Pac-Man World 3 (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

It's a little odd that this game should land on my desk this year as opposed to 2005 given that last year Pac-Man celebrated his 25th Birthday. You are reminded of this throughout the package and the game itself throws up some incredible facts thanks to the inclusion of a kind of slideshow interview with the game's original creator: Toru Iwatani. For example, did you know that Pac-Man was originally created for the female market or that the shape of Pac-Man was decided when a single slice was taken from a Pizza? If you did you are clearly one of those people who have been following the yellow, pill munching blob from the very beginning but is this third World worth adding to your collection? Read on and see...

Gameplay

Pac-Man World 3 is essentially a 3D platformer with Pac-Man playing the main role and other Pac-Man related characters taking the supporting roles but we'll talk more about them later. Each level contains just about all the hazards you can think of: lava pits, moving and dissolving platforms and impossible jumps. You name it and it's here and whilst most of these provide fairly obvious challenges there are some aspects of the game that are difficult for no reason at all. The first of these occurs when you step on one of the many pressure pads and while you know you've activated something although what exactly this was remains a mystery, forcing you to occasionally backtrack some distance only to discover that the door was just above you, out of sight. This demonstrates a problem with the camera because although you can look from side to side you have no ability to look up making for some incredibly frustrating puzzle solving. Some of the objectives appear a little pointless too so while you can still collect pellets and chase down ghosts there's no real incentive to do so other than increase your score.

But it's not only Pac-Man you get to control during the game. Some puzzles require the help of Pinky and Clyde, two ghosts who have formed an uneasy alliance with Pac-Man. Both are far slower that Pac-Man but they have other skills such as building platforms that are essential for progress through the later levels. Finally, I have to mention the rather dumb enemies all of whom appear in the same place and follow the same attack pattern and as a result simply become more of a nuisance than a challenge. This along with the occasional questionable level design and complete lack of collision detection or level perimeter would point towards a rushed job by the development studio although given that this is actually a year too late to cash in on Pac-Man's first quarter century I can't really see why.

Controls

Not bad at all although Pac-Man was never the most complicated arcade game was it? The only real problem we found is when you have to change into one of the ghosts because there's no on-screen tutorial here or even guidance in the manual so you may get a bit lost through no fault of your own.

Graphics

Obviously the DS just doesn't have the same amount of power as the GameCube, for example, but the concessions made to get this game onto a handheld form are considerable. The first thing which has suffered is the overall presentation with the FMV intro replaced with a side-show which really doesn't convey the game's plot effectively. The same can be said about the interview with the game's original creator which is again a slide show although without audio the on-screen text is incredibly difficult to read. More important the in-game visuals not only feature an incredibly poor draw distance but also a whole host of bland uninspired textures. This wouldn't be too bad if this was the first time you'd encountered a 3D game on the platform but with titles like Metroid Prime and Super Mario 64 demonstrating just how it should be done it really isn't good enough.

Sound

This is probably the best thing about the whole package. It's all been ported from the console version but it's all still very pleasant to listen too. In addition you also get all of Pac-Man's trademark sound effects, indeed what would Pac-Man be without the waca-waca-waca following him wherever he goes?

Dual screen

It's clear that the developers used the DS hardware for the improved 3D visuals and the touch screen is used very sparingly indeed. In fact most the things you do on the bottom screen can also be achieved with the standard control system.

Final comments

It's difficult to recommend Pac-Man World 3 even if you are a long-standing fan as there are just so many flaws in the overall package. For a start there's been little attempt here to utilise any of the DS's unique features - any touch screen interaction is clearly an afterthought. Then there are the frustrating camera angles, which never seem to aid you in your quest. The real problem though is the game's overall design with endless backtracking and poorly thought out missions, not to mention the many glitches which mean you can at times fall through invisible walls. Pac-Man has already made some quality appearances on the DS (Pac-Pix, Pac 'n' Roll) and there have even been some enjoyable GBA outings released in the same period. Unfortunately the 25th Anniversary outing falls far short of these and if you do decide to take the plunge you'll only be disappointed.

Pro: Fun VR Mazes, Fourteen Levels.
Con: Sloppy Programming, Camera Angles.
Final score: 4.5

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