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(More customer reviews)Having had some experience with Pac-Man from the Atari 2600 days, as well as with newer Pac-Man titles like Pac-Man World Rally, Pac-Man: Adventures in Time, and Pac-Man All Stars on the PC, I have an affinity for Pac-Man. Also, I've thought since the Pac-Man World franchise debuted that it was sort of a novel thing to see Pac-Man join other iconic platform stars such as Mario, Pitfall Harry, Sonic, Crash, Gex, Jazz Jackrabbit, and Rayman in having his own series of platform adventures. So I decided to pick up Pac-Man World 3 when I saw it at Gamestop this past Saturday.
I'll say right off that I like the game even though I was a bit disappointed with the cheapened down production values (no jewel case), though the box has some mild embossing, and you do get a manual. I vaguely remember seeing a PC port of Pac-Man World 2 available not-so-long ago as well, and I've been having a good enough time with this game that I've decided now that I will probably pick it up too (stay tuned for the review). The game looks smoother than it's console brethren via courtesy of the PC's superior anti-aliasing, and a modest selection of fairly high resolution choices.As you might suspect, the game supports gamepads as well although you don't get any rumblepad support--which may or may not matter to you depending on whether or not you have one, but to me, this often neglected option becomes a question of why shouldn't the game have it as opposed to why it should.
As far as gameplay goes, you're getting most everything you would expect to get from a mascot platformer. The game is fun, funny, and you get your standardized platform game plot line of zany evil genius after world domination creates terrible machine, blah, blah blah. The levels are colorful, well designed and decorated with a good diversity of environments which goes a long way towards making exploring them fun. Some of the platform jumping levels can get a bit tense, but doesn't ratchet up the frustration factor too much. Pac-Man World retains many core gameplay elements of the original game, but has been updated to be comparable to modern platformers. One of several new conventions introduced in this title is the ability to control Pinky and Clyde, and Pac-Man himself has several new moves--Pac-Man can punch, wall jump, pole swing, and now has a much appreciated look ability. You also get to go on an item hunt as you trudge through the game (presumably to open up unlockables though I don't know what those are since I haven't completed the game yet) like collecting trophies which are awarded whenever Pac-Man eats all the fruit in any given level, and finding collector's cards. Pac-Man also gets new power ups like Ribbon Loop, Electro shock, chrome Pac-Man, Butt Bounce, and Super Stomp which are allot of fun to use against enemies as well. You also get a spattering of mini-games throughout the game as there are several areas where you can teleport, and try your luck with several classic Pac-Man maze levels. My single gripe with these however, is that the developers should have included Pac-Man's jump ability. Even this is a minor ding though, it just would have been nice to have since Pac fans have gotten used to it, and Pac-Man has had it in all his newer games since "Adventures in Time" for Dreamcast, and PC. There's also a very cool museum (accessible from the main menu) where you'll find an emulator with a full version of the original arcade game, an interview with the original designer, a collector's card viewer, a Pac timeline, and a preview of the already available Pac-Man World Rally.
All said and done, I'm going to give Pac-Man World 3 a good grade with minor dings for AWOL rumblepad support, and low production values (hence, the 4 star ratings). Overall, I'm satisfied with my purchase--I'm having a good time with the game, and don't see myself selling or trading it anytime soon. But as with Pitfall: The Lost Expedition, I think this game's main selling points are it's personality, and high nostalgia factor. But it definetely stands on it's own merits as a fun, entertaining mascot platform adventure, and it's a worthy bargain bin purchase for fans of Pac-Man, and mascot platformers.
UPDATED EDIT:Because this game uses the Starforce copy protection system which installs a proprietary unsigned driver, it is NOT Windows 7 compatible.However, it should work with Vista so long as signed driver enforcement is disabled. Unless it's been rolled back, signed driver enforcement can be disabled in Windows Vista through the group policy editor (start\run\gpedit.msc) or through a command line command which you can find the procedure for in online help forums.
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Pac Man World 3Product Description: In a mad search for power, evil genius Erwin creates a machine that can penetrate into the Spectral Realm. But now, the Spectral Realm is collapsing into the real world causing a massive catastrophe that will devastate Pac World. After mysteriously having been transported out of Pac-Village and into this strange and different land, Pac-Man must uncover Erwin's plot and save the world. Along the way, Pac-Man will meet a host of unexpected "old friends," and in order to defeat the ultimate enemy, he might just have to turn his old foes into allies. New Pac-Man moves such as climb fences, jump up walls, swing around poles and punch enemiesIncludes the original Pac-Man arcade game from 1980
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