Pac-Man World Re-Pac Review: A Fantastic Return

Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch (OLED Model Specifically)
Also On: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC
Price: $29.99 MSRP – Both Physically and Digitally
Developer: Now Production Co. LTD
Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment America
Release Date: August 26, 2022

Please Note: A review code was provided by Bandai Namco but does not influence opinions in this review.

Video games come out all the time in many different forms; new games, new IPs, collections, remasters, and straight ports. This year we have already seen a Pac-Man collection, and now there is a remake of a Pac-Man game. I am so glad that they brought back the “World” games with Pac-Man World Re-Pac. Every year there have been Pac-Man releases and I have been waiting for the World games to come back! I grew up playing Pac-Man World 2 and 3 on the PS2 and I loved them. I never got to play the first one on PS1 but I am glad I finally got to play it with this remake, as it is just an all around blast to play.

The story is extremely basic and simplistic overall. Toc-Man is planning a party and wanted to have a guest of honor, Pac-Man, but unfortunately, the plan didn’t go according to what they were hoping for. Instead, the Pac-Man family was captured when they were starting to prepare for a birthday party for Pac-Man. The story in the game is that Pac-Man needs to save his family from the fiendish Toc-Man, the ghosts, and to fully take down Toc-Man. Overall, the story is nice and straightforward which works great for this game as the game itself should focus on strong gameplay.

The gameplay is fairly straightforward and simple to understand. There are six different areas that each have between three and four stages where you play a 2D/3D platforming adventure. In these stages, you must go from the start to the end while collecting letters that make up the word PACMAN and collect different fruit and items as well. If you end up getting all of the different letters to complete PACMAN, you get a bonus stage to collect more fruit and increase the overall score. Besides collecting these items and letters each of the levels has a hidden maze that you can unlock and complete. These are extremely fun and a nice change of pace from the 3D platforming.

Each of the six worlds are different; ranging from Space, to a Factory, to Ruins, and more. The levels range from long to somewhat shorter when it comes to the bosses, yes there are bosses in the game. Checkpoints are scattered throughout each of the levels, lives are plentiful with the bonus slot machine at the end of each level where you can get more. The bosses in the game are actually pretty unique that require you to use their specific moveset of running fast, his bounce, or the throwing of Pac-Dots to hit enemies. Overall the game is simplistic in terms of its platforming and unique bosses, but the overall package is that of a fantastic platformer. After completing the game, you unlock more 3D mazes and also a classic mode as well, which adds more value to the overall package.

There wasn’t any voice acting, rather there were mumbling of lines of texts, and that was it. I don’t feel like it was needed in a game like this. The art in the game is super bright and lively and it shows that there was a lot of care put into this remake. The art seriously is beautiful and I am glad that the game looked as good as it did. The music in the game is very Pac-Man-like and that is a great thing. It is upbeat and happy most of the time, and then when it gets to the final area of the game, it definitely gets more dark and serious. It’s a fantastic score overall for what they did, even if it is pretty simplistic.

The visuals on the Nintendo Switch are absolutely fantastic and it looks very good on the OLED. I played the game 95% on handheld mode, and I typically do not do that; that is how good it looked in portable play on the OLED system. Throughout the game, there were no crashes and I was very happy that there were no crashes with the game. There were a couple of small frame rate dips but they didn’t last long and they didn’t have any impact on the gameplay which is a great thing. Since it is a remake, I think I should link to a graphics comparison for areas 1 and 2, as it really is night and day and it is amazingly done.

Seriously, I am so glad that Bandai Namco brought this Pac-Man World back as Re-Pac since I absolutely loved these games growing up (excluding 1). I think I still prefer World 2 as it is a little bit longer than 1 is and has more fleshed out and complex level designs; however, Pac-Man World Re-Pac is an excellent package at $30. Pac-Man World Re-Pac took me about 10 hours to complete everything. I am hoping that with this game released, I seriously hope to see Bandai Namco remake the second one in the future as I do feel like this one is lacking compared to the later games, but this game is definitely still great. 3D platformer games are some of my absolute favorite titles, next to JRPGS, and Pac-Man World Re-Pac was an absolute joy to play and everyone who likes platformers, needs to play this game.

Review Score: 8/10