Customer Reviews

Pac Man World 3

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having had some experience with Pac-Man from the Atari 2600 days, as well as with newer Pac-Man titles like Pac-Man World Rally, Pac-Man: Adventures in Time, and Pac-Man All Stars on the PC, I have an affinity for Pac-Man. Also, I've thought since the Pac-Man World franchise debuted that it was sort of a novel thing to see Pac-Man join other iconic platform stars such as Mario, Pitfall Harry, Sonic, Crash, Gex, Jazz Jackrabbit, and Rayman in having his own series of platform adventures. So I decided to pick up Pac-Man World 3 when I saw it at Gamestop this past Saturday.

I'll say right off that I like the game even though I was a bit disappointed with the cheapened down production values (no jewel case), though the box has some mild embossing, and you do get a manual. I vaguely remember seeing a PC port of Pac-Man World 2 available not-so-long ago as well, and I've been having a good enough time with this game that I've decided now that I will probably pick it up too (stay tuned for the review). The game looks better than it's console brethren via courtesy of the PC's higher resolutions, and superior anti-aliasing (assuming you have the video card for it). The game will inevitably look, and perform better on a gaming computer, but it's system requirements are modest, and it doesn't demand anything outrageous. As you might suspect, the game does include native gamepad support, but no rumblepad support--which may or may not matter to you depending on whether or not you have one, but to me, this often neglected option becomes a question of why shouldn't the game have it as opposed to why it should. Another possible drawback is that it doesn't have the polish and refinement found in the big name platformers. The game can seem somewhat simplistic, at times repetitive, and like something you can't quite put your finger on is somehow missing. Avid fans of mascot platformers shouldn't expect the challenge, varied gameplay, or replayability found in Mario, Sonic, Crash, and Rayman franchises. This is a 25th anniversary commemorative more than anything else, and there's only so much can be done with a concept this old without alienating the core audience. Still, it is a value title, and as long as you know what you're getting going in, and accept it for what it is, you won't get your feelings hurt.

As far as gameplay goes, you're getting most everything you would expect to get from a mascot platformer. The game is fun, at times funny, entirely kid/family friendly, and you get your standardized platform game plot line of 'zany evil genius after world domination creates terrible machine, blah, blah blah'. The levels are colorful, well designed and decorated with a good diversity of environments which goes a long way towards making exploring them fun. Some of the platform jumping levels can get a bit tense, but doesn't ratchet up the frustration factor too much. Pac-Man World retains many core gameplay elements of the original game, but has been updated to be comparable to modern platformers. One of several new conventions introduced in this title is the ability to control Pinky and Clyde, and Pac-Man himself has several new moves--along with all the moves he had in Pac-Man World 1 and 2, Pac-Man can punch, wall jump, pole swing, and now has a much appreciated look ability. You also get to go on an item hunt as you trudge through the game (presumably to open up unlockables though I don't know what those are since I haven't completed the game yet) like collecting trophies which are awarded whenever Pac-Man eats all the fruit in any given level, and finding collector's cards. Pac-Man also gets new power ups like Ribbon Loop, and Electro shock which are allot of fun to use against enemies as well. You also get a spattering of mini-games throughout the game as there are several areas where you can teleport, and try your luck with several classic Pac-Man maze levels. My single gripe with these however, is that the developers should have included Pac-Man's jump ability. Even this is a minor ding though, it just would have been nice to have given that fans have grown accustomed to it since it's been included in Pac-Man games for some time now, dating all the way back to "Adventures in Time" for Dreamcast, and PC. There were also a handful of instances where the camera became a problem, but to be fair, almost all 3D mascot platformers usually have camera problems to some extent, so I guess that's to be expected. There's also a very cool museum (accessible from the main menu) where you'll find an emulator with a full version of the original arcade game, an interview with the original designer, a collector's card viewer, a Pac timeline, and a preview of the already available Pac-Man World Rally.

All said and done, I'm going to give Pac-Man World 3 a good grade with minor dings for AWOL rumblepad support, and low production values (hence, the 4 star ratings). Overall, I'm satisfied with my purchase--I'm having a good time with the game, and don't see myself selling or trading it anytime soon. But as with Pitfall: The Lost Expedition, I think this game's main selling points are it's personality, and high nostalgia factor. But it definetely stands on it's own merits as a fun, entertaining mascot platform adventure, and it's a worthy bargain bin purchase for fans of Pac-Man, and mascot platformers.

UPDATED EDIT: Because this game uses the Starforce copy protection system which installs a proprietary unsigned driver, it is NOT Windows 7 compatible. However, it should work with Windows Vista so long as signed driver enforcement is disabled.

I have played many,MANY Pac-Man games, but none were so challenging, and funny, as this one was. All the bad guys and villonous machines are cute and funny,or, most of them. The
good guys are weird, but cute. I love how you can play as ghosts when your path is blocked or you are facing enimies in cases when no power pellets are around.The bot boneyard,banni canyon,spectral relm,Gogeka,and all the other worlds are all very cute and cheerful. If the rating above did 1 to 100 instead of 1 to 5,
I would still put it on the highest number. Its my favorite Pac game so far, and I definetly recomend it.