Excited for Pac Man World Rally yet?

[figgler]

I am. I sure hope this game delivers. I love kart racing, and the Pac Man World is pretty cool. Some of the pics I've seen have some eye catching classic throwback style, plus Pooka from Dig Dug is playable! Pooka!

They really could do this game well with the characters and track possibilities, so I am excited but a little reserved. Pac games can be pretty hit and miss these days

 

*fingers crossed*

[King_Salamon]

I like the characters that can be thrown into the mix and the tracks could be well done in terms of the retro feel of things.

 

Although I haven't seen a screen of this game it does sound interesting. Unfortunately, kart racers seem to be cursed in terms of gameplay. There are good ones out there and then there are bad ones. No real average ones. I'm hoping for a good one!

[Atarifever]

I wasn't looking forward to it until you just mentioned it and I looked it up. Screw Pooka, fygar rocks. Seriously, how many times does a Pooka kill you in an average game? If you answer more than none, you haven't played enough. Fygar on the other hand, is a badass. Also, racing in the Pole Position car sounds fun. Galaga ships, Pac-Man, Ms. Pacman,Pole Position, Dig Dug, it's like all my favorite games for the 7800 are put into a kart racer.

[King_Salamon]

Does sound like fun... just gotta wait to see how it plays. Have my fingers crossed for this one!

[sega saturn x]

I can't understand why nobody mentioned the prince of all cosmos is playable as well! Chances are high I'll pick this up when it's 20$. I'm tempted to pick up sonic riders cheap for similar reasons, mainly nights is a playable character. But the game isn't fun, at all. So that kind of negates the coolness of nights.

[Agent X]

The videos I've seen look good so far. I'm keeping an eye on this one.

 

I noticed that the company developing this game for Namco has some people who used to be with Beyond Games, the developers of BattleWheels for Lynx and Ultra Vortek for Jaguar.

[AtariJr]

is it only for ps2? if so my interest has suddenly subsided

[figgler]

is it only for ps2? if so my interest has suddenly subsided

 

 

GameCube also, not sure what else though, if anything

[kidnicky]

My friend had a demo version of this that came with a magazine,and it's garbage. Here's what he wrote in an email to me-

" it

is basically as terrible as you would think. It barely has this

generation's level of graphical prowess. Powersliding, while mentioned

in the control tutorial, is non-existant. Some of the characters are

neat looking in a strange way, but their "carts" are horrendous. They

tried to incorporate power pellets but they serve little purpose as far

as I can see. The weapons are haphazard in every way. And finally the

makers seem to try to rip of F-zero in that you can go from last to

first over and over, but in this game it is due to your opponent's

shoddiness on the track and the fact that the game is just done poorly."

 

I played it and I have to agree. Unless you're the kind of person who would love any Pac-related game,save your $20.

[AtariJr]

is it only for ps2? if so my interest has suddenly subsided

 

 

GameCube also, not sure what else though, if anything

 

sweet.. it has restored my love

[figgler]

It didn't occur to me until today, but Namco actually put together the Mario Kart arcade game for Japan if I recall. Supposedly, the quality of that racer was quite good, and I am sure Nintendo wouldn't have handed off one of its top franchises for a dud kart game.

So, long story short, I really think we should expect good things of this upcoming Pac Man race game, everything points to this one being well implemented

[n8littlefield]

I played the demo and it was fun - certainly not Mario Kart quality - but still a fun waste of time if priced appropriately.

[Phineasfool]

is it only for ps2? if so my interest has suddenly subsided

 

 

GameCube also, not sure what else though, if anything

 

I believe it is also coming out for the DS. I'm just annoyed only the PS2 version can be reserved at work.

[keilbaca]

Coming out for gamecube? I'm in

 

This shall be a nice combobulation of stuffs to race.

[SteveW]

The videos I've seen look good so far. I'm keeping an eye on this one.

 

I noticed that the company developing this game for Namco has some people who used to be with Beyond Games, the developers of BattleWheels for Lynx and Ultra Vortek for Jaguar.

I've been wondering what happened to the guys from Beyond Games. I was playing Motor Mayhem on the PS2 just the other day, and wondering if the studio's still in business.

