Developed by Vicious Cycle
Published by Namco Bandai Games
Released for Xbox 360 (10/14/2014)
Also on PS3/Wii U/3DS
Being a long-time fan of the old Pac-Man arcade games, I came in wanting to like the Ghostly Adventures series of games. Much like the first game, this one does not rank up with the best of them unfortunately. You can read the review of the original here and it pretty much all applies to this title since at a glance you can't tell one from the other. The game starts off in a hub, which is one of the few areas this game actually improved on from the original. There's a bit more to see and explore, plus all of the games maps are accessed from this main hub. You're also able to view your stats on all levels which is a nice touch.
The levels themselves are pretty forgettable overall, but there are some pretty cool ideas here and there. Walking on the ceiling with the magnets can be pretty fun sometimes, but it's nothing that Lego Batman hasn't done better. The other power-ups are pretty standard fare, but I particularly hated Rubber Pac, whose intentionally bouncy controls led to quite a bit of frustration on a few stages. Trying to find all 3 of the fruits on each stage adds some replay value and is probably one of the better things going for the gameplay. It's hard to be precise with your chomping sometimes when trying to attack consecutive ghosts for a combo, which was also a problem encountered with the first game. I ran into some nasty technical issues on the Xbox 360 version, the worst of which was some really bad slowdown on a few stages in the "space world." Perhaps it runs smoothly on the Wii U, but here it seems like they hardly play-tested sections of this version. Much like the first game, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is a decent 3D-platformer and despite the mostly uninspired level design and technical issues, there's still some fun to be had with this one if you can score it on the cheap.
Final Verdict: Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is a decent 3D-platformer that doesn't improve much from the first game, but provides more of the same. There are some technical issues with the framerate in sections, but it's still playable.
Purchase Links:
Buy Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (Digital) - Xbox Marketplace
Buy Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (Disc) - eBay
Related Links:
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures - Xbox Overview
Bandai Namco Games - Official Site
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 - Metacritic
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 - GameFAQs
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 Achievement Guide - Xbox Achievements
Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 - True Achievements
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