Pac-Man World 3 Xbox Review

Despite popping pills and being pursued by ghosts for his entire life, Pac-Man has somehow managed to reach the ripe old age of twenty-five. Namco have released a game to celebrate this feat, but is Pac-Man World 3 a fitting birthday celebration for a character that ranks alongside the illustrious likes of Mario, Sonic and Lara Croft for overall renown?

Whilst like the previous two entries in the series, Pac-Man World 3 is a platformer, it still however manages to retain the essence of what defines a Pac-Man game. You still somewhat controversially ingest pills -the larger of which enhances your performance- and from time to time ghosts still chase you.

Sticking rigidly to the traditional platformer template Pac-Man World 3 doesn’t have an ounce of innovation and in actual fact steals many ideas from others in the genre. Pac-Man possesses all the moves -such as butt-bouncing, pole swinging and of course jumping- which every platform star worth their salt should have. He can also rev roll, which is a blatant rip off of Sonic’s spindash move, with even the occasional loop requiring the use of this very familiar move.

Something that is refreshing about Pan-Man World 3 is its old fashioned reliance on amassing points, which could perhaps have been implemented for the older gamer. Every pill you gulp down awards you glorious points, whilst there’s a slew of collectibles hidden around each of the massive stages, which too ascend your score and will have completists scouring every nook and cranny and performing death-defying leaps in their bid to collect every single one of them. There’s even a leader board too where you can save and try and beat your siblings or friends high scores, though an online leader board certainly wouldn’t have gone amiss.

The bonus stages in Pac-Man World 3 are a throwback to the Pac-Man games of old, far more of a simpler affair to his more recent platform star metamorphosis, with pill gobbling and running being the order of the day. These are unsurprisingly immense fun and symbolise just exactly why the maze Pac-Man’s of old are hailed as classics. It’s a pity the same can’t be said for this third world game.

Starting with the visuals, which admittedly do offer pleasant enough imagery but are however blemished by backdrops that are rarely interesting whilst the overall level design isn’t as interestingly intricate as the best examples of the genre. It can also on occasion lack the fun that you’d expect a game of such an enthusiastically bouncy genre to offer.

Pac-Man World 3 is an average, derivative, and at times it’s a rather boring platformer, which all collectively renders the game as a poor offering for Pac’s Twenty-fifth. If he continues starring in such mediocrity, we quite frankly hope the poor guy doesn’t reach his Thirtieth birthday. A sad example of a fall from grace.

5/10