Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2

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Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2
A mediocre sequel to a fairly decent prequel based of a very mediocre TV show of the same name, who would have thought?
Protagonist(s): Pac-Man
Genre(s): Platform
Rating(s): 7+
Platform(s): PlayStation 3
Wii U
Xbox 360
Nintendo 3DS
Release Date: PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360
EU: October 3, 2014
NA: October 14, 2014
AU: October 15, 2014 (PS3)
Nintendo 3DS
EU: October 3, 2014
NA: October 14, 2014
KO: October 15, 2014
JP: December 4, 2014
Developer(s): Monkey Bar Games
Publisher(s): Bandai Namco Games
Country: United States
Series: Pac-Man
Predecessor: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (known as Pac-World 2 (パックワールド2) in Japan) is a 2014 platform game developed by Monkey Bar Games and published by Bandai Namco Games for the Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and Xbox 360.

A port for Microsoft Windows was planned, but was canceled.

Plot

Lord Betrayus is putting up a tantrum since he can't get the repository, after being insulted by his two henchmen Dr. Buttocks and Butt-ler. He thinks of an idea to distract Pacster with the newly improved Grider-Tron, team up with apex, so they can take the repository. After Pacster takes down apex's Mothership, He tells Pac that he doesn't have his parents but Betrayus does, and to get them back, Pac needs to get the repository and give it to him, breaking the news, Butt-ler and buttock tells him that Betrayus lied to him, teaming up with Cyli (Cylindria) and Spiral. They infiltrate the Neatherworld, however, Betrayus realized that it's a fake and Sir. C knew that Betrayus would lie to Pac. After Pac-Man chomped down Betrayus, he apologizes to President Spheros and they all laugh at each other.

Bad Qualities

Overall

  1. Confusing story, even if it makes sense sometimes, there are even some plotholes, much like in Superman 64.
    • First, if Sir C realized Betrayus would lie to him if he knew he would lie to him, why didn't he tell him or warn Pac at all?
    • Betrayus trying to trick Pac-Man when he realized Sir C is tracking everything he says, then why didn't he just whisper to apex instead of opening his big mouth to say it out loud?
    • Pac needs to get the repository, he's so gullible to think Betrayus and Apex have his parents, they're not there because his parents were gone.
    • Betrayus thinks that the repository capsule is real, however, it was a fake, again. Why did he just shut up at the last moment?
    • Finally, right before Pac-Man had to face Betrayus; Dr. Buttocks uses a ray that makes Betrayus bigger in size, at that point you'd think he would just swat Pac-Man with his paddle like a fly-swatter if he really wanted to destroy Pac-Man. But what does he do? He gets Pac-Man to play a prolonged 'tennis match' called the Pac-Pong tournament; which has minor obstacles that can be easily avoidable, and most of the projectiles he fires can be launched back at Betrayus as well (Sprial and Cylindra are even able to fire projectiles at Betrayus, which all face towards him too! Why would you even put that there Betrayus? What were you hoping to accomplish with that?? Because of this, this gives off a somewhat similar vibe to the flaws of Dr. Eggman's self-defeating "Egg Dealer" from Shadow the Hedgehog, a completely different game that shares this one and only similarity of this aforementioned final boss whose fatal flaws cause him to be self-defeated to a ridiculous extent).
    • Even when he eventually thinks to try swatting Pac-Man with the paddle that shot laser beams after his tennis match scheme went wrong, this could've worked if it weren't for the fact that he fails miserably to swat Pac-Man in a mindlessly incompetent fashion. You could've easily defeated Pac-Man on the spot without making some dumb tennis match in the first place! You imbecile!!
  2. The models were reused from the first Ghostly Adventures game except with more animations and more facial animations, which is pretty lazy, like if the creators wanted the models to be the same, but have more animations.
  3. The camera is fixed in this game, just like in Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius. This can be annoying, especially if you are going backward, and you might not even realize that there can be an opponent that would hurt Pac-Man.
  4. You can only play as Cyli and Spiral for the 1st world and the last world, which is lazy since you play as Pac-Man from start to end.
  5. False advertising: The 3DS version's manual has the Pacopolis from the first game, showing how much low effort Monkey Bar Games put into making this game.
  6. It barely has a multiplayer mode, you know the mode from the first game that lets you challenge your friends. This is basically to prove that Monkey Bar must have forgotten that the first Ghostly Adventures game had multiplayer.
  7. Much like Sonic 3D Blast, the boss fights are a total joke. As they sometimes allow you to fight them, but wait or shoot themselves until they die. This is just pretty weird, similiar to the enemies' AI from Monkey's Adventures. The biggest example of this is Lord Betrayus's final boss battle since it's a tediously long tennis match with minor obstacles to avoid.
  8. Much like the first Ghostly Adventure game, there are no new moves from the Pac-Man World series, in fact the scare move just like the first game is pretty useless.
    • Speaking of moves, there are fewer power-ups than the 3DS port of Ghostly Adventures, no more Balloon Berries, nor Spin Berries.
  9. The ghosts and Pac-Man never shut up. They can really get into your nerves so easy to the point you would want to cover your ears from listening to their lines.
    • Sure you can mute the voices, but you need to turn on the voices for the cutscenes. However, you can just shut off the volume on your console and you won't have to hear them.
  10. Almost all of the voice acting is terrible, Cyli, Spiral, Skeebo, Betrayus, Sir C, and more were never fixed.
  11. Most levels come from decent, to just bad.
    • Most levels take too long to finish. In fact the whole game can be finished in 5 hours.
  12. You can collect collectables in each level, but all you get for getting it is an acheivement.
  13. The game holds your hand for the entire adventure, in fact the game gives you so many lives and health that you'll barely get a game over at all. Shouldn't the game have levels with a challenge at all, something that actually fair, but challenges you with the mechanics you learned throughout the game? Instead, The Neatherworld, the last level in the game, gives you no challenge at all, making this game incredibly easy, even for a game released in 2014 for all platforms at the time.
  14. The game was released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2014, when the PS4 & Xbox One were out for a lengthy amount of time. If the game was also released for the PS4 & Xbox One instead, it would be better.