[AtariJr]

There is a new trailer on IGN for the game. It looks great... and while the grapics arent as good as Mario Kart, it looks like the level design is really kick ass. Look at the newest trailer, you race in a table top pac man game, and you can see pac man and Ms pac man through the glass "playing" the game... its tight! Too bad its not for DS, but Cube works...

[figgler]

I finally found the game this weekend.

Good fun, good fun. It's too early for me to give a full assesment, as I've only played for about 2 hours so far, but I like it.

Really good course variety, the power ups are cool (there are some that you even need to unlock) and there are lots of characters. So far I can't see a major difference between them, but there are a lot.

This game is not Mario Kart by a long shot, but it's easily one of the best of the rest that I've played.

[Atarifever]

I finally found the game this weekend.

 

I don't know why you were having trouble finding it. It's in every store around here that sells games (both Mom and Pop ones and the big box marts). I don't think mainland Canada likes Pacman less than Newfoundland does. Of course, maybe I'm wrong. I'll never understand your backwards mainland ways.

[figgler]

Of course, maybe I'm wrong. I'll never understand your backwards mainland ways.

 

I've heard that eating too many lobsters can make you crazy like that.

 

And so I beat the crap out of this game. It isn't very difficult at all to unlock all the power ups, characters and difficulties.

In order to get a real challenge, I had to play as a slow character, like say Jr Pac-Man on the Nightmare difficulty. There are some really cool courses to be seen here that have a lot more going on than any Mario Kart courses do. They aren't designed better, but the Haunted stage and Spooky's Castle for instance (my favourites) have a lot to look at and a lot going on in the scenery. Sometimes it comes into play like the archer, axemen, magician and dragon in the castle, and sometimes it's just a cool element to see (check out those Pac iron maidens and the Pac-enstein monster in the haunted level)

 

The battle mode options are fairly robust and there were 2 nights last weekend where I stayed up until 4, just setting up battle scenarios and having a blast. The cool thing with battle mode is that it's completely different. The characters are all the same obviously, but all the weapons are different from in race mode. A good shake up.

Multiplayer would surely inject some life into this game for me, but that is a rare luxury indeed.

Edited September 21, 2006 by figgler

[Atarifever]

Multiplayer would surely inject some life into this game for me, but that is a rare luxury indeed.

My fiancee will play multiplayer in any game that's cute, simple, and playable on a Nintendo system. That's no small part of the reason I'm marrying her.

Edited September 21, 2006 by Atarifever

[Atarifever]

Man has this thing ever been reviewed wrong. I see only poor reviews for it for some reason. Yeah, it's easy. That's the only big problem I can find with it. I imagine in two player the easiness is a product of who you play against.

 

Besides, the meat and potatoes of this game isn't even the racing (which is still great by the way), but the battle mode. Have you ever used a banana battering ram to destroy Ms. Pac-man? No? Then you need to. How about using a strawberry heat seeking missle on Inky? How many times have you locked onto enemies with a machine gun in a pac-man game? If this thing had online multiplayer it would be perfect.

 

The tracks are really good too. They're not quite Mario Kart good, but they're pretty slick. The music is also enjoyable. I really don't know what game the reviewers were playing, but it certainly wasn't this one. I hope a DS, 360, or Wii version comes out with online play.

[figgler]

I agree with you. (again)

I think the main issue with the reviews is that they just keep comparing it to Mario Kart. "It's an MK rip off", "Carbon copy", "More of the same" and whatnot. As if this is news. As if there is a kart racing game anywhere in existence that doesn't borrow heavily from the set up and ideas introduced in MK. Hello!

Once you get over the clone syndrome, which you ought to be fully aware of before you ever play, the game shines through and has all kinds of charm and merits that are all its own. There aren't any better non-Mario kart racers available that I know of.

[Phineasfool]

I'll have to agree also. The game is just fun. The only other one I've had more fun with besides MK is Diddy Kong Racing on the N64.

[Atarifever]

I'll have to agree also. The game is just fun. The only other one I've had more fun with besides MK is Diddy Kong Racing on the N64.

I'm pretty much scoring it a tie between this and DKR. Diddy Kong Racing has the better single player racing game if I remember, but Battle mode in this one makes it an even heat.

By the way, does anyone find the computer is much better at battle mode than at racing in Pacman World Rally?