Entry 5- Pacman World 2 (Xbox)

 Welcome back nerds and nerdettes, it has been a while due to the school holiday and being busy with assignments and work but now we are finally starting review 5 today. How exciting! I do not have much to say before we start so lets get right into it. Today's review is another favorite of mine that I played growing up, and is based on one of my favorite characters of all time. Today we will be looking at Pacman World 2 (Specifically the original Xbox version but the game is also available on PS2, GameCube, PC, and Gameboy Advance) released in 2002.

Pacman is a character who has no need for an introduction, if you have ever been to an arcade or a retro video game store, you have seen this lovable little guy in some form. Debuting in 1980, Pacman was created by Toru Iwatani in Japan as a game that would be easily accessible for all gamers, regardless of gender or age. For the past 43 years he has been an icon in the gaming industry, but while most people mainly know him for his arcade games, there was once a time where Pacman was actually a platformer series with the Pacman World franchise. The original Pacman World released in 1999 on the original PlayStation and sold over a million copies in US, so a sequel was definitely on the rise by the time the 6th gen consoles hit the scene. While the series has seen 4 releases between 1999 and 2006, this entry is often considered by many to be the best of the best, one of the best 3D platformers of the early 2000s. Chances are if you are in your 20s to early 30s, you might have grown up on this game. I grew up playing the GameCube version personally and I loved it back then but could never beat it, which is why I was finally happy to beat it for the first time a few years back on my Xbox. Was all the years it took for me to beat it finally worth it? Let's find out.

 First lets go over the story and level designs. The plot of the game is very simple but effective. You play as Pacman and are tasked with retrieving the missing Golden Fruit from the Golden Fruit Tree that was stolen by The evil ghost named Spooky. Spooky is the boss of the four main ghosts from the arcade game: Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Clyde and they are also in your way from saving the Pac People Village. There are 6 worlds with multiple levels in each themed to different environments: Forest, Woods, Snow, Volcano, Undersea, and Haunted forest. While the worlds do not have the most variety, the levels themselves are still fun and memorable enough for the most part where it will not be too much of an issue for most. As a kid if I ever got stuck in any game and could not beat it I would usually just end up exploring all the worlds I already beat anyways, which this game is no exception. I loved exploring all the levels over and over and even today they are some of my favorites from my childhood there is just a perfect amount of atmosphere range that can vary from peaceful to urgent. At the end of each of the worlds Pacman will fight a ghost boss, and while the first half is very easy, the later half takes a big difficulty curve, especially with boss #4. This boss was a big reason why many kids never beat the game, so finally beating it over 15 years later was a huge personal accomplishment for me.

Now lets discuss the music and graphics. David Logan of Namco's USA branch composed the music for this one, making him the first non Japanese composer discussed on this blog. I absolutely adore the soundtrack to this game from its calm forest themes, to the fast pace themes of the volcano and snow world, and to the creepy haunted forest themes of the final world. My personal favorite songs however come from world 2, which is the Woods area. Buttane Pane and B-Doing Woods' theme songs are incredibly catchy and will get stuck in your head for days. As for the graphics while not the most technologically advanced game from the time, they still look very good even today. Pacman is very expressive for a character who never speaks and the levels are usually very bright and colorful with sparkles and shimmers, aside from the later worlds in the game which can be very dark and frustrating if your tv is not set up to the right calibration.

Lastly lets discuss the overall gameplay and the replayibility. Pacman mostly runs around and jumps but he has different attacks as well. He can roll up like sonic to get across ledges and to stun enemies. He can also butt bounce to push buttons, open crates and defeat enemies. There are also special powerups that turn him into metal and shrink him down in size when necessary. The gameplay is very inspired by games like Mario, Crash Bandicoot and Sonic but in a way that is still very original to the character. There are some stages that are very difficult compared to others that can definitely be challenging and take a while to beat, especially when one is going for all the collectibles in the game. Some levels require you to use vehicles like a submarine, or ice/roller skates and you will constantly be moving in a certain direction facing either towards or away from the camera. Definitely may take you a few tries to get everything. Once you have gotten all of the Golden fruits and beat the game there is still lots of replayibility involved. Each level has a score based system where based on how many of the fruits you find while playing it and how many Pac Pellets you eat, the higher score you will have. There are also arcade tokens and Galaxian tokens that help you unlock fun mazes and all of the Pacman arcade games from the 80s and 90s which can be played later on in the game, which is a really cool bonus. Of course if you really want a challenge there are time trials for each level where You have to try and beat the development teams best times. If you like watching speed runs this can be very fun to try on your own, but personally I rather when they are an option with games rather than required for completion because most of them you have to get perfect if you want the best time possible. I love watching speed runs and learning all the different techniques and shortcuts, but I definitely cannot master them for the life of me.

So what is the final verdict of this game? Obviously it is an amazing game, still as great as I remembered it being as a kid. It is fun for all ages, looks and sounds good, there is so much to find and do, and it is just an overall huge love letter for those who love Pacman and arcade games in general. It definitely is a game that made me who I am today and I am very grateful for that. I give it a 9/10 and highly recommend it if you find it for any of the consoles mentioned earlier in the review. Thank you all for sticking around and I shall see you all in the next review. Until then, stay nerdy my friends. Iron Pearl out!