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Pac-Man World: 20th Anniversary, simply known as Pac-Man World (パックマンワールド Pakkuman Wārudo) is a PlayStation game released in 1999, developed and published by Namco Hometek to celebrate Pac-Man's 20th anniversary. It is the first game in the Pac-Man World series (and the first commercially-released Pac-Man 3D platformer), and can be considered the companion game to Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness. It was followed by two sequels, simply titled Pac-Man World 2 and Pac-Man World 3.

In August of 2022, a remake of the game titled Pac-Man World Re-Pac was released; it is available on various modern platforms.

Story

"Over the years, Pac-Man's starring role in one of the greatest games ever has made him Pac-Land's most popular celebrity. Twenty years later, Pac-Man is on a new Quest to defeat Toc-Man and save his friends from the perils of Ghost Island.

Pac-Man arrives to to celebrate his 20th anniversary and finds his house deserted! Toc-Man had his ghostly minions kidnap Pac-Man's friends. One by one, they vanished - Ms. Pac-Man, Pac Jr., Baby Pac-Man, Professor Pac-Man, Pooka and Even Chomp-Chomp the dog were nowhere to be found...

Now Toc-Man has the hostages hidden away throughout Ghost Island and his henchmen have orders to get rid of Pac-Man. Pac-Man's Quest will take him from mine shafts to factories to deep space outpost. Pac-Man will pull out every maze-busting trick and quick-witted escape he has learned throughout his career - plus a whole bunch of slick new moves nobody's ever seen!

Hidden throughout the Quest, Pac-Man will face Challenging puzzles and games made famous by Pac-Man's previous adventures. Even the Ghosts - Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde - are back for a new chance to gobble Pac-Man. So get ready to chomp into action as the legendary Pac-Man battles to save his friends in the Quest of a lifetime![1]"

— From the Quest section of the instruction manual

Pac-Man's family and friends, Chomp-Chomp, Pooka, Baby Pac-Man, Professor Pac-Man, Jr. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are seen bringing presents to celebrate Pac-Man's 20th birthday. While each of Pac-Man's family walks home, all of them are kidnapped by the ghosts; Chomp-Chomp is pulled down by a mummy, Baby Pac and Pooka are both towed away by an anchor, Professor Pac-Man is abducted by a UFO, Jr. Pac-Man is caught and squeezed inside a small robot, and Ms. Pac-Man is assaulted by the ghosts. Pac-Man arrives home, noticing presents scattered on the ground. When he enters his home, he finds his house in ruins, and screams in despair.

Pac-Man walks outside his vandalized home, and notices one of the many leaflets flying around his home. One of the leaflets lands on Pac-Man's face, who then grabs and reads it. The leaflet indicates that there is a party on Ghost Island, where "Pac-Man" is present live and in-person. Pac-Man crumples the leaflet and travels to Ghost Island. In a mansion hosting the party at Ghost Island, a sentry ghost spots Pac-Man sailing on a boat to Ghost Island, and warns his boss. The sentry ghost enters the party room where his boss, Toc-Man, a robot impersonating Pac-Man complains about his party not being perfect. The sentry ghost warns that the real Pac-Man is heading to Ghost Island. Toc-Man scolds his ghosts that they had not captured Pac-Man, since they captured Pac-Man's family and friends out of confusion instead of the actual Pac-Man. Toc-Man orders the ghosts to find and destroy Pac-Man, as Pac-Man arrives at Ghost Island's Buccaneer Beach.

Along his journey, Pac-Man saves his family and friends, scattered throughout Ghost Island. Eventually, Pac-Man reaches Toc-Man's Lair, where the party is being held. Toc-Man attempts to greet the guests at the party as Pac-Man and wants a hug from his guests, but instead they run away from his violent stomp, until the real Pac-Man enters the room; making Toc-Man furious and challenging Pac-Man to a battle. Toc-Man is eventually defeated by Pac-Man, who then stops functioning. The robot opens and is revealed to be piloted by a ghost named Orson, who comes out crying because Pac-Man ruined his party and "nobody loves a ghost". Pac-Man grabs a Power Pellet and chomps Orson. As his eyeballs flee the scene, Pac-Man simply shrugs as the game ends. The Pac-Man family is then seen in a group photo.

