Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac is a 3D Platforming Game was released in 2025 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, Switch 1 & 2, and PC.
It was developed by Now Production and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, and it is also a full remake of 2002's 3D Platforming Game titled as Pac-Man World 2 as well as the sequel to 2022's remake of 1999's original titled as Pac-Man World Re-Pac.
Around 3 years ago, I've previously reviewed the 2022's remake for PS4 which I've praised the game as a good remake title which the fans of the 1999's original version will likely to appreciate with the visual overhaul and improved controls, while still retains with great platforming levels, cool boss segments, and has unlockable features are quite good enough to recommended to those who loves platforming games in general.
If you haven't previously seen my review on Pac-Man World Re-Pac for PS4 then the link is down below to check it out first:
So going back to this now, I am here to review the second installiment which is why I've picked up the PS5 copy of Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac to see if the sequel does add-up anything better with the new content and enhancements, so the stuff will be answered on this review because we are taking a look of the 2025's remake to see what the game has to offer in terms of platforming adventures, visual presentation, challenging gameplay design, and of course the additional features.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The story sets in the present day begins with the colourful group of 4 trouble-making ghosts such as Blinky, Clyde, Inky, and Pinky had sneaked into the Pac-Village, a homeland of Pac-People, at night to cause mischief as they began to steal the shiny magical objects known as the golden fruit are used to protect the Pac-Village, but unfortunately the removal of the magical golden fruit had caused to release the powerful evil ghost knight named Spooky from the tree and commands them to aid his plan to eliminate all Pac-People and their homes, so the ghosts accepts the agreement and each one takes the golden fruit with them as they follow the Spooky's commands.
In the next morning, Pac-Man had receive the terrible news from Professor Pac informs him that the golden fruit was stolen by the ghosts and urges him to go on the quest to retrieve all the stolen golden fruit in order to save Pac-Land before its too late.
The opening story in the game is quite positive which I really liked the idea of how the ghost villains had unexpectingly releases the evil ghost knight from the tree which gives Spooky an advantage to conquer the Pac-People's home land as his plans.
I also liked the backstory set in 100 years prior to the game's events mentioned by Professor Pac had told Pac-Man about the history of magical golden fruit is the important reason to keep the Pac-Land protected from the evil hands of purple ghost knight, which is why Pac-Man had agreed to go on his adventure to retrieve all the stolen golden fruit that the ghosts had kept with themselves.
It is a simple and easy to get into story that I absolutely liked the beginning of the opening scene right just before getting ready for the platforming adventure.
The characters are likable throughout the campaign especially like Pac-Man is an iconic mascot hero we all know since from the beginning of the early 80s of golden-age arcade with waka-waka around the maze with full of pellets that made him recognisable, so what do I think about Pac-Man as the character in this game? the answer is that I still liked him as a character who has light-hearted personality and fun adventurer goes on his exciting quest.
I also liked the 4 coloured ghosts villains which has Blinky the red ghost who is the leader of ghosts gang and also portrayed as the most aggressive ghost known to have a short tempered but also a good friends with his ghosts, then you have Pinky the pink ghost are the only female ghost and appears to be pretty as she attempts to have a crush on Pac-Man, then you have Inky the blue ghost is often depicted as a goofy and slow-headed ghost are not quite as strong compared with Blinky but also quite good at teamwork with the ghosts, and finally Clyde the orange ghost is quite something else who is not quite clever and also chickened out from chasing after Pac-Man making him one of the most bashful of all ghosts.
I say Spooky is incredibly look badass because it's sort of like Kirby's Meta Knight on steroids so judging with the heavy-bulk armor and his strengthy power that made him look menacing and strong which I quite liked his appearance and portrayal as the vicious brute villain.
The presentation for whole game is looking fantastic which I described these settings as bright, colourful, and cartoony for sceneries and design-wise, so I say I really liked the environmental stages and structures on each worlds.
It has paradise meadows filled with bright day environment such as green grass on the ground, shorter broadleaf trees, and many colourful plants.
The tree tops has large sized trees and logs, and of course the tree house just fits the style of forrest site.
The snowy mountain are the cold environment region are covered with snow, frozen water, and of course the icy ground.
The volcano are the hot environment area filled with ground lava, magma chamber, and of course the tomb structures.
The ocean is a underwater site with sea animals including sharks and jellyfish, sea plants and sand on the ground, and of course massive-sized shipwheck underneath the ocean water.
The ghost island is a halloween-style place filled with night-time environment such as haunted houses, graveyards full of tombs, swamp areas, and of course bunch of minions like ghosts, bats, spiders, and skeletons wandering around.
