PlayStation 2

Pac-Man World 3

In honor of 25 years of ghost-dodging and pellet-chomping fun, Namco presents us with the little yellow muncher's newest 3D adventure, Pac-Man World 3. With solid platforming action and a healthy dose of nostalgic extras and special features, Pac-Man World 3 is a worthy celebration of this legendary arcade star.

Pac-Man World 3 basically does what it intends to do. It provides a solid platforming title that, while not really trying anything very new, succeeds in executing well-established 3D platforming mechanics. It's a good title for kids – it controls well, the levels are interesting, and the references to Pac-Man 25 years ago are respectful. Not everything comes off without a hitch (the camera being a prime suspect), but aside from that, the only other "problem" is a general lack of being a little too cozy in its kinda generic platforming. Fans of Pac-Man should check it out, as should parents looking for a good platformer for their kids.

Pac-Man World 3 doesn't reinvent the platformer; in fact, in its adoption of so many previously established platformer features, it manages to include some of the genre's most inherent flaws. It does, however, provide an entertaining, fully E-rated experience that's been conspicuously missing as of late. Though it's most notably easy and family-friendly, Pac-Man World 3 has just enough depth to make it more than just a kid's game. But, if the rating or the difficulty level isn't a selling point for you, then there are probably other games that will be more worthwhile.

Few videogame mascots possess either the history or the continued popularity of Namco's classic Pac-Man. The little yellow gobbler, whose beginnings can be traced back to a partially eaten pizza, according to series creator Toru Iwatani, has endured for more than 25 years. And like any good mascot, he has adapted to suit the changing tastes of players. But with each new iteration, some hint of the traditional wocka-wocka-surrounded maze presentation that started Pac-Mania remains. In 2002, this generation of players was introduced to Pac's latest form in Pac-Man World 2, a game that married traditional 3D platformer mechanics with Pac-style themes.

Pac-Man's abilities include punching, jumping, climbing, rolling and gobbling. Along the way he will encounter power pellets that give him new abilities such as a form of bullet time, the power to shoot electricity from his hands and an ability to harness the powers of the ghosts. In this game, Pac-Man, who is also fully voiced, finally makes peace with a couple of his ghost nemesis, Blinky and Clyde. It's a nice touch and shows some imagination although the entire focus of this game appears to be aimed at kids and generally inexperienced gamers.

Weirdly, the dialogue is actually charming and sometimes clever, but the loose controls found in the main game also plague the arcade port to a degree, which to me, is the biggest bummer of this outing.

Infelizmente, "Pac-Man World 3" não teve o mesmo êxito de seu antecessor, que era bem mais satisfatório. Se você é fã de jogos de plataforma tradicional e não liga para inovações, suas chances de gostar do game até aumentam. Mas diante de títulos que estabeleceram novos patamares no gênero, fica evidente que o jogo da Blitz Games parou no tempo. Bem que Pac-Man merecia um aniversário de 25 anos um pouco mais caprichado.

Réutilisant quelques-uns des stratagèmes ludiques de son prédécesseur, Pac-Man World 3 parvient tout de même à étonner en intégrant un grand nombre de petites idées discrètes mais poussant le joueur à s'impliquer davantage dans le gameplay. Foncièrement honnête, le jeu de Namco vous fera passer de bons moments, si tant est que vous supportiez l'inertie du héros et ses errances au niveau des collisions. En revanche le prix est un peu élevé au niveau de l'investissement temporel et de la qualité globale du soft. A vous de voir.

Pac-Man World 3 kind of just treads water, never putting forth the effort to actually get anywhere. Instead, the game offers about 8-10 hours of mindless play to distract your young one. The platforming action, while solid, is just tired and used to death, failing to provide anything new. Some of the older level-inspire areas in the game are nice, but overall the game is mediocre and won't make it to the top of anyone's wishlist this holiday season.

The storyline for Pac-Man World 3 is a cross between Ghostbusters and Luigi's Mansion. The ghosts in question here are, much to nobody's surprise, Clyde, Inky, Blinky and Pinky. The evil Dr. Erwin seems to have found a way to open a portal into the spectral world where the ghosts live. As is typically the case with such portals, the bridge between worlds hasn't exactly gone through an extensive quality assurance check. Leaky portals allow the elements of the ghost world to bleed into the real world, and Pac-Man's in charge of locking that down.

While this would be a good game to get for child who has never played this type of game before, other players should probably Rent this title. While the control of the characters is very good and there are some amusing moments in the game, there really isn't a lot else to recommend this title. The levels are overly simple and aren't very different from one another, and there isn't anything new or innovative in the game. Feeling like the countless other platform games out there, this game is destined to get lost in the mix, and that's not really a bad fate.

An evil scientist named Erwin is trying to take over the Spectral Realm, home of the four ghost monsters Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde. They can't stop him alone, so they enlist the help of their life-long nemesis, Pac-Man. Can Pac-Man and the ghosts team up and stop Erwin from taking over?

Pac-Man World 3, for anyone that hasn't been following the Pac-Man World games, is the third game in the 3D platforming series, which sees Pac-Man jumping around, chomping pills and tackling ghosts. While modern platformers seem to be moving further and further away from their roots, Pac-Man World 3 is very much a traditional 3D platformer, designed to be a fun and simple experience for kids.

Right, that's it. Enough is enough, Pac-Man. It's time for you to be packed off to Namco's Shady Pines Retirement Home for Rubbish Old Game Characters, where you can spend the rest of your days playing Bridge with the blokes out of Time Crisis and knocking back all the pills you like for all we care. Oh, and you can take that joke about pill popping in darkened rooms to the sound of repetitive beats with you, thanks very much.