Gameplay

Quest Mode

Pac-Man World (Gimme Space)

Pac-Man wandering in a Pac-Dot area in the level "Gimme Space".

The main game mode in Pac-Man World follows Pac-Man as he explores 3D linear levels, discovering items and solving puzzles as he defeats his enemies. The main goal in the game is to collect the gold Token placed at the end of each level, which ends the level. In the levels, Pac-Man has a health bar which allows him to sustain up to four hits. If he is hit while all his wedges are gone from his health indicator, he will lose one life. Other circumstances, such as falling down a bottomless pit or lava will cause a life loss instantly. The game ends when Pac-Man loses all his lives. The player can save their game upon completing a level, allowing them to continue their game at a later time or continue their game in the event they get a game over. Pac-Man can gain extra lives by collecting gold 1UP Pac-Man items, by earning them in the slot machine at the end of every level or for every 10,000 points scored at the results screen.

Pac-Man can move in one of eight directions with the Control Pad, and can also jump in the air to reach higher platforms or dodge enemies. Pac-Man can grab onto ledges if he comes close to one, and either climb them or let go. In addition to these moves, Pac-Man has three new moves that will help him progress through areas. The Butt Bounce, which can be performed by pressing the Jump button while in the air, makes Pac-Man pound the ground; this can be used to ground pound enemies, activate switches, gain height on higher ledges and use B-Doing trampolines. The Rev Roll allows Pac-Man to gain speed and instantly dash roll in a direction; allowing him to bash into enemies, reach lengthy gaps, activate Helivators that move in the air and Rev Plates that cause changes to terrain and speed pass steep slopes which Pac-Man cannot get across while running normally. Pac-Man can also use the Pac-Dots he collects to perform a Pac-Dot Attack, where he throws one of the Pac-Dots collected. If this is charged up by holding the Pac-Dot Attack button, he will charge the attack up to a Super Pac-Dot Attack which extends the blast of the attack; though this will use 10 Pac-Dots if performed. There are also sections where Pac-Man can swim underwater, though he cannot use his attacks underwater unless he has the Steel Ball Power-Up. Pac-Man can swim anywhere underwater, and manually ascends or descends underwater by using their respective buttons.

Throughout each level, Pac-Man will run Pac-Dot areas consisting of Pac-Dots, Power Pellets and Ghosts. Similar to previous titles, Pac-Man can eat a Power Pellet to eat the ghosts, though this will not protect him from other enemies or level hazards. The player will gain a perfect status for the area if all the Pac-Dots and Power Pellets in that area are finished.

Across the levels, there are treasure chests, barrels and crates that often hide more Pac-Dots, Steel Balls, Fruits or health wedges.

  • Steel Ball Power Ups turn Pac-Man into steel; giving Pac-Man temporary invulnerability. The Steel Ball form will also make him heavy enough for him to be able to walk underwater and break underwater chests in addition to being able to use his attacks underwater, though he will not be able to Rev Roll underwater.
  • Shockwave Pellets (sharing the appearance of a Pac-Dot) powers up Pac-Man’s Butt Bounce to the Ultra Butt-Bounce for one hit, which instantly defeats a horde of enemies near him. The Shockwave Pellet's powers will be lost if Pac-Man is hit by an enemy while he has yet to use the Ultra Butt-Bounce.
  • Fruits are items that serve as keys to marked Fruit Doors, which contain items and switches; as well as giving extra points and serving them as contents to allow play for the slot machine at the end of every level.
    • Galaxians unlock the door for the level's respective Maze, where the player is transported to a maze that plays similar to the original Pac-Man. These unlock their respective mazes in the Maze Mode, and can later be accessed again in the Mazes mode (see below).
      PMW-Pooka

      Pooka, the first friend to be rescued.

