Between Super Mario Kart and Sonic R, I think I've been fairly lenient on janky, poorly aged mascot kart racers, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect that I'd extend that generosity towards my feelings towards Pac-Man World Rally.
But it doesn't earn that generosity in any aspect. The two aforementioned games triumph in areas that Pac-Man World Rally could only ever dream about.
Think about how Super Mario Kart's locales are either set directly on Dinosaur Land, such as Donut Plains and Chocolate Island, or draw heavily from it, such as how Vanilla Lake evokes the Vanilla Dome and Soda Lake, and how the Ghost Valley draws from the many ghost houses and Sunken Ghost Ship.
Sonic R, while not directly drawing as heavily on any one existing Sonic game, still makes fantastic use of familiar environments and themes while being completely in line with the visual and level design philosophies of the official games before it, arguably enhancing them in some ways.
The key result of all this is that Super Mario Kart ends up feeling very solidly and confidently Super Mario, and Sonic R the same to Sonic the Hedgehog - their identities as games are strengthened by their faithfulness and authenticity to their source material, in a way that extends not just to aesthetics but even in moment-to-moment gameplay design as well.
It's this aspect that Pac-Man World Rally completely drops the ball on in every way except for its great musical score. What on earth are these Pac-Bombs that mimic Mario Kart's shell in every way - including their color scheme - and why are they?
Mario's shells actually connect back to their associations in his home series, with Green, Red and Blue shells translating decently accurately to their personalities in the platformers.
By mindlessly bringing them over without any context, Pac-Man World Rally declares its source material it draws from is in fact its greatest competitor, which begs the question as to why you wouldn't play Double Dash instead of it.
Which is... not entirely true, actually. An effort was made, if you'll believe me! The Snowman that freezes enemies? Would you believe me if I told you that was a power-up from the 1983 Pac & Pal that I'm pretty sure me and five other people ever played?
You could argue that's a coincidence, but it absolutely isn't - Pac-Man World Rally borrows sound effects from it and Super Pac-Man, and it's fairly evident that the game did some amount of research within the entire Pac-Man series that extended beyond the Pac-Man World's rather trivial, superficial handlings of Namco's legacy.
So out of all the things that they would choose to reference, why was the only real thing they brought over an obscure power-up from an obscure video game? It's outright baffling.
Battle Mode actually does try to go a little further by weaponizing the bonus fruit from the original Pac-Man, a concept that Super Smash Bros. would later perfect, but it comes across as either a little half-hearted, or at the very least, half-baked. Smash's idea of giving each fruit very deliberate functions for different roles and situations seems absent, and... I mean, what on earth are some of these fruit? I think Pac-Man's set of the cherry, strawberry, orange, apple, melon, Galaxian, bell and key are fairly iconic - so what on earth is a watermelon doing here? Was that a kiwi I just saw? Why lemons?
And why is that design mentality not in the main game? Let's go back to the Pac-Bombs for a second. Even if we decide that okay, there's literally no other way to handle Mario Kart's system of tiered projectiles than a bomb, hear my opinion out:
- The bombs that just go on a set trajectory should be either orange or cyan. I think orange is a better pick to reference Clyde's non-committal approach to targeting his enemy, but I think you could make a valid argument about Inky.
- The bombs that navigate around the track to target an enemy should be pink. What is Pinky if not tactical and strategic around navigating a space to target an enemy?
- The bombs that target first place specifically should be red to reference Blinky and his persistence towards chasing Pac-Man.
That's the very minimum I'd ask from the game. Really. That doesn't even start to cover things like the Steel Ball from Pac-Man World! Or the Super Pellet from Super Pac-Man! Or the magical boots from Pac-Land! Or the sheer amount of references they could draw from other legacy Namco repertoire--
When I started writing this review, I expected to have very little to say about Pac-Man World Rally, to say that "it's just boring, there's no merit to it". But no - the more I write, the more Pac-Man World Rally irks me. It's a game that's absolutely unengaging to play (what references there are to the source material are cute but inconsequential at best - fruit gates like the first Pac-Man World - or just straight up obnoxious - like the Pac-Dots), but frustrating to think about.
Adam Neely said - paraphrased from The Music You Hate - that what most inspires antipathy is that which would normally instill empathy, but has fallen short to the point of feeling insincere. Pac-Man World Rally is that for me. I don't hate a lot of games - I casually dislike a lot of games, but I don't actively despise a lot of them.
Had I not thought to write about Pac-Man World Rally, my relationship with it would have ended with a nonplussed "meh".