Then lastly a Pac-Village are the home land of Pac-People filled with houses, arcade club, garden full of fruits, and of course the outdoor stuff like statues used for collectable figurines and tree that holds the golden fruits.
Overall, it has simple opening story, memorable cast of characters, and fantastic presentation settings.
Gameplay
On single-player playthrough, you'll start off with the overworld map where you get to select any of stages on each worlds, so you're playing as Pac-Man in 3rd-person perspective as your main goal is to beat the stage and defeat each bosses in order to retrieve all golden fruit they stole from the Pac-Village.
You have 2 difficulty options to select that suits your playstyle such as the adventure mode is basically regular difficulty for those who are fully experienced with the 3D platforming games with the greater level of overall tougher challenge, where as the fairy mode is genuinely easy with assist hover jumps, adds platforms to difficult gaps, and infinite health are only for less experienced players.
Push the left-stick controls or d-pad buttons to move Pac-Man around, and push the right-stick control to rotate the camera system.
Press the cross button to jump used for jumping on the platforms, but rapidly pressing the cross button will make Pac-Man bounce on the floor which acts as ground pound attack on the enemies, but you can also perform a high-jump by pressing the cross button while bouncing in mid-air at the same time as when you see yellow-circle symbol on the screen touches and flashes Pac-Man causing him to bounce-up high works mostly better for higher platforms.
The bounce are also used for breaking objects like boxes, hitting ground switches to activate things, and of course jumping on trampolines to reach long-distance platforms.
You can also use flutter while in mid-air to float through the platform by holding the right-shoulder button which lasted in 2 seconds.
Pac-Man has ability to use flip-kick by pressing the square button which used as an melee attack on enemies or then again breaking objects and hitting switches on the wall.
You can use those Pac-dots as a throwable attacking item by holding the circle button while aiming with left stick, then let go the circle button to throw which works effectively depending on which types of enemies that are immune to the Pac-dots except ghosts which cannot be hurt by throwable Pac-dots or jumping on them.
The only way to defeat the ghosts is to use large-sized power pellets that turns Pac-Man into a mega-sized form allowing him to eat ghosts, who turned fully blue becoming vulnerable against large-sized Pac-Man, in limited time.
Pac-Man can also perform charge dash by holding then let go the triangle button which can be used as dashing attack on enemies, reaching up the slippery-slope platforms, and activating moving platforms such as ramps and stuff.
Pac-Man can able to hold on cliffs such as gaps and ropes, so you can able to let go, climb, and cross through the ropes in some stages.
Pac-Man are also has ability to swim underwater by pressing the right-trigger and right-shoulder button to float up and dive down, where as the cross button used as dive dash allowing him to traverse through or used as dash attack on enemies.
So far, the controls plays really great with smooth analog movement, fine camera rotation, and of course the timing of bouncy jump just feels right to play, so you can also re-configure the control layouts on the option menu which also really helps anyone who mostly prefers the customised controls over the default controls makes it suitable for their playstyle.
Aside with the controls, I wanted to talk about how good the single-player adventure really is that something that made the game quite fun for its stage action segments, overall design layouts, challenges, and of course the boss battles.
Each of the stages had shares with many chaotic things that are doing something better than the first original game, so you may encounter with a massive-sized snow boulder came rolling down like Crash Bandicoot style and you had to do a skating segments to race through the stage while dodging all these hazardous objects in snowy mountains stage.
Then you had the ocean stage where you had to avoid getting caught by large-sized shark may give you an instant kill, and my favourite part has to be a yellow submarine segments which is basically a rail-shooter style action where you had to shoot down many enemies and hazardous objects to avoid taking damage until you've reached at the finishing goal.
In ghost island, you had one of the puzzle area of maze where you had to rotate the paths in order to get through the blocked stage, and you had to destroy all of wormwood's hosts to defeat him.
I also wanted to praise the overall stage design which I really liked how the platforming games are designed to make it looked dangerous for curtain areas such as the tree tops stages are filled with buzzsaws and gas hub on the logs to avoid touching these obstacles, and you have to jump on these trampolines to being able to reach the platforms from far distance and higher heights, and of course you need to get across these ropes without falling off the stage.
In snowy mountains, there are slippery floors that made you trip or fall over the gaps, you could sometime fall into the icy pond for instant death, and there are multiples of snow boulders or ice particles at above came tumbling down at you in some areas.
In volcano, you need to get across these large platforms without falling off stage, trying not to touch these hot lavas on the ground, and evading all these traps like flames and fiery objects in some areas.