  • Keys free one of Pac-Man's friends from their cages. There is one key located within one of the levels for each world, and all characters are required to be rescued in order to unlock the final level, Toc-Man's Lair.
  • Health wedges restore one of Pac-Man's hit points if he is damaged. A special red glowing health wedge restores all of Pac-Man's hit points. Pac-Man will also earn one health wedge if he eats all the ghosts of a ghost-inhabited section using a single Power Pellet.
  • Transparent, moving Pac-Man symbols across the levels grant Pac-Man extra lives.
  • Magic Pac-Dot Chains have an arrow sticking on the starting Pac-Dot. If Pac-Man eats this, he will automatically pursue the Pac-Dot trail, usually leading him to a hidden area.
  • Across all the regular levels (except Buccaneer Beach), there are a set of six collectable letters that spell "P-A-C-M-A-N" spread across every level. If all of these are obtained, the player will teleport to a bonus round where the player has a determined time limit to collect all the extra fruit and extra lives. The bonus round layouts depend on the area currently being played.

At the end of every level, the player will get a chance to use the Weigh-In Machine’s slot machine if three or more of the same fruit is collected in a level. If two of the same fruit is lined up next to each other, a 100 point score bonus is awarded. If three of the same fruit is lined up, the player will gain up to three extra lives depending on the fruit. The amount of tries Pac-Man has to use the slot machine depends on the amount of fruit remaining in the machine. The amount of extra lives earned are as follows:

  • 3 Bells or Galaxians: 3 extra lives
  • 3 Peaches, Apples, Bananas, Melons, or Lemons: 2 extra lives
  • 3 Cherries, Strawberries, or Oranges: 1 extra life

The player can skip the slot machine anytime if they do not wish to continue. After the slot machine game, Pac-Man’s collected Pac-Dots and fruit are tallied up for a final level score. The player will receive an extra life for every 10,000 points counted as the level score is added to the player’s grand total score. Each of the player's scores across each level are accumulated into a grand total score. If the grand score reaches 1,000,000 points, the player will earn the Magic Key (which is displayed as a rainbow-cycling Key), which allows the player to unlock any Fruit Door or family member cage without acquiring the necessary fruit/item within the levels.

There are 23 levels within the game, 6 of which are composed of boss levels featuring a boss fight. By completing the respective level of that area, the following one is unlocked. The Funhouse and Factory areas are unlocked after completing the Pirate Ship, Ruins and Space areas, while the final Mansion area is unlocked after completing the respective areas. The last level of each area consists of a boss fight, where Pac-Man must use his attacks such as the Butt Bounce and Rev Roll in order to hit the weak spot of the boss characters until they are defeated. Some boss fights, such as the Clown Prix and King Galaxian levels change up the gameplay style with racing and top-down shooters.

In order to reach 100% completion for the game, the following benchmarks are required to be completed across all levels:

  • Every enemy in the level must be defeated at least once.
  • All fruit must be collected.
  • All Fruit Doors must be opened.
  • All P-A-C-M-A-N letters must be collected.
  • All the hidden Mazes must be discovered.

Levels

There are 23 levels in Quest Mode (12 in the GBA version), which are divided into sets of themed worlds. The last level in each world features a boss battle. Below are the levels listed:

World Level Name Level Number
PlayStation Game Boy Advance
Pirate Buccaneer Beach 1 1
Corsair's Cove 2 2
Crazy Cannonade 3 3
HMS Windbag 4 N/A
The Ruins Crisis Cavern 5 4
Manic Mines 6 5
Anubis Rex 7 N/A
Space Space Race 8 6
Far Out 9 7
Gimme Space 10 N/A
King Galaxian 11 N/A
Funhouse Clowning Around 12 8
Barrel Blast 13 9
Spin Dizzy 14 N/A
Clown Prix 15 N/A
Factory Perilous Pipes 16 N/A
Under Pressure 17
Down the Tubes 18
Krome Keeper 19
Mansion Ghostly Garden 20 N/A
Creepy Catacombs 21 10
Grave Danger 22 11
Toc-Man's Lair 23 12

Additionally, in the PlayStation version, there is an unused Ruins level called Kooky Crypt.

