{"id":12643,"date":"2014-10-31T00:01:50","date_gmt":"2014-10-31T00:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=12643"},"modified":"2014-10-23T12:08:33","modified_gmt":"2014-10-23T12:08:33","slug":"pac-man-and-the-ghostly-adventures-2-360-ps3-wii-u-3ds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2014\/10\/31\/pac-man-and-the-ghostly-adventures-2-360-ps3-wii-u-3ds\/","title":{"rendered":"Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (360, PS3, Wii U, 3DS)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PAC2_BOX\"<\/a>One of the most popular video game icons, Pac-Man, is still going strong after all these years. There is even a computer animated cartoon on the Disney XD cable channel, and it even has a second season!\u00a0 I\u2019m surprised at that, because the cartoon itself isn\u2019t that good.\u00a0 Last year, Bandai Namco Games made a video game based on Pac-Man\u2019s new cartoon adventures<\/strong><\/a>, and despite being based on a lackluster cartoon license, the game itself was actually pretty good.\u00a0 So now it\u2019s a year later and we have a sequel to Pac-Man\u2019s cartoon 3-D platforming romp, and while it\u2019s more of the same, it\u2019s still a fun little game.\u00a0 They just added some characters from the end of the first season and into the second.<\/p>\n

As a 3-D platforming hero, Pac-Man can run, hop, and double jump. There is also a button just for chomping. Press it near a ghost and Pac will home in and chomp it! Just like in the cartoon, Pac-Man can eat Power Berries that give him new powers that help him defeat enemies and overcome obstacles (similar to another round hungry video game hero, Kirby). Fire Pac-Man can toss fireballs to toast the ghosts, while Ice Pac-Man can shoot out a freeze ray to ice ghosts and freeze water and lava. Other berries turn Pac-Man into a chameleon, who can slurp up ghosts and swing from objects with his long tongue. Or he can turn into a giant stone ball and roll around the levels. Metal Pac-Man can stick to magnetic surfaces, making for some creative platforming situations. There are more powers to discover, too.<\/p>\n

Even though the game is more of the same, there are some subtle differences and changes, but probably only the folks who played the original game would notice. Stages are now a little shorter, and are more score-based, which is cool since Pac-Man was originally about getting a high score anyway.\u00a0 So replaying the shorter stages to get a high score is encouraged here.\u00a0 Collecting tokens in the first game allowed you to play arcade games based on Pac-Man\u2019s vehicles from the cartoons.\u00a0 But in the second game, those arcade mini-challenges are gone, and tokens give you double the points for a short amount of time.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry; you\u2019ll still be able to pilot some of Pac\u2019s vehicles during the levels.\u00a0 The game also touts that you\u2019ll be able to play as Pac-Man\u2019s friends from the cartoon, but you only play them in a few vehicle-based shooter stages.<\/p>\n

The ways the power-ups work in this one are a little different, too. In the first game, if Pac-Man ate a power berry and took a hit, he\u2019d lose the power berry\u2019s abilities.\u00a0 But in this one, he\u2019ll keep them after he gets hit or even loses a life.\u00a0 They added and deleted some of Pac-Man\u2019s skills, too.\u00a0 Chameleon Pac can no longer blend into the background to sneak around, but Fire Pac can now glide in the air using a flaming surfboard under his feet.\u00a0 In the first game, you could collect rainbow colored globs that would give him an extra heart if he collected enough.\u00a0 But in the sequel, a glob will give him an extra heart right away, but he\u2019ll lose it at the end of the level or if he gets hit.\u00a0 There are also some extra 2-D challenge stages to master, too.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth mentioning that the 3DS version of the sequel is exactly like the bigger console games. That\u2019s worth noting because the original game<\/strong> <\/a>was totally different than the console version of the first game.\u00a0 The 3DS version was a 2-D platformer, while the console one was 3-D.\u00a0 But the sequel on the 3DS is just like the other versions, although there is a small cut in graphical resolution.<\/p>\n

The only other thing they took out of the sequel was the neat multiplayer mode from the original that let you play as all the four ghosts. But that\u2019s OK; it\u2019s not a game-breaker or anything.\u00a0 Only real problem with the game is that sometimes the goals in levels and where you\u2019re supposed to go aren\u2019t as clear.\u00a0 And play control using some of Pac\u2019s powers, like tongue swinging and magnet orbiting, don\u2019t always work well.\u00a0 But other than that, it\u2019s still a pretty fun little colorful 3-D romp, and you really don\u2019t see too many of those anymore.<\/p>\n

\"PAC2_SCREEN\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Kid Factor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is rated E-10 with an ESRB descriptor of Cartoon Violence. With some of Pac\u2019s powers, you can punch and shoot ghosts and monsters, and of course he chomps a lot, too.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re OK with your kids watching the TV cartoon, they\u2019ll be OK with this game, too.\u00a0 Reading skill is helpful for some of the text, but most of it has spoken voice accompanying it.\u00a0 Younger players and less experienced gamers may need help with some of the trickier jumps and obstacles, though.<\/p>\n

When you buy the game, there is a special offer to get a free Fatheads wall decal. The Pac-Man fan in me would love to have that, but in order to get it, you have to enter in a code online, print it out and mail it in, and then wait for another letter that lets you send in a proof of purchase.\u00a0 And they don\u2019t even show you what the decal looks like or how big it is, so I don\u2019t even know if it\u2019s worth the trouble.<\/p>\n

\"PAC2_DECAL\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the most popular video game icons, Pac-Man, is still going strong after all these years. There is even a computer animated cartoon on the Disney XD cable channel, and it even has a second season!\u00a0 I\u2019m surprised at that, because the cartoon itself isn\u2019t that good.\u00a0 Last year, Bandai Namco Games made a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews","category-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12643"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12646,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12643\/revisions\/12646"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}