Pac-Man World 2 (Game Boy Advance)

Pac-Man World 2 (Game Boy Advance)

This port should be imprisoned with Spooky in the tree!

Genre(s):	Adventure Platform Action
Platform(s):	Game Boy Advance
Release Date:	EU: August 19, 2005 NA: October 9, 2005
Developer(s):	Full Fat
Publisher(s):	NA: Namco EU: Zoo Digital Publishing
Predecessor:	Pac-Man World
Successor:	Pac-Man World 3 (Nintendo DS)

Pac-Man World 2 is a platform game release in 2002 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox and PC, all these version received mixed to positive reviews but the Game Boy Advance version received mostly negative reviews.

Plot

The story is mostly the same as the console version.

Why It Didn't Found the Golden Fruits

The controls are absolutely abysmal and even worst than in the first game GBA port, since here they are extremely stiff, clunky and even unresponsive to the point of making some levels barely beatable and making the game nearly unplayable.
- Not to mention that the jump is so much worst to the point of having some nearly impossible platforming sections that are only possible with a rev roll, not only that but even with a rev roll, some of these are almost impossible to do due to how bad the controls are.
- Another horrible problem with the controls are the rev roll that is incredibly awful to controls and again is even worse than in the first game GBA port, since when you execute it, you can't really control it except if you jump and if ypu charge way too much, then you might fall in a pit and then die, no this is not a joke.
The boss fights are really poor and lazy, as the ghost are all pretty much the same boss with just some changes and they are barely noticable with the exception of their attacks that are sometime very annoying to deal with, the Pinky boss is an exemple of an annoying boss and some of the other are incredibly easy, such as Blinky (Clyde).
- Spooky is howewer the absolute worst boss of the game, to see more reasons about why he is the worst boss of the game, see WIDFTGF#8.
The difficulty in this port is extremely unbalanced and is so awful that it's nearly one of the hardest Pac-Man game ever made along with Pac-Pix (although that one was good), since the levels are so poorly designed and the controls doesn't help for the awful difficulty spike and level design, not to mention that the difficulty had so many awful difficulty spike that we cannot even list them all.
- The platforming sections are some of the absolute worst part of the game and some are a massive difficulty spike since the controls are so abysmal that they make some of them horribly hard and at one point, almost impossible to do due to how unresponsive the controls are!
- Some of the bosses are also notable difficulty spike such as Pinky, which is pretty annoying to deal with and is easily the hardest of the ghost bosses, or Spooky that is the worst one (see WIDFTGF#7)
The copyright screen is misleading, because it's credit Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, Ms Pac-Man and Pac-Attack but neither of them are playable, it's also say that the release date is 2002 intead of 2005 (in which that year was the one where this port was made).
- Howewer, for the 2002 release date copyright, it may state that the port was going to be released in 2002 but even if it was that, they could have changed it for the 2005 release of this version.
Some musics play at the wrong levels. For exemple in the intro, the ocean levels musics are hear intead of the intro music of the console version.
- Not to mention that because of this, some of the levels doesn't even had a fitting music going for it.
The game is very short, as you can beat it in only 2 hours straight, but at least it is longer than the first game on GBA since that one could have been finished in only 50 minutes easily.
The bonus maze are somehow terrible in this game in comparaison to the other maze gameplay of the franchise, as the screen is way too zoomed on you and there's way too many pac-dotq to collect, hence making them extremely frustrating and tedious to play.
Spooky in this port is an absolutely horrible boss for the fact that he is extremely frustrating and tedious to fight though, even when compared to the console versions, to the point that this fight may be even worse than Blinky fight in the console versions, the reasons of why the fight is this horrible will be listed in the sub pointers.
1. First off, his attacks are extremely hard to dodge, which might cause lot of cheap deaths and this is not helped by the awful level design of that fight, the horrible hit-detection doesn't help at all, this is already a bad sign considering that there is so much worst in this fight.
2. Another thing is the level design, which is absolutely awful, since there is many obstacles in your way (of course in a bad way) and while it could not have been this bad, it is because of the first problem listed up, or also because of the awful screen crunch, this will probably make you mad when losing because of these horrible obstacles.
3. Also, when Spooky let you attack him, sometime it is in a place where it is fine but sometime he stop where you will immediately take a hit by the obstacles, this of course can make the fight even more frustrating and if you only had one point left, then you will die and had to start all over.
4. Also if you die, then you had to restart all over, since Spooky regain his whole energy bar, which make it even worst.
5. Even worst, if you lose all of your lifes in this fight, then you had to restart not only this fight but also the fight with the evil tree, this is because the passwords given before the fight with Spooky doesn't work due to how badly programmed and rushed this port is.
Some of the levels are incredibly confusing to navigate, either due to the horrible level design or the fact that each areas look identical, and also sometime it might even be because of the backtraking, the first game sometime was confusing if you going for the 100% but not to this extend, not even the first game was this confusing.
The game programming is so horrible that the 4th maze is locked even if you did unlock it, this is because of a glitch and it cannot be acceded except if you hack the game so that you can play it, but even then, this show how rushed this port is.
Possibly due to hardware limitation, the ocean levels were completly removed, which is a shame and could have instead been made on 2D asset rather than in 3D like in the console versions, even if it would not feel the same.
The level design is absolutely abysmal, since not only do the levels are horribly confusing but there is lot of backtraking,lot of atrociously bad platforming sections and some of the worst enemies placements ever, and due to this, it's safe to say that this game had the worst level design of any Pac-Man games, not even Pac-In-Time (despite being decent) had this much problem with the level design despite how hard that game was.
Making a port of the game on GBA in 2005 was too late because the original version was release in 2002 and the Game Boy Advance started to die a bit in 2005, though it would die in 2007 in popularity, and would stop having games made for it in 2008.
This port is notorious for having some of the most horrible glitchs to the point of being the buggiest Pac-Man game ever, and this would even make you wonder if the port was even finished, some aren't really offensive, some other are horrible and ruin the game, anyways this include but not limited to:
- Having sometime contact with something that doesn't even exist or that isn't even seen in the moment where you grab it, this happen rarely but at times, it can happen.
- In one level, you can even swim in mid air, and while you can cancel it when pressing the jump button, it is still pretty strange that a glitch like that can happen, not even Frogger: The Great Quest had this kind of glitchs, despite being no better.
- There is some of the volcano levels where if done correctly, then if you die when you are under a B-doing, then you doesn't die despite being supposed to, and you are invincible, so the only way to cancel this is to find a pit to fall in, or reset the game, and if you're blocked in a lava pit where you can't escape from, you can only reset your game.
Incredibly horrible hit-detection that is probably one of the worst in not only the franchise but one of the worst hit-detectionon a GBA game, as it is extremely unresponsive, and there is a lot to list.
- First off, at times, it look like that you didn't get hit by an enemy but you actually make a contact with them, which can be annoying, it is even the case with the projectiles too.
- To grab a an edge, you need to grab it at the perfection, if you're not close enough, then Pac-Man will not grab it and fall off, this is even more of a problem considering that there is lot of platforming sections that require it.
- When you attack, this is where the hit-detection is at it's absolute worst, as sometime, you will not hit an enemy despite looking like you did it, and this happen a lot, this is a horrible problem in the boss battles that are the worst offender, such as Spooky where you will get lot of troubles thank to this problem.
Unlike the first Pac-Man World game on GBA, which was also bad, this game relies on the passwords instead of a save feature, much like most of the SpongeBob GBA games, this is unnaceptable for 2005 standards considering that most games at the time did get save features instead.
- Although apparently, according to The Cutting Room Floor, the game was intended to have a save feature but either due to lack of memories or because of the fact that the port was rushed, it was scrapped.
Speaking of WIDFTGF#16, the password before the fight with Spooky litteraly doesn't even work and instead is just a password that is absolutely useless, which mean that if you lose all of your lifes in his battle, then you will need to restart at the evil tree boss.

