Pac-Man World 3

6.9
Average

Gameplay	6.5	"Pac-Man gets dusted off for an appearance on the PSP."
Graphics	8.5
Sound	6.0
Value	6.5

By Daniel Needham

Once the absolute pinnacle of the gaming industry, there’s no denying that Pac-Man is one of the most recognisable video game characters around from yester-year, and still today. Just as long as there are consoles and hand-helds out there, you can be sure that this yellow ball with eyes and a smile will make an appearance every generation.

Being that it is a Pac-Man title, and he is a veteran and legend of the gaming business, deep down inside you want this to succeed. Why? Because it would be monumental and would instil everyone with a warm, fuzzy feeling of nostalgia, and could pave the way back for some retro characters from the past. But this is 2006, and a 2D Pac-Man roaming round with his mouth open just won’t cut it these days.

Pac-Man World 3 starts with a CG cut-scene. We get a sweeping shot of Pac-Man's home, Pac-Village, a lush puffy world that's fit for a classic video game character. Pac-Man is celebrating his 25th birthday, and he's all set to enjoy his cake when a mysterious energy starts teleporting him around the neighbourhood. One of his former enemies, Orson, wishes to enlist his help, as an evil genius named Erwin is sucking raw energy out of the Spectral Realm where all of the ghosts live, and feeding it to his army of robots.

Pac-Man’s platform genre gameplay comes across well, although it doesn’t introduce anything to the scene that we haven’t seen before. Within the levels he is required to gobble down thousands of pellets and fruits. Within this there are a few twists, such as he'll gobble a rail of pellets that put him on a track, and send him flying and swirling through the air as if he's on a roller coaster. All this, however, just masks the fact that he is simply chewing pellets from level to level.

He is however equipped with a few new manoeuvres never seen from him before. But as aforementioned, it doesn’t introduce anything new to the platform scene. These moves include Pac-Man being able to butt-stomp his enemies right out of existence, as well as roll through them like a bowling ball.

As far as features are concerned, there are new twists that take advantage of the PSP’s technology. Although there is no infrastructure mode, there is Ad-hoc (PSP to PSP connectivity) multiplayer that allows users to team up with other PSP owners for Pac-Man action. The feature even allows you to make use of the game-sharing functionality that the PSP offers. This basically means that other PSP owners can join you in multiplayer over Ad-hoc even if they don't own a physical copy of the game.

Visually the game is far beyond what your expectations are likely to be, as it includes lush backgrounds, with good attention to detail. It sometimes looks like Pac-Man is out of place as he is just a yellow ball with arms and legs. Where the visuals do get frustrating is with the camera. You will find yourself wrestling with this view for most of the game, as it makes moving round the levels, especially jumping, more difficult than what they really are.

The sound content on the game is really what you would expect from a retro-based title. Cheesy voice acting as well as the generic music will have you reaching for the volume button on the hand-held in no time. Couple this with the fact that the sound effects are nearly twice as mind-numbing as they were back in the 80’s, and you’ll find that the nostalgia factor wears very thin in this department

Pac-Man World 3 comes off as a lesser-evolved platformer with good intentions. Many of the elements you've seen in hundreds of platformers are right here, except you're running around with Pac-Man assuming the leading role. The single-player mode is just long enough to attain a decent amount of interest, but coupled with the multiplayer mode it brings a slight hint of longevity. Overall, this title sadly brings no long-overdue revolution to the franchise; instead it slowly builds upon the last edition of the series hoping to strike gold somewhere beneath the platform genre.

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