Personal Rating: "Grab it during a sale"
Traditional Rating: 6/10
Genre: Platformer

Years ago when I still owned a PS2 I landed up buying PAC-MAN World 2 for the system. As a gamer who is almost 40 years old I grew up on the PAC-MAN arcade game as a kid. The original game swallowed more than enough coins of mine than I care to admit but it was always a solid good time with school mates when looking to kill an hour or two. Goodwill prompted me in the end to purchase PAC-MAN World 2 and all I remember of it was that it was a dismal game that failed on almost all the levels it tried to attempt. This was the period when platforming was king on consoles and everybody and his dog was trying to ensure their mascot became the champion mascot - the mascot that got to sell consoles ala Mario. However, PAC's transition to 3D platform hero was a horrid affair with terrible 3D graphics and even worse platform mechanics. It was a game that was quickly regulated to the bargain bin.

Unbeknownst to me I soon found out that PAC had been busy in the interim since I last saw him. Starring in his very own short lived cartoon show (seems the yellow chomping dot just can't get a break with today's modern audiences) and yet another attempt by Konami to make a platform star out of him with his newest adventure - PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures. I bought this title with great hesitation because when you have Nintendo and Mario in one corner and Ubisoft and Rayman in the other and then Activision literally dominating the space with its Skylander figurine's and game, a platform title emerging into this market has really got its work cut out for it because the market is already saturated with other middle-tier heroe such as Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank and Sonic the Hedgehog. Very little breathing space when all things are considered.

One can't help but feel sorry for poor Namco Bandai who haven't seemed to be able to get it right when it comes to branding and delivering a platform PAC that is a PAC for the ages. PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures is not a bad game by any means - it certainly plays and feels like a platform game but Namco is a little behind the curve here, about 20 odd years behind the curve to be exact. If ever a game was made from an early blueprint of what a platform game should play and feel like then this is that game. It has the all the obligatory levels you would have expected to find in a platform game circa 1990 from levels made out of ice to levels set in molten lava. The game is so old-school in its design and implementation that you would think it was literally an artifact dug up from that time period. When you have platform games like Rayman Legends pushing the boundaries in literally hundreds of different creative directions it becomes much harder to recommend a title like this one.

Whilst certainly not bad in terms of PAC-MAN World 2 kinds of terrible - it's certainly not top tier stuff either for the gamer who demands just that little bit more from his platform games. It's all very middle of the road but despite itself it's still fun to play in small bursts. In fact this may be the perfect game to get for the little ones and I would heartily recommend you do pick it up when it goes on sale if you have bambino's running around but if you are an old time gamer like myself who has seen and done it all, PAC-MAN and the Ghostly Adventures will offer you nothing new. You will get a solid, short little game that can be played through in about 5-8hrs and then when you are done with it you will have already promptly forgotten it.

Get it on sale if you must pick it up. Already within the month of purchasing, playing and writing this review the game has dropped from $29.99 to $19.99. I wouldn't pay full price like I did for this but it appears that some old childhood icons will die hard. Well for me at least.

I have all the achievements. I have only ~9 hours playtime. It is simply too short. It's also really easy, perhaps that's to be expected for a game marketed towards kids who watch the TV show.

- In-game, Pac-Man can transform into a variety of unique and fun forms, fire throwing, ice beams, magnetic powers, bouncy ball mode (for walljumping) and such, all keep the gameplay from being too bland.
- Each level is very quick, but are plagued by constant cutscenes (again, designed for young kids) that distract from any flow in gameplay. Expect to enter a zone via a cutscene (all unskippable) and watch another cutscene that explains that pressing 3 bright red buttons will open a door; then each button has a cutscene to show you've pressed it, then when you go through the door, you watch a cutscene of Pac-Man enter the next zone. This is how much of the game plays out.
- The collectibles for bonus levels in game are the rewards for completing each level, so there's not much incentive to explore the (sometimes) slightly open areas, though much of the game is strictly linear. The only collectibles that aren't collected via story-play are the colourful Slimetanium which respawn in the same place every level.
- Bonus arcade levels themselves are very entertaining, playing out like arcade games, that vary in difficulty, but none of them too challenging. However, they are all only 4 levels long. Unfortunately, if you happen to run out of arcade tokens to play these bonus levels, you'll have to go hunt for them in levels (some as hidden collectibles in levels, some as level completion reward bonuses). [Notably, the game refers to the extremely short levels that spit out tokens for these arcade games as the actual "Bonus Levels" when they appear as otherwise normal levels on the world map.]
- Achievement Hunters will find that completing the game to 100% will likely reward you with all the achievements, bar ~4 achievements for killing X enemies with Y form, or for completing the bonus arcade games.
- The multiplayer mode is primitive, limited to local 4-player split screen mode in which you take control of the 4 ghosts, Inky, Pinky, Blinky & Clyde, trying to hunt down Pac-Man competitively, using weapons against each other in hope of claiming Pac-Man's short yellow life. 3 of Pac-Man's lives later, the person with the most points wins (Destroying Pac-Man's worthless cheese-like body earns many points). It's fun, but without friends, relatively pointless and offers no longevity.
- Boss battles are entertaining and unique, offering, usually, a puzzle revolving around the latest new Pac-Man form. They are very simplistic, often bosses only have 3 health; however, the game does not offer any help in figuring out the boss health, nor are the boss attacks telegraphed very well, and random jumping and dodging is usually the only system for victory.
- Criminally, there is no way of playing the original Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man (who happens to be non-existant in this canon). Seems odd to not even include a graphically upgraded version of the arcade classic.
- Graphically, this game isn't at all taxing (it was designed for Wii U) but the visuals remain crisp and colourful, with no impact on performance at any stage.
- Finally, the story is pretty much what you'd expect from a game based on a show. Pac-Man has to take on the evil Ghost Lord Betrayus, and follows him through many worlds till the climactic final boss showdown.

This game is pretty entertaining, I had a lot of fun for 9 hours, but it is far too short and too easy for the price tag. Get it really cheap in a sale (as with all things on Steam, Praise Gaben).

If youve played pacman world on the playstation this will bring back happy memories

After covering half of this game so far, it's not bad to say that as far as platformers go, this is worth your time if you're A.) Fan of the series B.) you don't mind skillful platformers C.) You love Pac-Man or something different in its entirely. Since it's based off the show, it might give you some insight on what the show's about. Game-wise, it's Pac-Man with superpowers, some good and not so good, depending on how it works for you is what matters. Although I can say that this is a platformer that really makes you think and how Pac operates really helps things. Now this is NOT your parents' Pac-Man, it's a whole new Pac-World with a story that you might get a few laughs out of it and well, you get Pac-Man burping at the end of every stage and it's worth a good laugh. I recommend this game only if you're into platformers and otherwise.

Pacman is one of my fav games i love it and it seems that anyone else who has played it hates it i dont know why its fun with cool power ups and decent graphics and i an understand why people are upset about how they made it more "hip" but realy thats a turn for the better by introducing pac-man to a new era of gamers and helping the old washed away hero become popular again sure they changed his roots but thats why they needed to do in order to keep the pac surviving and dont get me wrong here this IS NOT A GREAT GAME ITS NOT 10/10 GOTY but its stil good and a nice to see a "New Pac" so while this game has its negatives it also has its ups and downs.

I give this game a 8/10 Namco did not take a ♥♥♥♥ on pac-man they did what they had to do to survive in this day and age of gaming and i respect them for that and yes it is true THE PAC IS BACK