In ocean, there are multiples of spike bombs, propellers, and electrifying sea animals to avoid contacting them.
In ghost island, there are full of swamps in some area that may suck you down under may lead instant death, and there are flying bats wandering in circle may come in your way while going through the squared-shaped platforms.
These stage segments and design layouts is quite positive that really adds up the overall challenge, but if its not enough to impress you then you got to love the post-game stages which adds up a difficult layouts and also expands the stage design into a large-sized portion that makes it look impossible but also a chance to beat the stage may going to satisfy your platforming experience.
I also liked the task challenge in each stage where you have to complete each of the objectives such as gaining high score, collect all fruits, defeating all enemies, and of course breaking all boxes which is totally fine for most part, but to be honest on this thing that kinda drags my fun part away which is the time trial challenge where you had to beat the stage in short time in order to get a new record, so having a new record will reward you with the each medals like bronze, silver, and gold depending on how long takes you to beat the stage, but unfortunately it turned out the time trial challenge is quite a frustrating time to gain the gold medal is due to unforgiving time record length may require you to memorising the stage patterns and avoid repeating all the faults until you're finally being able to beat the time trial stage takes you more than 2 to 3 hours to solve is something that I cannot enjoy as much in comparison with the task challenge are simply not as hard.
I got to say that I really liked the boss battle in each worlds such as you have Clyde controlling with killer frog has ability to use tongue grabber which can drags you inside and began chewing you in pieces, where as on golden form uses the tongued spike ball as an weapon.
Then you have Inky uses the metallic owl for not only to fly around but also throws metallic feathers directly at you where as on golden form fires the laser beam and 5-shot golden feathers.
Then you may encounter with Pinky had a mecha-polar bear firing multiples of missiles, where as the golden form fires the ice beam around the circle.
Then you'll be facing with Blinky in the heavy metal concert with his mecha-spider firing the 4-floating musical notes directly at you, where as golden form fires multiples of fire balls, spider webs, and of course the extended musical notes projectiles.
Then you'll be facing all 4 ghosts gang with their mega-whale which fires sea missiles and laser beam, where as the golden form which shoots out massive range of sea beam and then you'll entered inside the body of mega-whale are full of laser projectiles to avoid while trying to destroy the core covered with golden cogs.
Finally you'll be facing Spooky has ability to shoot multiples of fire balls and lightings, summoning bunch of skeletons, decoying his two version of himself, and finally his golden form unleashes his projectiles makes the patterns difficult to dodge things.
The post-game stages are also had a same bosses but has different attacking patterns and obstacles to evade that made these bosses much more tougher and badder than was before which makes the overall challenge quite high-up to the level is just insanely chaotic but damn near good fun to play.
As I love the stage and bosses, I also liked the replay-values where you can able to re-visit the stages that you're already completed which means you can able to do things like collecting all fruits or completing tasks which unlocks the collectable items like vending machines which unlocks the collectable figurines which requires enough tokens to reveal each figures so that you can place your favourite figurines outdoor as an display statues, then you will have collectable music items which stored onto the juke box to listen your favourite original soundtrack, then you will have key item which unlocks bonus maze challenge plays really similar to traditional Pac-Man game which can be played on arcade club centre, and finally these arcade cabinets which lets you play these classic Pac-Man games from the past such as the original arcade Pac-Man, the isometric maze-style action Pac-Mania, and of course the SNES's puzzle game Pac-Attack.
I really loved these kinds of content that has unlockable stuff that made my reason to play this game that offers really cool thing being included on this package.
I got to mention the DLCs level pack based on SEGA's Sonic the Hedgehog are also an welcome edition to this game which is quite unexpecting to see a collaboration between SEGA and Bandai Namco had agreed to bring the blue blur's iconic stage into a yellow-chomping platforming game, just like they did a same with the yellow-chomping hero being included on recent blue-blur's racing game is something that is cool to have a 3rd-party guest in video games.
Overall, it has great controls, fun and challenging platforming stages, entertaining boss battles.
Graphics
The graphics in this game is just look so good in details depending on how these environmental stage design, textures and surfaces, colours and effects, and the overall animation really compares to the 2002's original game.
The key difference is that the stage design in this remake tends to be look larger in comparison because the 2002's original game is slightly bit a narrow-side and has less detailed layouts due to 6th-gen hardware's limits, where as the remake has many background layouts and has open-wide levels to make it look fully spaced which I really liked the additions that made the game look appealing on many stages.
I say the details on stage environments tends to be a bold and sharp just adds up a cartoon feel with great use of textures and surfaces appears to be look fine in many areas.
