After you’ve done that, you can start making the video games. Not video games based on the original video games, mind you, but video games based on the TV show, which is, of course, based on the video games. This is the kind of crap that only used to happen with comic book companies. DC pulled something like this recently: they made a MOBA called Infinite Crisis based on the 2004 comic book of the same name, then published another comic book called Infinite Crisis based on the MOBA with was, of course, based on the comic book series. You gotta hand it to Namco, though. Like DC, they’ve managed to come full circle, and that takes commitment.

"Ironically, the best missions aren’t platforming romps at all, but special missions that resemble shoot-em-ups, and the occasional boss fight. This is when the game genuinely feels like it’s firing on all cylinders, and when the score mechanics that the rest of the levels try to push, often unsuccessfully because keeping your combo going discourages exploration, work out in the game’s advantage.

What they’ve come up with, unfortunately, isn’t particularly good, or very original, or very much of anything except rather generic and kind of painful. The problems start with the characters: like pretty much every other mascot this side of forever, Pac-Man has been saddled with a frighteningly large group of sidekicks with annoying voices who follow him around shouting things like “Good job, Pacster!” just as you’ve plummeted to your death. A very intelligent bunch, these. Pac-Man himself isn’t any better. In fact, the titular character doesn’t sound very manly at all, more like a pre-pubescent boy, or perhaps even more damning, a pre-pubescent boy voiced by a girl (which, if the credit to his voice actor is accurate, appears to be the case), ever the sign of good, quality children’s television. That was sarcasm, in case you couldn’t tell.

What are Pac-Brat and his cronies up to? Well, just saving the world from some nasty ghosts. Why are these ghosts nasty? Because reasons, that’s why. And you’d better stop them, or Pacopolis will be destroyed. Yes, the city that they live in is called Pacopolis. Oh, and the leader of the Ghosts? His name is Betrayus. That is a real thing. God have mercy.

Anyway, saving the world from the big bad ghosties generally involves leading Pac-Tween through some pretty standard 3D platforming levels while eating the little yellow orbs (because he’s hungry, I guess. They really don’t give you anything other than points), fruit, and various power ups in search of a high score. You can also get some pretty standard power ups that allow you to do the kinds of things that other platformers have been doing for a couple of decades.

"Anyway, saving the world from the big bad ghosties generally involves leading Pac-Tween through some pretty standard 3D platforming levels while eating the little yellow orbs (because he’s hungry, I guess. They really don’t give you anything other than points), fruit, and various power ups in search of a high score.

The level of cribbing (cribbage? Whatever, we’ll roll with it) here is kind of astounding, actually. Wall-jumping, Super Mario 64 style? Yep, that’s there. Those double-sided platforms that change sides when you jump, from the recent 3D Mario games? Ditto. The standard three collectibles scattered over the place that you can collect to increase your score? Yep, they’re there, just as fruit. Chasing a high score or a multiplyer in certain sections for special power ups? Yeah, man.

Even the power-ups are pretty standard, with the exception of the metal Pac-Boy, which actually allows the developers do something cool. The metal ability lets Pac-Man magnetically stick to metal walls, which means you can walk upside down and vertically. This allows the levels to pull some interesting tricks, and explore a level of horizontal (and vertical) interaction that just isn’t in most platformers. The other major difference is the focus on building a score by keeping a combo going, and scaring ghosts, which increases your combo multiplyer and offers more points when you eat them.

That doesn’t really make up for “been there, done that” nature of many of the game’s platforming levels, but The Ghostly Adventures 2 does genuinely try to change it between levels, offering challenge missions that focus on one of the power-ups and a number of side missions. Ironically, the best missions aren’t platforming romps at all, but special missions that resemble shoot-em-ups, and the occasional boss fight. This is when the game genuinely feels like it’s firing on all cylinders, and when the score mechanics that the rest of the levels try to push, often unsuccessfully because keeping your combo going discourages exploration, work out in the game’s advantage.

"The game just suffers from bog-standard level design, annoying characters, dated visuals, unskippable dialogue if you make the poor decision to talk to any of Pac-Man’s friends, an occasionally poor camera and annoying scoring system that seems at odds with many of the level’s fairly open-ended nature.

Still, this isn’t enough to make up for the unimpressive graphics, the rote platforming, and the uneven level design that simultaneously encourages you to explore but then punishing you for it by damaging your multiplyer or arbitrarily killing you because you’re fighting the camera angles during certain segments.

