Pac Man Gets all revved up!Red...yellow...yellow...green! It's time to get this review on the tracks! Pac Man world rally was an amazingly fun kart racing game with a little twist! Like most kart racing games, there are various cups that you race in where you zoom across several different tracks and try your hardest to claim first place. In many ways, this game shadows mario kart. It had easy, normal, hard, and nightmare difficulties, much like mario kart had the 50, 100,150 and mirror difficulties. This kart racing game has some of the old typical weapons. Green bomb that just shoots forward, red that hones into the racer in front of you, and the blue that goes after the racer in the lead. But there were also some more...unconventional weapons that could be used! Throughout the tracks are placed pacdots, if you eat enough of these, your kart can turn into a monster munching pac power kart, and all your opponents are turned into blue ghosts! If you ate enough ghosts in one race, you could unlock some super secret weapons, like a galaga fighter mounted on your hood shooting at traps and opponents. And then there was power sliding. Much like mario kart, you will get a speed boost for it. Unlike mario kart, there were more levels of speed boosts! Also, whenever you slid, you would fill a bar, when that bar is full you could get a guardian angel (if you were a good guy) to protect you temporarily! (if you are a bad guy in the pacman series, you get a guardian devil) So if you are thinking, Oh this is just going to be a rip off of mario kart, think again! In addition to all this, there are fruit shortcuts that will open if you collect the fruit key! I feel that namco went out of their way to really make a neat game that is good, fun, and unique even though it is a kart racing game. So, now that I have covered the basics of this game, let's break down the categories, and see just how good it is.
Graphics: 9
I can still remember just how great the graphics were on this game. From toc-mans factory to the "funhouse" to the ghost mansion, to infinity and beyond! This game had great track designs, backgrounds, visual effects and was just plain awesome. I think that the tracks here were more varied than that of mario kart. They had everything from Sir Pacalot's castle, to bucaneer bay, not to mention the one I already mentioned. Oh, i almost forgot about the track that was actually a maze. What was even better about this game was that at the track preview, they show PacMan and Mrs Pacman playing what appears to be, well...Pacman. And you are inside the arcade game! How cool is that. I know mario kart never had that! The characters all looked pretty good. The only thing that I would say is that Spooky wasn't quite the right color palette, but that really does not make a difference to the quality of the graphics.
Sound: 9
The music, the sound effects everything was great in this game! The music fit every spot that you were at in the pac universe, and felt good at the same time. The background sounds were spot on, and the battle sounds were awesome, while maintaining their cheerful animated feel. I love the sound when you chomp those ghost racers! The music in the maze track had a retro pacman feel, Sir Pac-a-lots castle had a valiant medevial feel, and the factory sounded highly industrial. Once again, the sound guys at namco did great.
Addictiveness: 9
Like mario kart, this game can be quite addictive. Even after you beat the game on the hardest level, there are still hidden weapons to unlock, time trials to run, and battles to fight. That's just in case the main action of the game is not enough to keep you occupied for a long time! Even in the race, itself there are more options and more things to look out for overall. You get to choose whether or not you want to take the shortcut, and even if you decide that you want to take it, you have to make sure that you that you get that fruit ahead of time!
Story: ...Well there really is not one here. Just sign up for the grand prix and race to the finish!
Depth: 9
This game is every bit as deep as the Mario kart series, if not more so, just for the added benefit of unlockable power weapons. Not to mention that there is just more to think about in every race. Should I focus on speed, or collect the pacdots and chomp my way to victory. I have a shield now, when should I use it? There are just more elements to think about to make this game deeper and wider than the mario kart series. Not to mention that rally cup that you unlock in which you race one lap on every track in the entire track. Anyone can be a champ in three laps...can you do it in one?
Difficulty: 9
Technically, it depends on the level of difficulty that you decide to play on, but I'm giving it the max rating for the max difficulty level. I really think that this game throws more at you than mario kart has. I mean, seriously, it's not every racing game that you have to worry about being turned into a slow blue ghost and being eaten, and trapdoors in the floor! And I am pretty sure that I never went racing around a factory quite as dangerous as toc man's. In mario's answer to Ghost Mansion, the ghosts can't hurt you, they are simply background. Namco went the extra mile of making traps and dangers and unexpected surprises!
Overall: 9
Yep, I really feel that PacMan World rally deserves a 9 for ingenuity, quality, and just plain old being a ton of fun!
Graphics
9 Sound
9 Addictive
9 Depth
9 Difficulty
9
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