Originally released back in 1999 on the Sony’s original grey box PlayStation 1, PAC-Man World is a classic 5th generation platformer that sold over a million copies upon its release. While not as well-remembered as Spyro and Crash Bandicoot to serious gamers, Pac-Man managed to prove that this small yellow pellet-munching circle could work in 3D over a decade ago in his first outing, something even Sonic has yet to figure out in 2022.

Since that much simpler time a ton of Pac-Man platformers have come and gone with different levels of success, but now Bandai Namco has gone back to the original with a full remake built from the ground up in unity for a new generation of players. And with 3D platformers still as relevant as ever, it’s nice to see more family-friendly games like this hitting the market once again.

This new remake takes advantage of the Unity engine which allows the game to feature a number of modern improvements and quality of life enhancements making for a smoother gameplay experience with an updated UI, incredibly crisp visuals, tightened controls, and a number of changes to boss battles that help revive a modern classic platformer.

Bosses have been expanded to the benefit of the experience, but the most notable change comes from the ledge-grab mechanic that now works all of the time. The original Pac-Man World suffered from edge clipping issues and seeing those address is a welcome change. Sure, the game is still as easy as ever, but that was part of the original games charm. Good games are good games regardless of their difficulty as long as they are fun, and Pac-Man World Re-Pac is loads of fun.

You play at the titular Pac-Man and it’s your job to rescue your Pac-Family and friends that has been captured by Toc-Man and his ghost pals in a numbers of stages across several worlds. You’ll be solving puzzles, bounce and bash enemies, and collect pellets that allow you to turn into Super-Pac to wipe out the ghosts that stand in your way.

During the adventure traditional 3D platforming action is spaced out alongside more classic arcade top-down maze sections as well as bunch of timed bonus stages that you can unlock along the way. Add in a bunch of stage collectibles that makes replaying stages much more enjoyable and fun new boss battles that really help make Pac-Man World Re-Pac a joy to play alone or alongside your kids.

All that said, there are still some issues most notably with the player positioning system. You can often lose track of your jumps in 3D and this leads to a number of cheap deaths. Thankfully lives are plentiful, but this is still annoying.

Let’s just hope that this one does well so we have the chance to see a remake of the second game in the series, which most people consider the best of the bunch.

Final Score:

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J. Luis

J. Luis is the current Editor-In-Chief here at GAMbIT. With a background in investigative journalism his work encompasses the pop-culture spectrum here, but he also works in the political spectrum for other organizations.

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