Honestly, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 isn’t a terrible game. Some of the levels are genuinely interesting and well-designed, and a lot of the special levels are truly engaging. The game just suffers from bog-standard level design, annoying characters, dated visuals, unskippable dialogue if you make the poor decision to talk to any of Pac-Man’s friends, an occasionally poor camera and annoying scoring system that seems at odds with many of the level’s fairly open-ended nature.

In all, it’s one of those licensed games that feels rather limited by its license than expanded by it. It’s a game that exists because Pac-Man is a thing, and Namco is searching for ways to make that thing, a true child of the arcade, relevant in the age of consoles. In some cases, they’ve succeeded, with titles like Pac-Man DX: Champsionship Edition. But with Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, it feels Namco’s busy chasing ghosts, looking for a time when Pac-Man was relevant, and when his games carried so much potential.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation  3.

Serving as a sequel to the 2013 Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures video game, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is currently set to launch on Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360. It’s also currently slated for a worldwide release on October 14th of 2014.

• 1. Development
• 2. Story
• 3. Gameplay
• 4. Characters

Development

The development for Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is being handled in part by Banai Namco Games, the successful developer and publisher of titles like Dark Souls and Pokken Tournament, and Monkey Bar Games, a developer that primarily make family focused games or titles aimed at a younger audience like Dora the Explorer: Journey to the Purple Planet or Despicable Me: The Game.

The development cycle has been surprisingly quiet, but given that this is a title that isn’t expected to shift millions of units, this is hardly surprising. Developed purely as a sequel without any greater narrative, the official line is, “New Worlds, New Friends, New Power Ups.”

Story

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures.2 will see Pac Man and his new allies along with his new powers taking on the evil lord Betraus and his grim army of wrong doers in new worlds, locales and time periods.

Gameplay

Gameplay remains largely unchanged except for the new characters in the game, (see the character portion of  this Wiki) and the new power ups on offer to the player as well as some returning fan favourites.

The player will take control of Pac Man and his friends as they traverse a number of levels of varying difficulties with their platforming prowess. Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 gives the player the chance to play as Pac Man himself, Spiral (Pac Mans best friend  and Cylindria (she’s the brains of the team). Pac Man navigates using his considerable platforming skills, Spiral uses the “Cherry Copter and Cylindria uses her hoverboard.

The list of powers available to Pac Man now includes:

Titanium Pac Man – Pac Man takes on a decidedly more robotic look with the powers of magnetism when he consumes metal power berries.
Chameleon Pac Man – This form is one of Pac Mans Animal Forms. It allows him to turn invisible whenever ge eats green power berries.
Fire Pac Man – This is one of Pac Mans elemental forms, based on the power of fire he can transform himself with the power of flames. To do so he eats Red/Orange berries. He also sports a crown of fire
Ice Pac Man – The second elemental form available to Pac Man. He gains the powers of ice and cold when he eats light blue power berries.
Giant Pac Man – Pac Man transformers into Pac Zilla when he eats the dark green berries with a stripped zigzag pattern. This makes him grow to enormous sizes.

The player will be travelling not only to new worlds including Pacworld and Netherworld, but will also travel back in time to Prehistoric times while doing battle with the evil Betrayus and his vile army.

Characters

Pac Man – The eating man of legend returns to destroy evil and devour power pellets…or berries.
Sprail – Pac Man’s best friend and right hand man, Spiral joins in on the adventure in Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures.
Cylindria – Cylindria is the brains of the team and also Spiral and Pac Man’s best friend.

Non-Playable characters include:

Sir Cumference – An inventor and old Pac Person.
The Ghost Gang (Blinky, Inky, Pinky and Clyde) – A group o four ghosts thast eventually befriend Pac Man.
President Spheros – The president of Pac  world and Lord Betrayus’s little brother.
Fuzbitz – Sir Cumference’s pet that was banished from nether world gor helping Pac Man.

The typical Pac Man Enemies make a return to the series, they are:

Ghosts
Bosses
Pac-topus

We have also had one of the new enemies revealed to us, the Ghost Sharks.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.

Last year, Bandai Namco released Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, and while the title wasn’t certainly much of a standout, it appears to have been enough of a success for the publisher that they are following it up with a sequel this year. We’ve known about Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 for a while now, and now we know when it will be releasing as well: specifically, the game will be launching in North America on October 14, 2014 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, and Nintendo 3DS. So it’ll be coming right in time to capitalize on the second season of the show of the same name that is currently airing on Disney XD.

Bandai Namco also released a brand new trailer for the game, which you can see above. The new trailer shows us a bit more of the game’s story, which follows the first game right after.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage.

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