Following the release of the Pac-Man World remake in 2022, Bandai Namco has delivered fans the natural follow-up: Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac, a remake of the 2002 classic. Developed by Now Productions, who also worked on the remake of the first game, Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac is a proper remake with all new features, voice acting, collectables and even an altered level design. It’s a game clearly made with passion for the source materials and it really shows.
Pac-Man World: Re-Pac was a fairly straightforward remake of its original game, but that left it feeling rather dated in 2022, after decades of improvement to the genre. Pac-Man World: 2 Re-Pac does not have this problem. Even back with the original release, the game was a noticeable improvement over its predecessor, taking the familiar gameplay structure but opening it up with bigger levels, more interesting boss battles, more unique level mechanics and more polished presentation. And those improvements are made even better in the remake.
Unlike the original, Pac-Man is now fully voiced, with Martin T. Sherman returning to reprise the character after his debut in Pac-Man World 3. Every main character is fully voiced, to go along with the frequent cutscenes and story moments that has Pac-Man interacting with allies and foes alike, injecting more personality into Pac-Land itself. While the dialogue is full of puns and one-liners, as was the style in the early 2000s, it works with the overall tone of the Pac-Man series, a bright and colourful cartoon.
Visually, that’s how Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac presents itself. Levels are vibrant and more visually pleasing to look at than those found in the first Pac-Man World. The various Pac-enemies have a Looney Tunes-style quality to them that fits well alongside Pac-Man himself. The larger stages and more freedom provided to the camera help to make Pac-Land feel fun to platform through, unlike the more rigid and straightforward stages of Pac-Man World: Re-Pac.
That said, the level biomes themselves are fairly generic. Pac-Man World 2 does not take risks with its environmental design, sticking to the tried and true platform mascot selection of: plains, forest, ice world, lava world, water world and dark world. With the exception of the last one, presented as Ghost Island here, the levels themes don’t feel very Pac-Man like, especially for anyone entering the World series from Pac-Man’s more traditional arcade-like outings.
But, the actual quantity of levels and what to do in them is substantial, especially in this remake. Re-Pac adds an entire post-game campaign – 13 new levels to the game’s original 24. Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac also turns Pac-Village into a hub-world with its own secrets, adding another stage to explore.
Pac-Village is where a lot of the Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac’s new features can be found, such as the costume house and gashapon shop. The former allows Pac-Man to dress-up in several outfits, some of which reference other games in the Pac-Man series. These are unlocked by completing all three missions in every level (another new addition to the remake) while the latter lets Pac-Man obtain collectable figurines of varying rarity. There is one for every character, object and enemy in the game and these can be used as decorations around Pac-Village, allowing some customisation to the visuals of the HUB world. For fans of collectables, Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac really delivers.
Also found in the Pac-Village is the arcade, where the Maze mini-game can be played. This mode is a replication of the traditional Pac-Man arcade style, but with the hazards and abilities used by Pac-Man in World added in, like the Rev-Roll. These mazes are unlocked by collecting fruit in the main game, of which there is a lot. For anyone familiar with collectathon platformers, the fruit aren’t too difficult to find, and some stages are open enough that past areas can be revisited with ease.
The stages themselves are often quite varied, especially later into the game, but not all is perfect as the bosses can feel rather slow and archaic to fight against. World 3, the Ice World, is a perfect representation of Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac’s pros and cons. Each of its three platforming levels are excellent, introducing new mechanics and stage gimmicks that make all three feel incredibly unique. These then all come together in the fourth stage for a test of Pac-Man’s abilities. Unfortunately, the Polar Bear boss waiting at the end is slow and repetitive, where dying resets all progress.
The bosses are by far the weakest part of Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac, and some early stages are also a bit vanilla for long-time platforming fans. The entire first-world definitely feels like “baby’s first 3D platformer”, which does make this game a great introduction to the genre but for veterans it feels dull. Thankfully, from World 2 onwards the game really picks up and shows why the Pac-Man World series is as fondly remembered as it is.
