Pac-Man World 2 (パックマンワールド2 Pakkuman Wārudo Tsū) is a video game by Namco for Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, and PC released in 2002. Like the original Pac-Man World, the player controls the character of Pac-Man in a 3D platform game.
Story[ | ]
Long ago, back in medieval times, an evil spirit known as Spooky had terrorized all of Pac-Land. In response to this, the great Wizard Pac created a potion that turned 5 ordinary fruit into the "Golden Fruit." A young knight called Sir Pac-a lot fought and sealed Spooky underneath a large tree using the Golden Fruit, which were attached to the branches of the tree. In the present time late at night, Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Clyde sneak into the village and, in their mischief, pick the Golden Fruit off the tree in the center of town. Unfortunately, this has released Spooky from his prison. Spooky tells the ghosts to take the Golden Fruit and follow him if they wish to rid the land of the Pac-people forever. When Pac-Man awakes, he hears the news from Professor Pac about the Golden Fruit and Spooky, and sets off to defeat the ghosts and Spooky.
Gameplay[ | ]
The player controls Pac-Man in a 3D environment along a linear, yet three-dimensional path with the simple objective of reaching the end. The game has twenty-five levels and sixteen Galaxian mazes in six different environments. The plot involves Pac-Man finding five golden fruits that were stolen by ghosts. These fruits were vital to his town. Pac-Man sometimes must fight and defeat enemies in order to progress. At the end of each area is a boss. The boss is always a ghost in a giant machine (the fifth machine holds all four ghosts), excluding the final boss. There are many items to collect in this game including fruit, the traditional dots, and tokens. Each of the levels has eight tokens, as well as a single bonus token for achieving 100% completion on the level and another bonus token for completing the time trial. Because there are 19 non-boss levels, and because the Pac-Village doesn't have a time trial, you will have beat every part of the game with 100% completion except for possibly the last level if you accumulate 189 tokens. Galaxians, which show up once in most non-boss levels, transport Pac-Man into a 3-D maze, akin to the classic arcade games. Not all levels contain all of the collectible items, nor do they contain the same number of each.
The tokens unlock old Pac-Man incarnations in the arcade in Pac-Village. Critics have described these games as "perfect emulations".[1] These unlockable "emulations" are Pac-Man, Pac-Attack (The updated version from Namco Anthology 2), Pac-Mania, and Ms. Pac-Man, unlockable in that order. Also unlockable is a jukebox, which enables the player to listen to music from the game, as well as a gallery of concept art. However, the GBA version doesn't have any arcade games, even though it lists them in its copyrights when loaded.
This is one of the Pac-Man games where Blinky and Clyde's names were switched.
Time trials[ | ]
After completing any non-boss level, the player can attempt a time trial. The goal is to work through the level as quickly as possible after hitting the stopwatch at the beginning. Various clocks have been scattered throughout the level where items used to be. Collecting these clocks allows the player to recover the indicated number of seconds by stopping the clock; however, time clocks will not accumulate, sometimes making it better to skip a "2" clock less than two seconds after hitting a "4" clock. Unlike the standard game mode, the player must start the level over from the beginning if Pac-Man dies at any point in the time trial.
Reception[ | ]
The GameCube version of Pac-Man World 2 has an average score of 74% on Game Rankings. The PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions each have an average score of 68.2%.[2] The GameCube version became a Player's Choice title, the PlayStation 2 version became a Greatest Hits title and the Xbox version became a Platinum Hits title. The game has been criticized for its camera system, but praised for its musical score.[1]
The Player's Choice edition of the GameCube version included Pac-Man Vs. as a bonus pack-in.
Music[ | ]
The music composed for this game is lighthearted, save for some epic boss battle scores. Pac-Man World 2's music score is composed by David Logan Music, inc. For their website click here
References[ | ]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pac-Man World 2 Review. IGN. Retrieved on April 25, 2007
- ↑ Game Rankings. Retrieved on April 25, 2007