But I decided to write about it, and thanks to it, I now find myself saddled with unnecessary... feelings.
But it doesn't earn that generosity in any aspect. The two aforementioned games triumph in areas that Pac-Man World Rally could only ever dream about.
Think about how Super Mario Kart's locales are either set directly on Dinosaur Land, such as Donut Plains and Chocolate Island, or draw heavily from it, such as how Vanilla Lake evokes the Vanilla Dome and Soda Lake, and how the Ghost Valley draws from the many ghost houses and Sunken Ghost Ship.
Sonic R, while not directly drawing as heavily on any one existing Sonic game, still makes fantastic use of familiar environments and themes while being completely in line with the visual and level design philosophies of the official games before it, arguably enhancing them in some ways.
The key result of all this is that Super Mario Kart ends up feeling very solidly and confidently Super Mario, and Sonic R the same to Sonic the Hedgehog - their identities as games are strengthened by their faithfulness and authenticity to their source material, in a way that extends not just to aesthetics but even in moment-to-moment gameplay design as well.
It's this aspect that Pac-Man World Rally completely drops the ball on in every way except for its great musical score. What on earth are these Pac-Bombs that mimic Mario Kart's shell in every way - including their color scheme - and why are they?
Mario's shells actually connect back to their associations in his home series, with Green, Red and Blue shells translating decently accurately to their personalities in the platformers.
By mindlessly bringing them over without any context, Pac-Man World Rally declares its source material it draws from is in fact its greatest competitor, which begs the question as to why you wouldn't play Double Dash instead of it.
Which is... not entirely true, actually. An effort was made, if you'll believe me! The Snowman that freezes enemies? Would you believe me if I told you that was a power-up from the 1983 Pac & Pal that I'm pretty sure me and five other people ever played?
You could argue that's a coincidence, but it absolutely isn't - Pac-Man World Rally borrows sound effects from it and Super Pac-Man, and it's fairly evident that the game did some amount of research within the entire Pac-Man series that extended beyond the Pac-Man World's rather trivial, superficial handlings of Namco's legacy.
So out of all the things that they would choose to reference, why was the only real thing they brought over an obscure power-up from an obscure video game? It's outright baffling.
Battle Mode actually does try to go a little further by weaponizing the bonus fruit from the original Pac-Man, a concept that Super Smash Bros. would later perfect, but it comes across as either a little half-hearted, or at the very least, half-baked. Smash's idea of giving each fruit very deliberate functions for different roles and situations seems absent, and... I mean, what on earth are some of these fruit? I think Pac-Man's set of the cherry, strawberry, orange, apple, melon, Galaxian, bell and key are fairly iconic - so what on earth is a watermelon doing here? Was that a kiwi I just saw? Why lemons?
And why is that design mentality not in the main game? Let's go back to the Pac-Bombs for a second. Even if we decide that okay, there's literally no other way to handle Mario Kart's system of tiered projectiles than a bomb, hear my opinion out:
- The bombs that just go on a set trajectory should be either orange or cyan. I think orange is a better pick to reference Clyde's non-committal approach to targeting his enemy, but I think you could make a valid argument about Inky.
- The bombs that navigate around the track to target an enemy should be pink. What is Pinky if not tactical and strategic around navigating a space to target an enemy?
- The bombs that target first place specifically should be red to reference Blinky and his persistence towards chasing Pac-Man.
That's the very minimum I'd ask from the game. Really. That doesn't even start to cover things like the Steel Ball from Pac-Man World! Or the Super Pellet from Super Pac-Man! Or the magical boots from Pac-Land! Or the sheer amount of references they could draw from other legacy Namco repertoire--
When I started writing this review, I expected to have very little to say about Pac-Man World Rally, to say that "it's just boring, there's no merit to it". But no - the more I write, the more Pac-Man World Rally irks me. It's a game that's absolutely unengaging to play (what references there are to the source material are cute but inconsequential at best - fruit gates like the first Pac-Man World - or just straight up obnoxious - like the Pac-Dots), but frustrating to think about.
Adam Neely said - paraphrased from The Music You Hate - that what most inspires antipathy is that which would normally instill empathy, but has fallen short to the point of feeling insincere. Pac-Man World Rally is that for me. I don't hate a lot of games - I casually dislike a lot of games, but I don't actively despise a lot of them.
Had I not thought to write about Pac-Man World Rally, my relationship with it would have ended with a nonplussed "meh".
But I decided to write about it, and thanks to it, I now find myself saddled with unnecessary... feelings.