The use of colours are brightful and clean that keeps the environments simple and nicely balanced without making any wrong level of roughness and smoothness, and I also liked the use of special effects in some areas like the shade of shadows, shiny and glittery particles, and sharp lighting effects are done it quite decently.
The character's animation is quite solid for its movements and expressions are amazingly job well done on cutscenes and in-game action, and of course the overall character's design appears to be look better than the 2002's original game...no pun intended, guys.
The game's performance for PS5, XSX/S (X series), and PC are fully ran on 4K native resolution with 60fps delivering a smooth overall experience, where as the XSX/S (S series) runs on 1440p resolution with 60fps are also quite acceptable.
The Switch 2 has 2 options such as performance mode which targets at 1080p resolution with 60fps for better gameplay where as the resolution which targets at 4K resolution with 30fps are genuinely not as good in comparison with PS5 and XSX/S for visual performance, so stick it to performance mode instead if playing on Switch 2.
The PS4 and XBONE ran on 1080p resolution with 60fps which still maintains the good framerate but has lower resolution compared to PS4 Pro which succeeds to 4K resolution with same 60fps.
Sadly the Switch 1 can ran up to between 720p and 1080p resolution with 30fps is by far the weakest of all consoles is not quite nearly smooth as the PS4, XBONE, and Switch 2 in comparison.
Overall, it has bold and sharp environments, solid animation, good usage of colours, and good performance.
Music and Sounds
The soundtrack in this game is very good which I really liked the light-hearted adventurous score that really fits the style of platforming games.
It almost sounds like the combination of Thomas the Tank Engine and Crash Bandicoot been mixed together seems to work well on many stages, so some music can be cartoony, some can be epic, and some can be catchy to listen is something that I would adore the rest of the soundtrack.
While it was composed by David A. Logan, he was not involved in the 2024's remake project which is why all his original soundtrack from the 2002's original game are all included in this game to add faithfulness that made Pac-Man World 2 sounds decently.
The sound effects are also good with the use of bouncy noises, comical sound design, and cartoony environmental effects that matches the stage presentation and platforming segments, and I got to say that the voice casting in this game are pretty did a great job especially we had the original voice actor, who previously voiced the titular yellow-chomping hero from 2005's Pac-Man World 3, reprising his role as Pac-Man which I am glad this remake has finally adds the full voice acting that was never featured in the 2002's original game.
Overall, it has very good soundtrack, decent sound effects, and great voice acting.
Special Features
Then again that I've mentioned before, the game has many collectables including fruits and figurines, soundtracks, bonus maze stage, 4 classic games, and of course the Sonic the Hedgehog DLC pack includes level and costume.
Overall, a stunning overall package.
Advantages
Fantastic presentation settings
Fun and challenging platforming stages
Entertaining boss battles
Has replay-values
Solid graphics
Very good music
Stunning collectable and unlockable features
Disadvantages
Time trial is not great
Switch 1 version has poor performance (stick to other consoles instead)
Final Verdict
Presentation 8/10 - simple opening story, memorable cast of characters, and fantastic presentation settings.
Gameplay 8/10 - great controls, fun and challenging platforming stages, entertaining boss battles.
Graphics 8/10 - bold and sharp environments, solid animation, good usage of colours, and good performance.
Music and Sounds 8/10 - very good soundtrack, decent sound effects, and great voice acting.
Special Features 8/10 - collectables including fruits and figurines, soundtracks, bonus maze stage, 4 classic games, and of course the Sonic the Hedgehog DLC pack includes level and costume.
Overall 8/10 - As I previously enjoyed the 2022's remake of the 1999's original game, Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac is one of the better remake and also better sequel than the predecessor in terms of stage design, platforming segments, boss battles, and overall content are the main reason to enjoy Pac-Man's platforming adventure.
Nothing wrong with chomping up bunch of ghosts, eating and throwing pellets around, collecting all fruits, and of course jumping and bouncing on the platforms is something that keeps me playing this game overnight.
I was hoping the team will consider making another future remake project with the 2005's original game titled as Pac-Man World 3 just to see if anything is just a good as this game has to offer.
This game could cost about between £30 to £35 physically for PS5, XSX/S, and Switch 1 & 2, where as the digital releases on PS Store, Xbox Store, and Nintendo eShop cost £35, while Steam cost cheaper with £25.
Is the game an recommendation for everyone? I say for platforming fanatic yes it is an definite play because it's a fun and charming 3D platforming action that will never disappoint for those who loves to play platforming video games is the good reason to own the game.
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