Now and then : Pac-man world 2
One of the more recent games I picked up and played was Pac-Man World 2 Repac. I was familiar with the original version through the PS2 and recall it being a real fun time back in the day. However, when my playthrough of Pac-Man World 2 Repac ended, I was left a bit disappointed with this new version. I found that the experience had changed dramatically from the original. Some of these changes were for the better, but others were not. And when it came to solidifying these changes, I went back and played the original version.
I think one of the most glaring differences between the PS2 and PS5 versions of the game is that each version cranks up the difficulty in different aspects. In the original, the levels are harder to clear due to the lack of being respawned near the point you died and being sent all the way back to the checkpoint. In the remake, this problem is solved, and the levels are easier to clear. However, the entire game is not a cake walk in the remake, because if you die in a boss fight, you get sent back to the start of the boss fight. This was not the case in the PS2 version; each boss fight had checkpoints that would trigger after you got to the next stage of the fight.
Speaking of boss fights, this is another major difference between the two versions. In the PS2 version, you had two animal-themed boss fights, 3 buzz saw mechs, and a fight against a Spooky. In the remake, every single boss fight outside of Spooky is an animal-themed boss fight; the buzz saw mechs got cut. Now, originally, I was against this change because I enjoyed fighting the buzz saws mechs back in the day, but with modern eyes, there were definitely some problems. For one, these fights were a bit repetitive despite efforts to change how you defeated each of them. When it came to the last buzz saw mech, I also noticed that the hit box was a bit broken and didn’t always register a hit.
I feel like these would have been pretty simple fixes to make in the remake. You could further highlight each mech’s weaknesses and strengths through the quality and quantity of their armor, but then you run into another problem: a mismatch of boss fight types, with 2 random animal boss fights. I guess the dev team decided to focus on aligning the vision for the boss fights rather than fixing the buzzsaw mechs, since the game has 3 new boss fights. Fundamentally, these boss fights still provide the same level of difficulty as the originals, where the challenge gets upped with each fight, but I think my biggest gripe is that they feel over-engineered. A lot of these boss fights have a lot going on, and only a brief window of time to strike. Almost all of the new boss fights have projectiles that they spawn in to kill you with, and I would say Pinky is the most annoying boss fight because you have to flip kick projectiles back at her, and you have to be facing your target for the projectile to hit Pinky. Clyde’s fight is equally as stressful, but mainly because of the sheer amount of challenges that get sent your way. It was at this point that I turned on assist mode to get past the fight faster. I am glad I did, too, because the whale boss fight would have been a nightmare, due to its 3 very long stages that you had to clear in one go. To compare the whale has a single stage with a single checkpoint at the halfway point.
As for Spooky’s boss fight, the original is a lot more fun to play because it does not require the super butt bounce. The super butt bounce is one of the more annoying additions to the remake because it’s extremely hard to pull off when you are required to perform the move. During normal gameplay, it’s easy and fun to play around with because the stakes are relatively low, but that goes out the door when it comes to Spooky. To defeat Spooky, you have to perform the super butt bounce multiple times in a time window that is way too short. In the original, all you have to do is avoid hazards and perform flip kicks.
Besides the game’s difficulty being tweaked between the two versions, the world design has seen some pretty big changes. One of the most apparent changes was the overworld’s layout. In the original, it feels like you’re going on this grand adventure and see transitions between worlds, and it feels like you’re getting further and further away from Pac-Village. In the remake, this feeling is no longer present; instead, the overworld has been transformed more into an island, and you return to Pac-Village after the end of each world. I understand that the devs wanted to put more emphasis on the village in the remake since you could decorate the village with statues and unlock collectibles in the arcade. As a returning player, I feel some of that sense of adventure got lost due to this change.
Outside of the overworld, the lighting has changed as well. Everything in the remake seems more vibrant and colorful, and I am pretty mixed about it. I think when you look at the volcano and underwater levels, the new lighting works very well and improves the overall atmosphere of those levels. In Paradise Meadows and Tree Tops, the lighting is serviceable and preserves the atmosphere to some degree, but I feel these levels are too well-lit and start to lose some of the charm of the original. I think the meadows feel a bit off because the ground texture is too realistic and lacks noticeable texture seen in the original. The Tree Tops is a bit of a different story because, in the original, all the levels take place at night, and in the remake, the time of day changes with each level. I think this is a cool little detail the remake does, but as a result, the world loses some of the atmosphere seen in the original. The main source of lighting in the remake is from global lighting and lamps scattered throughout the levels. In the original, the levels have some really cool shadows that get cast onto trees and lead the player to believe that the moonlight is coming through the trees and that you’re deep into the forest.
As for the last two worlds, I feel that the improvements made hurt some of the level’s atmosphere. In the original, Snowy Mountain has blizzard-like weather that makes it harder to see what’s ahead; in the remake, it looks like pleasant weather to be enjoying a day on the mountain. Another key aspect that I noticed with Snowy Mountain was that they made the ice less slippery. In the original, you can only really navigate the ice by jumping a lot or walking slowly; in the remake, you don’t really have to think about what you do on the ice. I was also disappointed by the ice-skating level and their decision to scrap the cool-looking cave entrances and replace them with more generic ones. I used to spend a lot of time looking at that old loading screen back in the day, and I thought that looked really cool.
As for Ghost Island, I only have complaints about the water’s color, the world being slightly too bright, and visibility being too clear. In the original, the water’s color is a dark greenish-brown, and at times, it casts reflections of the level’s geometry. In the remake, the color has been changed to a more cartoonish purple, and the reflective qualities have been lost. The way that lighting works in this level is also a bit different because in the original, the light source follows the player and almost creates this fog of war effect, where you don’t see what’s in front of you until you move closer. In the remake, everything is more clearly lit, and the player’s visibility is improved. These changes shift the eerie vibes from the original to a more Halloween-spooky vibe.
Despite all my complaints about the remake, I think the game is a decent experience, especially when you consider that there’s post-game content. Some of the improvements have been good, such as indicating environmental hazards in Snowy Mountain and Ghost Island to the player in a more natural way. The camera controls have been smoothed out and are less tedious to work with compared to the semi-fixed camera controls of the original. Most of my problems with the game come from someone who has played the original and wanted a more faithful recreation of that experience, but for someone who has never played the original, I think this would be a fun and, at times, rage-inducing game.
