Bandai Namco had some new details to share at Anime Expo 2022 this weekend on the upcoming Pac-Man World: Re-PAC, a remake of the PlayStation platformer. And this new version of the classic 3D platformer had a few bells and whistles added that'll make the game feel that much smoother.
This is the first time we've seen the remake in action since its reveal at last week's Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase, and it's looking really good. The stream shows off some of the abilities that Pac-Man will have in Re-PAC including a hover-jump and butt-bounce abilities. One new ability is that Pac-Man can transform into Mega-Pac, which is a cool little reference to the yellow puck's original appearance.
During the stream, the Bandai Namco representatives discuss Pac-Man's family, who have been kidnapped. However, in this version, rescuing your family is entirely optional. One other thing the representatives acknowledged in the stream was the sometimes unfair deaths players would be greeted with in the PS1 original. The developer is fixing this in the remake.
Twitter account @DailyPacMan has a really handy little summary of all the new footage and updates, including some screenshots. Check them out below!
You can watch the short Pac-Man World: Re-PAC stream below to see just what the game is like in action before you munch your way to the game's 26th August release date.
What do you think about the updates? Are you excited about this remake of Pac-Man World? Let us know in the comments!
Comments 22
If they’ve done a good job here I’ll be very excited to have this one on Switch
I've never played this but it looks pretty good and I could do with another 3D platformer in my life.
Why is there an annoying static sound in the background?
Saw footage of this the other day. If the video feed looks blurry or low-resolution, that's because this footage was from a Namco livestream similar to Nintendo Treehouse Live where the game was one of multiple windows on the screen, with the other windows showing the Namco reps who were demoing the game. The uploader just zoomed in on the gameplay feed to crop out the other windows. Which is fine, but obviously means the image isn't as sharp and not indicative of the final product.
I'm very excited to experience this game pretty much for the first time. Not sure how to feel about the Yoshi-esque flutter jump mechanic, though. Since the game wasn't originally made with that in mind, I feel like it's gonna be kind of broken. If they ever remake Pac-Man World 2 (which is my baby) I don't want to see this move in there. Or, at least, I hope it can be toggled on and off for those who want an easier experience while the purists like myself can play with the original game intact.
Speaking of, the Namco reps actually acknowledge Pac-Man World 2 and 3 in the gameplay demos! If Namco is anything like Nintendo, they curate EXACTLY what they want their representatives to say about the game. Kit and Krysta have talked in their podcast about how Nintendo will go over with them again and again and again the precise language to use when referring to their products. They've also said that the practices of games industry at large is pretty much the same, regardless of the company.
So I feel preeeeetty confident those games will be coming sooner or later, or Namco would have instructed their reps to just not acknowledge them and pretend they don't exist. Y'know...like Nintendo does with classic Paper Mario. After Crash, Spyro, Battle for Bikini Bottom, Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and countless others, Pac-Man World 2 was pretty much the only game from my childhood I desperately wanted to see a remaster of on modern consoles. I'd also love to see Jak and Daxter come back, but that doesn't have a snowball's chance of ever coming to Switch anyways. (Although I've been proven wrong before; Crash and Cuphead seemed like pipe dreams for years.)
People will complain about shoddy practices like microtransactions and NFTs and stuff, but I truly believe there's never been a better time to be a gamer. Like the past 50-ish years of the medium have been culminating to this very special moment where all of our favorite legacy titles are easily accessible on modern consoles with ports or gorgeous remakes, while Nintendo, Sony, and Xbox are working more closely together now than ever before thanks to things like crossplay. Just look how far Smash Bros. has come! I know I'm going off on a huge tangent here. But like, from 2017 until now has been some of the most memorable years in gaming for me. I've become so enamored by the medium again like I was when I was a little kid.
All those years of ugly character redesigns for Crash, Spyro, Pac-Man, and Sonic, bad games for each of those franchises, shovelware licensed games that were nothing more than cheap cash grabs, the mobile craze that scared people into believing the home console was dead, the failure of the Wii U and its myriad of software droughts, forced waggle and touch controls and GanePad integration, Star Fox ZeRo, Ultra Smash, Amiibo Festival, Federation Force the stagnation of the Mario franchise, Nintendo tripling down on the casual crowd while other companies just kept making their games grittier and more monochrome...all that garbage we put up with from the early-mid 2010's...it feels like it was all worth it to get us to where we are now. I feel like now more than ever, media companies (and this goes beyond just games and into things like movies and television) are actually LISTENING to what we, the fans want instead of thinking they know what's best!