Mazes Mode

Mazes Mode is a collection of mazes, resembling that of the original Pac-Man game; the player runs around collecting Pac-Dots while avoiding the ghosts, and must collect every dot to finish the level. They contain several obstacles and twists not found in previous Pac-Man games. This mode begins with three already provided mazes for each stage; to unlock the other 18 mazes, the player must find the mazes behind Maze Doors within their respective levels in Quest Mode.

Once every maze is unlocked, the player can play Marathon, which consists of all 36 mazes back-to-back. If completed, the Gallery mode replaces the Marathon mode option.

Mazes

Stage Maze Pac-Dots Fruit Level
Pirate Pirate Maze #1 115 Cherry N/A
Pirate Maze #2 98 Strawberry N/A
Pirate Maze #3 105 Orange N/A
Pirate Maze #4 98 Assorted N/A
Pirate Maze #5 115 Lemon Corsair's Cove
Pirate Maze #6 111 Melon Crazy Cannonade
Ruins Ruins Maze #1 122 Peach N/A
Ruins Maze #2 115 Apple N/A
Ruins Maze #3 112 Banana N/A
Ruins Maze #4 111 Strawberry Crisis Cavern
Ruins Maze #5 100 Strawberry Manic Mines
Ruins Maze #6 98 Lemon Manic Mines
Space Space Maze #1 106 Melon N/A
Space Maze #2 109 Lemon N/A
Space Maze #3 113 Galaxian N/A
Space Maze #4 95 Melon Space Race
Space Maze #5 90 Peach Far Out
Space Maze #6 100 Apple Gimme Space
Funhouse Funhouse Maze #1 107 Bell N/A
Funhouse Maze #2 108 Cherry N/A
Funhouse Maze #3 107 Strawberry N/A
Funhouse Maze #4 103 Peach Clowning Around
Funhouse Maze #5 104 Cherry Barrel Blast
Funhouse Maze #6 97 Bell Spin Dizzy
Factory Factory Maze #1 111 Orange N/A
Factory Maze #2 101 Peach N/A
Factory Maze #3 119 Apple N/A
Factory Maze #4 101 Peach Perilous Pipes
Factory Maze #5 112 Apple Under Pressure
Factory Maze #6 119 Strawberry Down the Tubes
Mansion Mansion Maze #1 129 Banana N/A
Mansion Maze #2 106 Melon N/A
Mansion Maze #3 111 Lemon N/A
Mansion Maze #4 129 Cherry Ghostly Garden
Mansion Maze #5 109 Banana Creepy Catacombs
Mansion Maze #6 106 Galaxian Grave Danger

Classic Mode

The Classic Mode allows the player to play the original Pac-Man (which is based on the same version found in Namco Museum Vol. 1). The player can pause the game at any time, though they can only return to the title screen when a game is not in progress.

Unlockable content

Outtakes

Acquiring all the P-A-C-M-A-N letters in every level and defeating Toc-Man once will unlock the Outtake Reel, showcasing animated bloopers of the game's opening and ending cutscenes.

The outtakes follow blooper versions of the following scenes:

  • "Junior Abduction": When Jr. Pac-Man is abducted, his body does not squeeze inside the small robot and gets stuck.
  • "Pac Entry": Pac-Man tries to open the gate to Toc-Man's party room; he ends up pushing the whole gate and makes it fall down.
  • "Pac Eats Orson": Pac-Man prepares to chomp on Orson by eating a Power Pellet, but he chokes on it instead and coughs it out. Orson leaves the set while Pac-Man winks at the camera.
  • "Toc-Man Stomp": Toc-Man introduces himself to the ghosts of the party room, but his stomp causes a display light to fall close to him. He walks away in shock knowing it almost killed him.
  • "Professor Abduction": When Professor Pac-Man is abducted, his cap and glasses are sucked into the UFO's beam, followed by his eyebrows, eyes and nose.
  • "Pac Landing": Pac-Man arrives on Ghost Island's Buccaneer Beach and tries to get off the boat; he loses balance trying to get off the boat and falls on the camera, shattering it.

Gallery

Completing Maze Mode's Marathon mode will replace the Marathon option with the Gallery feature. The gallery features general Pac-Man artwork, artwork of Pac-Man World elements and characters, concept art of the game and a group photo of the Namco Hometek design team.