Why The 3DS Version Should Get Eaten By Pac-Man

  1. Bad graphics, even for 3DS standards, they look like they came out of a N64 game despite the game running on the Vicious Engine 2, what's worse, the textures are eye-bleeding. While this could be blamed on the limited hardware of the 3DS, other games like Mario Kart 7 and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team run at a smooth 60 FPS and have proper texture colors.
  2. While there is a Japanese version, the voice acting audio is still English, just like the first Ghostly Adventures game.
  3. There's not less music than the HD versions, it's basically like the music in SpongeBob SquarePants: Revenge of the Flying Dutchman (which wasn't any better).
  4. The models and textures are worse in the 3DS port, with Pac-Man having a perfect mouth in the classic games has a trapezoid type mouth, the models for Cyli and Spiral were barely changed from the first game.
  5. There is less music in this version, in which the music is same one used in different levels in each world.
  6. Terrible framerate that is choppy and can get cranked up to 60 in some levels.

Good Qualities

  1. At least the graphics are still great, despite the models being reused. And for a game released for the 8th & 7th generation consoles, it's still good.
    • It look even better than the first game due to the fact that the colors palette and also the lightning are way better.
  2. The fight with Lord Betrayus, despite all of its flaws (story-wise or gameplay-wise), is miles better than the one in the first game. Since in the first game, all you do is make him shoot himself with the countless projectiles he fires at you that were somewhat annoying to deal with as Betrayus can be easily defeated after being hit 4 times. But now, after his repetitive tennis match plan failed, you actually do something in this battle like dodging his attacks and eating ghosts that surround you (which provides little challenge to finally defeat him).
  3. The jumping is much better than in the first game, as in the first game jumping feels as heavy as Pac-Man World 3.
  4. You can actually play the challenge levels with the power-ups.
  5. Tight controls that are even better than the first game, they will never be unresponsive at all.
  6. The soundtrack is decent, much like the first game.

Videos

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Reception

Ratings

Media Score
God is a Geek 6/10 (PS3)
GamingTrend 3.5/10 (3DS)
BioGamer Girl 8.5/10 (X360)
Nintendo Life 6/10 (Wii U)

Critical Reception

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 received mixed reviews during its release, while the 3DS version received mixed-to-negative reviews for its choppy frame rate and it's bad graphics. While many people praised the game for its improved gameplay, it has been criticized for its long structure and how many hours to beat the game.

Trivia

  1. The 3DS version is the only version that is a 3D platform game, while the first game's 3DS port was a 2D platform game.
  2. The cancelled Microsoft Windows version was meant to be the Steam version of the first game since the first game was delisted from Steam.

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