Pac-Man's limited run of platformers or "Pac-formers" as i like to call them has been very hit or miss, the only one that I'd say is up to par with other Platformers is possibly Pac Man World 2 without 100% the game, World 1 is decent albeit poorly aged and World 3 is a classic 2000 mess despite it's writing being surprisingly funny and the Ghostly Adventures games while serrviceable, feel generic and don't use Pac Man's character to his strengths and also have awful production values.
This is where Pac Man World: Repac comes in, a remake of the first world game now modernized for modern consoles, the game showed a lot of promise when first shown but i did have some reservations after the Klonoa remasters had some backlash along with other recent remakes.
I'm glad to report this remake not only improves on an original game but is a pretty decent time like the first. There are some issues but i feel Repac shows an insane amount of promise if this is way that the world games can be ported.
Going on a tangent here, the original Pac Man World games with maybe the exeception of Pac Man World 2 can't be ported due to using Ms Pac Man which has some weird legal jargon, and now is replace with Pac-Mum which i gotta be honest, isn't a good design but is a small price to pay to have these games on modern consoles.
In terms of being a remake, this game looks and feels great! What surprised me is that the game actually has a performance mode on switch that runs at a lower resolution but runs at 60fps so that's nice, but the remake's artstyle is really good, I love a lot of the new designs except Pac-Mum, it's bright and colorful while also staying true to the original game, they did redesign Pac's Family and some Bosses along with changing cutscenes/level environments but a lot of them are for the better, like for example, if you don't save all his family members which are now optional to save, the original ending plays of Pac Man eating Orson which is now framed as the bad ending, the new ending follows the new cutscene where they celebrate the party but now the ghosts are there, wholesome.
Despite how good of a remake it is, there are some issues, they removed the fake bloopers as a 100% reward, they changed the power pellet ability so now Pac-Man grows big for some reason and the bonus mazes are still annoyning, however i think the good outweighs the bad such as the new hover power-up, new cutscenes with Toc-Man introducing the bosses, better and smoother controls, songs remain faithful to the original game while also improving on the sound design of the game as a whole and the best change, Bosses are now a lot more fair, gone is the one hit BS from Toc-Man'a final Boss and the annoying Anubis feels fun to fight due to the new platforms on ground, hell they even added some pinch modes to some other unremarkable Bosses in the game, making them more memorable, as far as remakes go this is good as it's gets.
The game however is decent enough, it follows Pac Man as he journeys through Ghost Island from an robotic imposter (Toc Man) as he saves his family after they're captured from his surpise Birthday. What makes Pac Man World great is Pac's movement, collecting items such as the fruits or PACMAN letters and level design, they use his design to it's fullest potential, though not to the extent of Pac Man World 2, Pac can butt bounce, roll and throw pellets he can collect. You also have Mazes which can be unlocked by collecting a certain fruit in a stage, the mazes aren't really that fun unfortunately, they rely way too heavily on gimmicks which hurst them heavily since they're pretty unprediactable most of the time.
Level design wise, this game is decent enough, it's not going to shake up the genre but is servicable enough and uses Pac-Man's abilities very well, it throws enough gimmicks such as racing, revving and using some of the power-ups in the game such the totally not stolen from Mario power-up the metal pellet, used for water sections.
This would be the part of the review where I'd listed some flaws but since the remake fixes most of them, i don't have many! In the original game some Bosses had some pretty unfair moments and the controls and camera (especially in the Racing sections) feeling off but a lot of these are thankfully fixed.
Overall, Pac Man World Repac is a great remake of an already solid game, it shows what a remake should do and does have some the pitfalls of some remakes such as unneeded fluff/changes but more than makes up for the fixes it does do and having a great artstyle, the Pac is actually back and I couldn't be happier.
This is where Pac Man World: Repac comes in, a remake of the first world game now modernized for modern consoles, the game showed a lot of promise when first shown but i did have some reservations after the Klonoa remasters had some backlash along with other recent remakes.
I'm glad to report this remake not only improves on an original game but is a pretty decent time like the first. There are some issues but i feel Repac shows an insane amount of promise if this is way that the world games can be ported.
Going on a tangent here, the original Pac Man World games with maybe the exeception of Pac Man World 2 can't be ported due to using Ms Pac Man which has some weird legal jargon, and now is replace with Pac-Mum which i gotta be honest, isn't a good design but is a small price to pay to have these games on modern consoles.
In terms of being a remake, this game looks and feels great! What surprised me is that the game actually has a performance mode on switch that runs at a lower resolution but runs at 60fps so that's nice, but the remake's artstyle is really good, I love a lot of the new designs except Pac-Mum, it's bright and colorful while also staying true to the original game, they did redesign Pac's Family and some Bosses along with changing cutscenes/level environments but a lot of them are for the better, like for example, if you don't save all his family members which are now optional to save, the original ending plays of Pac Man eating Orson which is now framed as the bad ending, the new ending follows the new cutscene where they celebrate the party but now the ghosts are there, wholesome.
Despite how good of a remake it is, there are some issues, they removed the fake bloopers as a 100% reward, they changed the power pellet ability so now Pac-Man grows big for some reason and the bonus mazes are still annoyning, however i think the good outweighs the bad such as the new hover power-up, new cutscenes with Toc-Man introducing the bosses, better and smoother controls, songs remain faithful to the original game while also improving on the sound design of the game as a whole and the best change, Bosses are now a lot more fair, gone is the one hit BS from Toc-Man'a final Boss and the annoying Anubis feels fun to fight due to the new platforms on ground, hell they even added some pinch modes to some other unremarkable Bosses in the game, making them more memorable, as far as remakes go this is good as it's gets.
The game however is decent enough, it follows Pac Man as he journeys through Ghost Island from an robotic imposter (Toc Man) as he saves his family after they're captured from his surpise Birthday. What makes Pac Man World great is Pac's movement, collecting items such as the fruits or PACMAN letters and level design, they use his design to it's fullest potential, though not to the extent of Pac Man World 2, Pac can butt bounce, roll and throw pellets he can collect. You also have Mazes which can be unlocked by collecting a certain fruit in a stage, the mazes aren't really that fun unfortunately, they rely way too heavily on gimmicks which hurst them heavily since they're pretty unprediactable most of the time.
Level design wise, this game is decent enough, it's not going to shake up the genre but is servicable enough and uses Pac-Man's abilities very well, it throws enough gimmicks such as racing, revving and using some of the power-ups in the game such the totally not stolen from Mario power-up the metal pellet, used for water sections.
This would be the part of the review where I'd listed some flaws but since the remake fixes most of them, i don't have many! In the original game some Bosses had some pretty unfair moments and the controls and camera (especially in the Racing sections) feeling off but a lot of these are thankfully fixed.
Overall, Pac Man World Repac is a great remake of an already solid game, it shows what a remake should do and does have some the pitfalls of some remakes such as unneeded fluff/changes but more than makes up for the fixes it does do and having a great artstyle, the Pac is actually back and I couldn't be happier.
2 Comments
No problem!
Nancyfly
1 year ago