Why now’s the best time to get into the Pac-Man World series
One of my personal highlights from the recent Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase was the Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac reveal. That was really the only highlight from the Partner Direct for me, but it was a big one! I grew up playing Pac-Man World 2 on GameCube and never thought we’d be looking at a full-on remake over 20 years later. If you’re a fan of 3D platformers, then it’s a great time to try out the Pac-Man World series for the very first time.
Today, we’re looking at Pac-Man World Re-Pac on the Nintendo Switch, which is a remake of the original Pac-Man World on the PlayStation. Normally, the remake costs $30 – but it goes on sale a lot, which makes it even more accessible for those looking to try the Pac-Man World games for the first time. The digital version has dropped below $10 numerous times, so keep an eye out for sales if you’re interested in giving it a shot.
Like I mentioned earlier, Pac-Man World Re-Pac is a remake of the original PlayStation game. And in many ways, you can tell it started out on the PlayStation – even though the graphics have been completely redone, the art style and audio still carry nostalgic value. The characters and environments do look just a little bit plain, but they look fresh, clean, and colorful, which is exactly what you’d expect out of a Pac-Man game. Interestingly enough, Re-Pac launched with crusty, compressed music. Dedicated players pointed this out online, and eventually the developers updated the game with completely redone music. It all sounds great now – the music has been modernized with updated instruments, but it still sounds like an old-school PlayStation 3D platformer. If you were a fan of the Crash Bandicoot games on that system, you might find Pac-Man World Re-Pac’s vibes somewhat familiar.
Just like old-time 3D platformers, Re-Pac’s levels are full of collectibles that come in the form of fruit, PACMAN letters, and keys. They’re often gated behind locked doors that require you to obtain other collectibles, which means if you want to 100 percent the game you’ll be doing a fair bit of backtracking. This also makes the levels take longer to complete. Speaking of which, there are only three or four levels per world, but even if you skip the collectibles they’re all decently long. It should take somewhere between 10 and 12 hours to clear the game if you make a beeline straight for the goal. The game’s first world starts off a bit slow, but it picks up afterward and especially in the later levels, which get much more challenging. Most of the challenge is in terms of endurance – some stages take a really long time to clear if you’re trying to collect everything, and it’s easy for enemies and hazards to whittle away your health over time. That said, you can activate an easy mode if you’re having trouble and there are plenty of checkpoints.
For the most part, Re-Pac’s controls are also pretty solid. Pac-Man doesn’t move particularly fast, but he does maintain momentum. Moves like Rev Rolls and repeated Butt Bounces are satisfying to use and make you feel like you’re mowing through enemies and hazards. My only criticism here is that it’s sometimes difficult to see where you’re about to land due to the game’s specific camera angle. This has been fixed in Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac with the landing target feature, but it’s unfortunately not present in this game. As one last gameplay-related note, Re-Pac also has some neat level gimmicks here and there, such as the King Galaxian shoot-em-up mechanic and the Clown Prix racing mode.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac has one big weakness on Nintendo Switch: it doesn’t run very well. You can choose between resolution mode and performance mode, and I would recommend choosing the latter any day of the week. Resolution mode makes the text and UI look much cleaner (as well as the game itself), but locks the game to 30 frames per second. Performance mode decreases the quality of the UI and increases the game’s frame rate. I think it’s targeting 60 frames per second, but wouldn’t be surprised if it’s running 50 per second instead. The game has frame drops here and there, including during cutscenes, which otherwise are rendered well and look great. Pac-Man World Re-Pac would really benefit from a Nintendo Switch 2 patch that increases the resolution and performance, but that seems unlikely – at the time of writing, there haven’t been many Switch 2 game upgrades at all. By the way, Re-Pac defaults to resolution mode and doesn’t tell you about performance mode unless you dig around in the settings – change this as soon as you start playing.
Re-Pac’s other flaws are fairly minor – some of the sound effects, particularly the noise that plays over and over again when you’re about to unlock a fruit gate, can be a little grating. Its signature mazes also aren’t very fun compared to the 3D platforming gameplay. But these flaws aside, Pac-Man World Re-Pac is a solid platformer worth a look for anyone who likes the genre. If you didn’t play the original game, you might feel somewhat unimpressed, but if you did play the original and haven’t picked this up, you absolutely should. It’s on sale quite often and shouldn’t be too difficult to get for a good price.
Have you played Pac-Man World Re-Pac, and are you looking forward to the sequel on Switch and Switch 2? Let us know in the comments down below.
