'Pac-Man World 2 Repac’ Mini Review

Developer: Bandai Namco | Platform: PS5 | Playtime: 6:25 (+ 0:45 into Post Game)

I imagine the plan was always to remaster the first two Pac-Man World games but the success of the first has bought some extra budget for the sequel and it shows. Bigger doesn’t always mean better though.

Moderate gameplay spoilers follow. Reader Discretion is advised

The story follows the ghosts infiltrating Pac Village at night to steal the Golden Fruit on its centre tree. Stealing them unleashes Spooky, an ancient ghost who was trapped beneath. Now unleashed, he vows to take over Pac-Land. Naturally, Pac-Man is tasked with stopping him by retrieving the stolen Golden Fruit. Not everything has to be Shakespeare.

Much like its predecessor, the game’s 6 worlds each contain 3 levels and a boss fight to contend with. Unlike its predecessor, levels are no longer these 2.5D affairs but instead we have Crash esque linear levels though admittedly they are a little wider and have more secrets scattered throughout. I will say some of these levels do feel like they go on ever so slightly too long maybe like a checkpoint or so longer than is fun. The boss fights definitely suffer from this too, each has six hit points when they could quite comfortably be three.

After you beat the each level, you’ll discover that there’s 3 missions to be completed in every stage – killing all enemies, collect all fruit, something more specific as well as time trials to engage in. Unfortunately I didn’t really delve too much into these because for whatever reason the boss fights have time trials too and I wasn’t interested in suffering through that.

Also new is the ability to decorate the hub world of Pac-Village with statues earned from the Gacha machine. You use coins you find in levels to pay for this and there’s over 100 to collect. It’s a fine enough addition I suppose but it does nothing for me and I do have to question what the thought process behind it was.

Finally in terms of new additions is the Post Game story, of which I didn’t play much. From what I can tell it’s hard mode versions of the games worlds. Each world has only the first level and the boss fight rather than all of the levels but both the level and boss are expanded and changed beyond just cosmetic differences. It’s interesting but it wasn’t for me.

There’s no denying that Pac-Man World 2 Repac is fun but there’s just parts of it that didn’t massively resonate with me – the game has an air of one step forward then one step back. I enjoyed my brief time with the game but upon reflection, I don’t think it can hold a candle to the first game.