Pac-Man and The Ghostly Adventures 2
Release Date - October 14th, 2014
Developer - Bandai Namco
Publisher - Bandai Namco
Genre - 3D platformer
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is a sequel to the first version released less than a year ago on October 29th, 2013. If you played the first game, then you'll see most of the same things from soundtrack to graphics to gameplay. This time, Lord Betrayus is back invading Pacopolis with the ghosts trying to take back their original form. Good Ole High School Student Pac-Man and friends leading the defense.
If you've played the show, you'll recognize that in Ghostly Adventures 2 the color scheme and graphics are perfectly blended. The bright, smooth colors go well with the 3D mechanics and really lend an immersive feel to the overall gameplay: A fun game that allows you to play and enjoy the fact that you are playing a game without having to worry about save points, respawns and health. It's a refreshing take to games lately that a lot forget about. Ghostly Adventures 2 isn't going to take a lot of strategy, map knowledge or in depth planning to complete. But well it does take it does well; a lot of fun.
The soundtrack is entertaining and keeps you tied into the game. It's nothing extreme in Ghostly Adventures 2 but it flows well with boss battle themes slightly more upbeat. The voice acting is back as well with Pac-Man's awkwardly sounding female voice along with two new friends in Spiral and Cylindria. Pac-Man's friends from the TV show, the voices and jokes do well to tie adults and older Pac-Man fans into the game. There's a lot of tongue in cheek jokes that only adults will get, similar to how Disney movie jokes only adults understand with kids really just liking the colorful characcters' looks. I even heard some inside joke referencing the movie Airplane! that could only flow well in this game.
Pacopolis returns as the main hub world in Ghostly Adventures 2 with some new additions like Atlantis. Similar to the first game along with the TV show, you'll be forced with beating large gap holes and pitfalls, turn switches on and off and of course Pac-Chomp ghosts. All the levels are in 3D form but are not very linear. They are rather short with each one taking approximately 20 minutes or so if you go straight through but there are good side areas to look at which are definitely recommended. It adds a little bit of challenge which is welcome as well by requiring Pac to change into different forms in order to access these areas. Spiral's helicopter and Cylindria's hoverboard are included for both individual use as well as in conjunction with Pac-Man. These aren't co-op levels, but rather where you as one player take control of both characters at the same time as they work together. One of Pac's forms, for example, is Metal Pac-Man where he chomps onto the metal helicopter in order to be transported to another part of the level. Other forms Pac-Man can take include Ice, Rubber and Pac-zilla which turns our old yellow friend into a gigantic version of himself on screen during boss battles. My least favorite portion was that Pac-zilla was only for boss battles. During my review, I was playing this with my son as he likes Pac-Man and I lost count of how many times I heard "Daddy, can I be super big again?" Surely, my son can't be the only one who feels this way and Ghostly Adventures 2 would have benefited of adding the feature more than at boss battles.
As a routine character game goes, it is not too difficulty in its design for younger demographics. For those who have issues controlling the gameplay mechanics on the 3D field and fall off it's not the end of the world. You don't die right off the bat and only lose one of your health hearts with chances o' plenty to refill your health.
Overall, Ghostly Adventures 2 won't take you long to beat, but the colorful scheme and overall fun factor lend a higher replay factor. Even after completing the game, my son still wanted to go back and "eat ghost bad guys" and, to be honest, so did I. I really enjoyed Ghostly Adventures 2 as I noted above as it's a refreshing take away from the 40 + hour marathon games we've been used to as of late. There definitely could have been more levels with only five main ones to speak of in this installment. Even in between levels, if you decide to head over to the High School (Maze High) or Sir C's lab as seen in the TV show, it's entertaining and fun but not much content to speak of is included. I was disappointed to see that multiplayer and mini-games were not included in Ghostly Adventures 2 as this is the type of game that screams mini-games. A Cylindria type of hoverboard time trial level or Spiral helicopter ghost chomp would have added to the enjoyability factor.
Other than the lack of content, there wasn't much to speak of on the negative side in Ghostly Adventures 2. The content that was there was well organized and definitely not rushed. I recommend playing it if you have children, are a Pac-Man fan or just enjoy fun games. It seems much too often we get tied into LENGTH of gameplay rather than amount of gameplay or just the good old fashioned fun factor. Ghostly Adventures 2 definitely has the fun factor going for it with its only downfall being the lack of content. It is available now on PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U.
