for the Namco Museum, seven. Yet among them all, the cult-classic 3D platforming spin-off Pac-Man World is strangely missing. Rarely considered the pinnacle of the genre, it is fondly remembered by many who look back on those days. Now, 23 years after its original release on PlayStation, the first Pac-Man World returns in remastered form as Pac-Man World His Repack, with the desire to revisit the rest of his trilogy. bring sparks. road.
Before we go any further, a PSA for anyone looking to pick this up on the Switch: As previously announced, the Switch version will feature 30 frames per second as opposed to the 60 frames per second target for other platforms Aim for frames per second. The full 1080p resolution looks great in terms of raw image quality, but the frame rate falls well short of the target. is switching. Switching to performance mode reduces resolution slightly and smooths performance significantly. The image quality loss is very minimal, especially when playing handheld, so I don’t understand why this isn’t the default viewing mode.
Now you can get down to the actual game. Pac-Man World is a 3D platformer that falls somewhere between Crash Bandicoot and Super Mario 64 in terms of perspective. The camera is fully scripted and takes no input from the player. However, unlike Crash Bandicoot, the axis of movement is not restricted. You can freely move in any direction at any time, even in a side-scrolling perspective. A more modern comparison would be something like Super Mario 3D World. Pac-Man himself runs through levels picking up collectibles, defeating enemies, and saving his family, who have been kidnapped by the evil Tock-Man and his ghosts. Pacman’s main attack is his bouncing bat. This allows him to take down weaker enemies and bounce slightly higher than his normal jump. Pellets picked up throughout levels can be thrown at enemies as a secondary attack. Pac-Man can also charge his dash rolling like Sonic to smash through enemies and leap off ramps. Levels also include different fruits that act as keys to locked doors and a Galaxian that can unlock classic-style Pac-Man mazes.
The levels are spread over different areas and there are several levels, each with boss fights. From the start, you can take on several different areas in any order. Completing each of these will open up another round of areas. The gameplay is straightforward, with a focus on exploration and collectibles. Occasionally, some of the 1999 PlayStation’s rigidity can be felt in the controls, but it’s hard to judge them too harshly for being so close to the original. It’s similar to Bandicoot’s system, but unfortunately it also suffers from the same depth perception issues. A few times I’ve jumped left or right platforms, only to find that it’s actually much more in the background than I thought. However, this is not an exact 1:1 remake. For example, instead of him using two separate buttons to swim up and down underwater, Pac-Man by default sinks and must press a button to swim back. The levels mostly match their PS1 counterparts, though sometimes the buttons are in slightly different places and other elements of the scene are lightly rearranged. The reworked cutscenes do not contain actual dialogue. Rather, the characters mutter with subtitles doing the heavy lifting. It’s presumably a change to allow cutscene timings to be changed at will and not have to provide fresh voice acting for each region, but it’s still a bit disappointing.
Visually, Pac-Man World Repack looks very nice. It’s not as ambitious as recent PlayStation-era remasters such as Crash N’Sane Trilogy and Spyro Reignited Trilogy, but as a result Switch is far superior. rarely do. Some say it looks low budget, but given the obvious amount of effort put into it compared to the original release, I can’t help but appreciate what’s been done here. The art seems pretty in line with both the original and the direction the visuals take as the series progresses. World Re-Pac offers a very enjoyable ride.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac is a solid effort to revive a cult classic. Other remaster projects obviously don’t have the money behind them, but that’s paid off in some way, especially with Switch. The new art looks great and the gameplay holds up for the most part except for the time limit to hitchhike to this new version. It’s baffling when the game does much better in performance mode at its best, but this can be quickly fixed by accessing the options menu.Pac-Man World is one of the best 3D platformers ever made. I didn’t, but it’s a classic worth playing today. Let’s hope Pac-Man World Re-Pac is a sign of more Pac-Man Worlds to come.