Redeeming Qualities

Despite playing at the wrong levels at times, the soundtrack is still very good and is better than the first Pac-Man World GBA port soundtrack.
If the controls we're better and that the backtraking was toned down, the port could easily been decent, much like the Game Boy Advance port of Nicktoons Unite!.
The graphics are still really good and a huge improvement over the previous Pac-Man games on the GBA, this is mostly because they are really detailled and colorful.
At least this port is better than the GBA port of the first Pac-Man World and the Nintendo DS port of Pac-Man World 3.

Reception

Unlike the console versions, which we're positively received by both critics and players, the Game Boy Advance version was universaly panned by players and is considered to be not only one of the worst Pac-Man game (if not the worst), but also one of the worst port of all time and is even considered to be one of the worst Game Boy Advance game ever made, it holded a score of 42% in Gameranking.

Trivia

This was the last Pac-Man game released for the Game Boy Advance.

Videos

Comments

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Pac-Man World 2 (Game Boy Advance)

Contents

Plot

Why It Didn't Found the Golden Fruits

Redeeming Qualities

Reception

Trivia

Videos

Comments

Navigation menu

Pac-Man World 2 (Game Boy Advance)

Plot

Why It Didn't Found the Golden Fruits

Redeeming Qualities

Reception

Trivia

Videos

Comments

Navigation menu

Search