I was feeling nostalgic this week, so I spent a bit of time looking back over some of my favorite childhood video games. There are a lot of old classics that I spent many hours enjoying when I was younger, such as Kid Chameleon, Roller Coaster Tycoon, and Bomberman Hero. However, even amongst the heavy-hitters, there is one game that I will always remember most fondly of all: Pac-Man World 2, a humble collect-a-thon 3D platformer released back in 2002.
For some reason, I saw this game sitting on the store shelves at GameStop when I was young, and since it was my birthday, my dad offered to buy me any one game in the store. I had never even heard of Pac-Man World 2 before, and to be completely frank it didn’t even look that amazing, but I just could not resist for some reason. I chose it as my birthday present game, and never looked back. Over the next few years, I spent many hours re-playing it and never getting tired of it.
Pac-Man World 2 is, as mentioned above, a 3D collect-a-thon platformer. You play as the man, the myth, and the legend himself: Pac-Man. Exploring a vibrant and geographically diverse island paradise, you bounce and roll your way to victory, collecting those addictive little Pac-Pellets and tasty fruit. Unique traversal levels (ice skating, rollerblading, driving a submarine) and challenging boss fights (looking at you, Clyde) help to spice things up. Along the way, thorough collectors can also unlock old Pac-Man arcade games they can play at any time, and a jukebox feature.
To be sure, this game does not even attempt to re-invent the wheel. You run and jump like Mario, bounce on enemies like Scrooge McDuck from DuckTales, and curl into a ball and roll around like Sonic. The level themes cover all of the basics, like forest, icy mountain, volcano, and underwater coral reef. The story is as bare bones as it gets too, though I am a fan of the very entertaining and well-animated opening video.
Like, to be honest, the game really isn’t that special, and it’s a wonder it’s stuck itself so firmly in my mind for so many years. There’s almost nothing this game does that another 3D platformer doesn’t do better. It’s a very short game that can realistically be completed in about 10 hours, and that’s including going for 100% completion. The difficult curve is all over the place, and the later levels and bosses (except for the final boss, for some reason) are hair-pullingly frustrating.
And yet I still love it…and one of the biggest reasons for my undying love for Pac-Man World 2 is because of its jaw-dropping soundtrack. The developing studio must have blown their full budget on hiring David Logan (this game’s composer), because Pac-Man World 2 has one of the greatest soundtracks in all of gaming. And it’s all because of one crazy awesome trick I’ve never seen any other game do.
See, this game has an awesome main theme song. It also has six unique worlds that each have three levels and a boss. Each of those worlds takes a snippet of the main theme and incorporates it into a unique melody for that world. Then, each of the three levels and the boss further remix and shake-up that unique melody, giving the song it’s own distinct life while still maintaining the hint of main theme instrumentation originally borrowed for that world. You’re left with a soundtrack that has such life and vibrancy, and the ways in which it toys with the central motif is the stuff of gaming composition legend.
(If interested in the soundtrack, try this: LINK)
If you’re ever at a used game store, try to keep an eye out for Pac-Man World 2. Maybe you’ll end up loving it as much as I do.
The Contrarian Corner 