Home Ports

  • Game Boy Advance
    • The Game Boy Advance version, ported by Full Fat and released in 2004, features severe downgrades from the original version due to it running on inferior hardware. Many of the features (Mazes Mode, Classic Mode, etc.) were all removed, and the cutscenes were replaced with slideshows. The music was also compressed, shortened and downgraded to only a few tracks; for example, the Buccaneer Beach theme plays on all the pirate levels.
    • The Game Boy Advance version was also bundled in a 2-in-1 cartridge with Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness, simply titled Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness & Pac-Man World. For unknown reasons, both games suffer from glitches not found in the single-cartridge releases.
  • PlayStation 3
    • An emulated port released on the PlayStation Network as a PS1 Classic, for $5.99.
  • PlayStation Portable
    • An emulated port released on the PlayStation Network as a PS1 Classic, for $5.99.
  • PlayStation Vita
    • An emulated port released on the PlayStation Network as a PS1 Classic, for $5.99.
  • Windows PC
    • The Windows PC port was released exclusively in South Korea in May 2001, alternatively named PAKMAN WORLD[2]. Very little information is known about it, and it may have been an unauthorized release.

Remake

Main article: Pac-Man World Re-Pac

A remake of Pac-Man World, Pac-Man World Re-Pac was announced during a Nintendo Direct Mini: Partner Showcase on June 28, 2022. This game was released for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch on August 26, 2022. The game is rebuilt from the ground-up and sports more detailed visuals alongside quality-of-life changes to the game.

Trivia

  • Pac-Man World was initially planned to be titled Pac-Man 3D.
  • Pac-Man World was developed after, and in response to, the cancelation of Pac-Man Ghost Zone, which was also planned for the PlayStation. A handful of elements from Ghost Zone would later resurface in Pac-Man World, including the music on the title screen.
  • The game was made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Pac-Man. Pac-Man World 3 was released for Pac-Man's 25th anniversary, and Pac-Man Party and Pac-Man Championship Edition DX were released for his 30th.
  • One of the initial concepts for Pac-Man World involved Pac-Man saving various Namco characters, though the concept was mostly dropped (reportedly at the last minute) in favor of using Pac-Man's family instead.
    • Pooka, one of the remaining characters from the initial concept, survived in the final game; this was reportedly done as there weren't enough members in the Pac-Man family to fill all six worlds.[3] The game's lead designer, Scott Rogers, has also cited Pooka as a personal favorite, which may have been another factor in his inclusion.[4]
    • Characters that were originally part of the concept included Dig Dug, Mappy, Valkyrie and Kurino Xandra from Valkyrie no Densetsu, and Gilgemash from The Tower of Druaga. One additional Pac-Man character - Miru from Pac & Pal - was also considered for inclusion.
    • Early storyboards for the game's opening and ending cutscenes show Dig Dug, Valkyrie, Kurino, and Mappy in place of Chomp-Chomp, Baby Pac-Man, Pooka and Jr. Pac-Man's scenes respectively, as well as appearing in the ending. Additionally, Valkyrie and Xandra's names are misspelled as Valkerie and Sandra.
  • During the intro cutscene for Pac-Man World 3, Pac-Man says "Oh well, at least this birthday is better than my 20th", a reference to the events of the first game.
  • Pac-Man's address, 7650, is a Japanese "Goroawase" wordplay on Namco (7=na, 6=mu, 5=ko, forming "Namuko"). This number can also be seen in games such as Pac-Mania and Pac-Man Arrangement.
  • Valkerie Memorial Park, one of the locations listed on Professor Pac-Man's map in the opening, is a reference to the aforementioned Vakyrie from Valkyrie no Densetsu; though, as in the storyboards, Valkyrie's name is misspelled.
  • Pac-Man was planned to have vocal dialogue in the game; most notably, he was planned to say "I love you, Orson" in the ending scene before eating him. The idea was scrapped, however, as the development team wasn't able to properly decide on a voice for Pac-Man.[4]

Gallery

Screenshots

Box Art

Character Artwork

Concept Artwork

References

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