When Pac-Man World came out on the Sony PlayStation in 1999, one of my parents rented it from Blockbuster for me to play. I must have rented that game a dozen times after that over the span of probably several years. I loved it so much, that I was incredibly excited when Pac-Man World Re-Pac was announced since I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who talked about playing it as much as I did.

Now, as we get into what Pac-Man World Re-Pac is about, if you’ve been a fan of Pac-Man at all since his creation, you might notice an interesting change. In Pac-Man World Re-Pac, you play as Pac-Man, who must save his family from the evil ghosts, who kidnapped them on his birthday. It is a notable change that Pac-Baby and Ms. Pac-Man are absent.

Well, not technically absent. They have been renamed and redesigned to Pac-Sis, and Pac-Mom. I highly encourage you to check out this page about the ownership and history of Ms. Pac-Man, as it is incredibly fascinating. While this doesn’t technically impact the review, I couldn’t help but include it here as an interesting piece of gaming history.

In regards to properly reviewing Pac-Man World Re-Pac, it is a 3D Platformer in the vein of games like Donkey Kong and Crash Bandicoot, or even the Klonoa franchise. There are a variety of worlds (called areas) that have differing themes and house a different member of the Pac-Fam. By exploring each level in the world, you’ll gain keys to free the family, and ultimately face down a boss of each area.

Each Area has differing mechanics and gimmicks, but a few of them carry over. You can collect the letters of Pac-Man’s name scattered throughout each level, which are a part of the completion. It isn’t required, but if you want to get the full clear of a level (more than just getting to the end) you’ll have to find them all. It might take multiple playthroughs of a level, but they’re cleverly hidden.

There are switches you can press to do various things depending on the Area or gimmick, and there are powerups that change how Pac-Man’s abilities work. Pac-Man starts with just a butt-bounce and a dash. However, a metal pellet lets you kill metal enemies and sink in water. A Bomb pellet lets you destroy multiple enemies with a single butt-bounce.

By finding fruit scattered throughout the levels, you can unlock gates that hold letters or other important items. Sometimes you may even find switches behind the gates to help you get to secret areas or to help you progress. This version of Pac-Man World also allows you to flutter/hover jump like Yoshi, which can be helpful if you miss a moving platform.

Honestly, the attention to detail, the environmental puzzles, and the sheer volume of clever design in Pac-Man World Re-Pac make it worth your time. I would say this is true especially if you like classic collect-a-thon platformers or liked the original Pac-Man World. Even if you’ve never heard of Pac-Man World before, this is a great way to introduce yourself to a challenging, fun take on the platformers of yesteryear.

Additionally, you can play Maze Mode in Pac-Man World Re-Pac, which offers a variety of classic Pac-Man-style mazes, with special gimmicks and level designs. The entire game is colorful and there are so many things to do that Pac-Man fans will be coming back for hours trying to collect and do as much as possible. This is a game that I’ll come back to over and over again, just for the sake of having a fun nostalgia trip.

I probably say this in every Switch review I write, but Pac-Man World Re-Pac is great for the Switch platform. Taking a game like this on the go will make car trips or bus rides fly by. I didn’t find any slow-down or framerate issues on the Switch version either. There were no crashes, just crisp, smooth gameplay.

I can’t recommend Pac-Man World Re-Pac enough if you love this sort of thing. The visuals have been updated, the UI has been improved, and the mechanics have been tweaked just enough to make the game feel like a modern platformer. It probably won’t scratch an itch for folks who just want classic Pac-Man, but I’d recommend Pac-Man Museum+ for that instead.

 A Nintendo Switch review copy of Pac-Man World Re-Pac was provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment for this review.

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Pac-Man World Re-Pac

$29.99

10

Score

10.0/10

Pros

• Smooth Controls
• Lots of Content
• Clever Level Design
• Great Gameplay
• Colorful Visuals