Developer: Namco Hometek
Publisher: Namco
Rated: E for Everyone
Released: September 30, 1999
I love Pac-Man, so it pains me to say that I hated Pac-Man World with every fiber of my being. I hated the disc the data was pressed on, the data itself, and every line of code contained therein. One would expect a Pac-Man platformer to be fun for the whole family. Instead what you get is the goddamn Dark Souls of Pac-Man games, where every step springs another deathtrap, forcing players to replay levels several times until they've committed them to memory in a cheap attempt to extend the game's length.
This was a common problem in the earlier days of platformers, and Pac-Man World embraces all of the worst principles of game development from its era. Frustrating trial and error gameplay, an uncooperative and immovable camera (despite being compatible with the DualShock analog controller), cheap deaths courtesy of ledges you can and will easily fall off of, cheap enemies and obstacles - you name it, it's all here. I quit after only two hours, yanking the disc from my console in disgust and requiring all of my willpower not to chuck it at the wall. I've beaten games like Super C and Mega Man on real hardware in recent years, but Pac-Man World bested me.
It's not just that the game is hard or cheap, but the cheapness sucks all the fun right out of the game. By the fifth time I'd attempted the game's second boss, Anubis Rex, I was so frustrated with the bullshit the game throws at you, I simply had no desire to continue trying. To give you an idea, the boss fight takes place in a sort of Mayan ruins setting with a giant stone statue of a deity. You're supposed to run on four small platforms, causing their fans to spin, which then causes the statue's arms to move, revealing its weak point. At first, it's simple enough - jump from platform to platform, avoiding fireballs that pop out of the lava surrounding them. In round two, more fireballs crash down from the background, but they're easy enough to avoid. Round three introduces a whirlwind, which makes it harder to avoid the fireballs that hit the platforms and is very difficult to jump over. In the fourth and final round, the statue itself shoots energy beams at you which, I swear to god, hit you if you're on the same side of the screen. It looks like you're safe, but the game indicates you've been hit, even if you're on a different platform or you attempt to jump over them.
It's really a shame because the game has lots of charm on the technical side of things. Pac-Man is very expressive, the colors are vibrant, the music generally riffs on familiar Pac-Man themes but with motifs that fit the stage, and there are even some 3D mazes you can unlock. These mazes also introduce many of the main game's traps, but it's balanced out by Pac-Man being able to take multiple hits before losing a life. By far, these are the best part of the game, but you have to scour the main stages for special icons that will allow you to open doors to access them. So I have to play the worst part of the game to access the best part? Cool.
Released to celebrate Pac-Man's 20th anniversary, Pac-Man World should have been a homerun. Instead, it's needlessly frustrating and not fun at all. I never expected I would unleash a torrent of curse words at a Pac-Man game, yet there I was. Pac-Man is unquestionably my favorite video game character of all-time, but he deserved better than this pile of trash. Pac-Man World can eat me.
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