I had already beaten PacMan World 3, my very first PacMan adventure game, and I was ready for more! I wanted to see the first two games of this awesome Trilogy that spanned several years. I found it! It was at the gamestop less than a mile from home. It was not in the best of conditions; but that did not matter to me. I had struck gold; I did not care where I found it or how I found it. Just finding it was a joy, since I seemed to be having a difficult time getting my hands on it. I did not care that there was no game manual or that it was in a cracked case that only featured the generic gamestop cover. I had it in my hands and was ready to chow down on this adventure! So...Let's begin.

Graphics: From the beginning, I knew that the graphics were not going to be the realistic ones that I had discovered and loved in PacMan World 3. It did not matter, though. because I fell in love with the graphics of this game as well! They had a beautiful, fantasy type of charm to it that made the game fun. It was really cool when you were in the Treetop woods area. Ohh...don't look down! I was literally scared to move here, because I felt like every move that I would make would drop me into a yawning abyss below. As a relatively old style gamer--basically because I had really not gotten new video games since sometime around the time I was born...which was 1994. So most of the games that I had very fairly old fashioned. They were also mostly arcade, with my parents having bought them and all (not that I regret that one bit! I love my arcade heritage!) Anyways, all of the graphics were stunning to me, everything was beautiful...even when you get to the swampy and scary Ghost Island to find and defeat Spooky. Even ghost island had graphics to love, they made it feel scary to me, but at the same time, somewhat fantasy. The enemies were well designed, edges and platforms were clear cut. The shadows and lighting were also on par. This is really noticeable when I traveled to areas like the lava caverns and ghost island. Probably the best enemy as far as graphics are the skeletons of ghost island. They seem to be wielding swords and wearing bandannas. The best part, though, is when you bounce on them...their bones scatter and fall and even flip in the air. I was very impressed with the detail that they had put into making these guys. There is probably a lot more that I could say, but I'm just going to brag on the ocean area for a bit! I thought that this was one of the best portions of the game! It was so cool to be swimming through the ocean like that. I love how everything appeared more visible through the water as you swam closer to it. And I LOVED the Yellow Pac Marine levels! Graphics get a 10 easy.

Sound: This is another department with which I was well pleased. The muffled sounds of your missiles flying on the Yellow Pac Marine leves, the scary ambience that you get with the Ghost Island. The music fit so well. (I really do not want to brag on ghost island...but they did an awesome job with the wolves howling, owls hooting and even rain falling. There was also that scary moan that sounded like Spooky. That one in particular made me feel like: "I know you are watching me. Guess what? I don't care! I coming for you!") Getting off ghost island now. During the battle with red--I think that he is Clyde in this game--I loved how they did the fireball sounds. But of course, the sawblade sounds were even better in the battle with Inky. I loved how they really tried to immerse you into the environment in which you are through the sounds around you. In the beautiful meadow like area, you can hear the birds chirping, crickets chirp in the treetops, you can hear the wind sometimes on the snow mountain, and it sounds like you are in a furnace as you attempt to traverse the lava caves. Everything just seemed to be right on target with this game. I have often wished that they would always make the environments like this in every game. But I guess they are not going to do that all the time. It could be that it just might not work for certain games. At any rate, the sound department gets a 10.

Addictiveness: For sure, I would love to play this game again! I would be playing it over and over, too. Because, to date, I have never yet found all of the tokens and all the fruit in all the levels, nor have I beaten all the time trials. Plus, the game is just so much fun to me and was so well designed. I have never played a PacMan game yet that included avalanches, rising lava, sub battle, and ice skating all in one. (Mario galaxy came close, but it missed the avalanche!) They just put so much effort into trying to up the levels on everything to keep you playing, and it really does show. I'm sorry, but even Mario galaxy does not have much to do once you win every level to collect all the power stars--twice over!) Pac Man however, just has so many reasons to go back. Awesome levels, epic battles with a legendary ghost, not to mention the fact that they actually make it feel as though you are actually going on a real journey through a real world, not just bouncing around from place to place. Overall, I would rate the addictiveness a 10. I could play the ice skating and PacMarine levels all day!

Story: The story was somewhat unique for Pacman, yet somewhat common. Oh, Inky, Blinky, Piny, and Clyde are stealing fruit. Well, that's typical for them...Oh! I never saw THAT ghost before! "Take these golden fruit, if you want to get rid of the PacPeople forever! Ha! Ha Ha!" Spooky's appearance was definitely not something old. Neither was the fact that he had come from underneath the Tree of Life...(yeah, deadly ghost from the tree of life. We all saw that coming! Not! I enjoyed the little speeches that the ghosts give about how you are not going to beat them...it just makes it that much more fun when you do! This is especially true in the case of the battle with Clyde in the volcano arena. I was somewhat upset not to hear the in game dialogue throughout the game, but it really did not ruin the story at all. I feel that the story more than deserves a 9.

Depth: Wow, this game was deep! Every level has a PacMaze to play for extra points--access this by finding the galaxian fruit. There are 6 worlds throughout the game, and each world has about 4 levels, I believe. Each level has so much to do, as I have referred to earlier. There is fruit to eat, tokens to collect and games to play in the PacVillage. There are also Time Trials for all the levels--besides the boss levels that is--that you can try to beat. So you have 24 levels that are decently long, a bunch of things to try to find and access, and timed challenges. This really gives you a lot to do in the game itself. And the better that you do in the game, the more things that you can unlock in PacVillage. Overall this game deserves a 10 for all the work that they put into it trying to give you varying levels and even a few levels that are different altogether--such as the swimming, skating, and sub levels. 

Difficulty: This game was a whopper for me to beat! It took me a week just to get past the first Yellow PacMarine level. I remember getting stalled in a lot of other places too. The game is a tough platformer that often frustrated me to no end sometimes. Yet no matter how hard this game was, I just could not let it go. It was way too much fun for that! There were many spots like the ocean where it is so easy to die. And it is not hard to get dizzy up in the treetops, fall in the volcano or just not be fast enough to outrun the avalanche on the snow mountain. With all of the roadblocks that hindered for a long time, the difficulty gets a 9. Only because I feel that giving it a 10 would mean that it is truly impossible.

Overall: Pac Man World 2 was a munching good time! I enjoyed this game thoroughly every step of the way, and look forward to playing it again. I particularly liked the timed levels and the scoring system throughout the game. There were a lot of things that were tricky for me to find. And there is much that I still have not been able to collect. Munch on!