I've wanted Pac-Man World to come back for so long, and I'm just...so, so happy.
Pac-Man looks so happy jumping around in 3D. 😁
I never saw this back on the PS1, but it looks like a fun time. I see GameStop has a physical edition listed, so I’ll try to place a preorder.
I hope this leads to number 2 being done.
Removed - inappropriate
Bring on more Pac Man!
@Not_Soos If anything, the flutter jump looks to be more helpful in the hopefully to be re pac sequel for the hard to reach platforms (volcano island) and hard to reach collectibles (snow mountain).
Since they revealed some more stuff about pac man world at anime expo does that mean that pac man is now getting an anime?
Pac-Man looks great in HD
@Stocksy well the Namco represatives mention Packman World 2,Bandai Namco migh be working on a remake of Packman World 2 right now
Why does Pac-Man need legs? He is clearly at his most powerful mouth-first...
@CANOEberry For the same reason Sonic races in a car.
I rented Pac-Man World 2 for N64 on a whim and ended up loving it. I will definitely buy this one to play with my family and show support in hopes of getting part 2!
PSA: Ms. Pac-Man has been replaced.
So as good as this remake is, it will never be 1:1.
I’m glad they’re actually adding/changing things rather than just making it a graphical update. Shows they put a lot more effort into this.
I'm so excited for this and I really really really hope they also remake Pac-Man world 2 and 3. If this remake is successful, I think they probably will try to remake them too. I'm actually just surprised they didn't include all 3 games in this remake to begin with, like the remake trilogies of Spyro and Crash which were both fantastic for the switch and I still play them constantly
But a remake of just one of the Pac Man World games is a good start. It's just that Pac man world 2 is significantly better. Not that the first game is bad, but it's certainly limited by the PS1's capabilities, mainly the levels being tiny, and if feels like a 2.5 platformer with you sticking to a grid more than a proper analogue 3D platformer. Like, you don't need to even use the analogue stick to play it and beat it comfortably.
I mean, the first game had a game boy advance remake of the PS1 game, and it lost absolutely nothing in the porting process. It had to become 2D of course, but the gameplay of the first Pac man world already felt 2D anyway. So it played identically to the 3D version. But that's not the case with Pacman world 2 and 3, they're 3D platformers that could ONLY be played on the most powerful consoles of the time and a GBA port wouldn't have worked, it would have to have been changed a lot to fit it on a handheld, unlike with the first Pac man world game.
Pac-Man world 2 and 3 were on the next gen of consoles and so they're way more actual 3D platformers and they're fun as hell.
But I still love the first Pac Man World don't get me wrong. But the series doesn't get the credit it deserves. If it had been about a brand new unique character, it would have been heralded as a game series and would be considered alongside series like Banjo Kazooie, it's that good. But because it's a Pac-Man spinoff, and most Pac-Man spinoffs across history have been absolutely god awful (look at Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for SNES and Genesis for example, instead of being in the maze genre or the platformer genre, it's in the "rasing a stubborn toddler" genre. You have to ask Pac man to do simple actions, you don't control him directly, and half the time he refuses to do it because he's hungry or he's mad at you. It's infuriating), and so because of that people stayed away from the Pac man world games because they assumed they were at best decent, and probably bad.
So yeah I think that having Pac-Man be the main character of these really hurt the series. Because yeah, Pacman world 2 and 3 are brilliant unique 3D platformers, some of the best of the era, and remember this is the time we had spyro and crash and 3D mario and Banjo Kazooie and then later on Ratchet and Daxter and Jak and Clank, so for these Pacman world games to stand out as some of the very best of the era, it's saying a lot.
So I hope people ignore the fact that it's a Pac man spinoff and have an open mind going into this remake. It's a great game. But yeah the 2 sequels just surpass it completely, and they really ignore the original Pacman and the association with mazes, it just becomes a fantastic 3D platformer series that just happens to contain Pac-Man.
I never played the original, or for that matter the other Pac World games. Having said that, I'm liking what I've seen of the Re-Pac version, I'm definitely interested in getting it.
"Three copies of Pac-Man World Re-Pac, please" 🏋️♀️🏋️♂️🏋️
@Jireland92 Especially Krome Keeper, he was a bore in the original
Tap here to load 22 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...