What happens when arcade gaming legend Pac-Man takes a trip outside his side-scrolling, pellet-munching genre and into the wonderful world of action-platformers? The result was Pac-Man World, which brought everyone’s favourite yellow puck into the 3D gaming space for the first time in 1999 on the original PlayStation console, which would go on to be well-received and spawn a sequel, Pac-Man World 2, in 2002.
Hoping to relive the glory days of Pac-Man’s debut platformer, Bandai Namco Entertainment and developer Now Production released a remake of the original title in 2022, and now, they are taking a bigger bite into its follow-up, Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac. Featuring more than just rebuilt visuals but also a host of new gameplay features, we were able to try out some of these additions and see how they shake up the title’s core gameplay loop via a recent 15-minute gameplay demo.
The demo took place within a level in Paradise Meadows, one of the game’s six unique worlds, giving players a condensed playground to try out many of its new features, such as the Flip Kick, which now allows Pac-Man to perform a basic attack while on the ground, which admittedly was a rather simple mechanic that wasn’t in the original title, instead requiring players to solely rely on the Butt-Bounce move to defeat enemies.
Butt-Bounce has also seen an upgrade, as in the remake, players will now be able to perform a Super Butt-Bounce by pressing the associated button at the right time, indicated on-screen by a glowing ring around Pac-Man’s body. This move not only allows him to bounce back and jump even higher, but it also creates a shockwave upon impact that can stun nearby enemies, allowing for a quick follow-up Flip Kick.
The remake will also feature some systems introduced in Pac-Man World Re-Pac, such as the Pac-Dot attack, which allows Pac-Man to fire a projectile forward as long as he has consumed at least one pellet. Collecting five pellets will also allow him to use a bomb attack, where he throws a bomb forward to deal damage in an area.
Using the combination of these two new moves, traversal and combat in Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac feel much more versatile and fast-paced when compared to the original, allowing Pac-Man to quickly chain together different moves with ease. To balance the gameplay experience, there are now far more roaming enemies in the area to encounter, as while the original level only had one beast-like creature to deal with, the remake now has a number of them littered throughout the level.
Level changes don’t extend to simply enemy placement alone, as while the remake has faithfully kept most elements of its original layout, it has sprinkled a few new sections here and there. In the demo, this came in the form of a mini maze area, a brand new section filled with purple ghosts, which were invulnerable to Pac-Man’s basic attacks. To defeat them, he must collect Power Pellets to transform into Mega Pac-Man, a throwback to the original arcade game’s system, turning into a giant yellow puck that can not only gobble up the ghosts, but also entire bits of the environment like large boulders too.
The demo then skipped ahead to the boss fight between Blinky’s Frog, now known as Killer Frog, a mechanical Amphibian that’s actually piloted by orange ghost Clyde, not Blinky, a misnaming of the two characters that was a common error in early Pac-Man games, and one that has been addressed in Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac.
While the boss fight was fundamentally the same, requiring Pac-Man to Butt-Bounce on Killer Frog’s mechanical tongue to damage it, a few changes were also thrown into the mix, such as the aforementioned tongue, which now features a grabber instead of a spiked ball in the boss’s first phase. Killer frog will grab and consume whatever gets caught with its tongue, meaning that players can now make use of some conveniently placed explosive barrels to trick it into swallowing them, not only stunning the boss and leaving it vulnerable to a follow-up attack, but also dropping a massive number of pellets.
Once Pac-Man whittles down Killer Frog’s health to half, the boss fight enters a revamped version of its second phase, where Clyde feeds it a Golden Fruit, turning it into a souped-up golden version that now features its traditional spiked ball weapon from the original. In this phase, Pac-Man can no longer damage it with Butt-Bounces, playing out similarly to the original, where the boss can only be hurt by either rolling into its weak point or attacking with the Pac-Dot attack.
While the demo was brief, it did give a good indication of just how different Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac is to play compared to the original title. While its level’s layout will definitely feel familiar to returning fans, the addition of new combat and traversal moves, alongside fresh segments scattered throughout the level does well to shake up the experience and make the title more than just a mere visual overhaul, which, to be fair, is quite a feat alone as the demo level was beautifully recreated with remade textures, new environmental elements like bushes and flowers littering the ground, alongside massively improved lighting.
This is just the tip of the iceberg, too, as even though we weren’t able to experience them during the brief demo, the remake also promises many other new additions, such as Ice Skating, Snorkelling, alongside a pilotable submarine known as the Pac-Marine. For younger players or those new to platformers, the game will also feature a new “Fairy Mode”, a more casual way to experience the game that adds platforms that assist traversal and makes Pac-Man immune to certain hazards or attacks. Other remake-specific features include new bosses, an improved Timed Attack Mode, Gashapon machines where players can spend their in-game coins for collectable figures, and even the ability to play three classic arcade titles – the original Pac-Man, Pac-Attack, and Pac-Mania.
Just from our brief demo alone, Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac is shaping up to be a substantial remake which doesn’t just bring the classic platforming sequel to a new console generation but also provides enough new elements to give even long-time fans a reason to return to Pac-Land and face off against the four mischievous ghosts and Spooky once more.
Pac-Man World 2 Re-Pac Butt-Bounces its way to the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC on 26 September 2025.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
