Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures for the Sega Genesis was the first true
Pac-Man Sequel. Many other Pac-Man spin-offs were created between the
release of the original and this game, but this one is completely
different.
The story is basically the same. It's basically Pac-Man vs. the ghosts,
but the gameplay is nothing like the original. It's a side scroller
instead. Pac-Man walks, and interacts with his environment on his own
though. You feel more like you're telling Pac-Man what to do, rather
than actually controlling him.
You tell him which direction to go in, and you also have a slingshot
that shoots two things. One, it shoots just basic rocks which you use
to either tell Pac-Man to walk through a door into a building, or, this
is the fun part, you can shoot them at him, or various things in the
environment. This was implimented very heavily in the game. You can
shoot apples out of trees, and have Pac-Man eat them, or shoot a dog to
have him get angry at Pac-an and chase him. You can even shoot a bird
to have it fly down and attack Pac-Man, and the bird ends up knocking
down items that Pac-Man can't reach on his own. The second item you can
shoot are the morphing balls that change Pac-Man into Super Pac-Man.
These work basically the same way as the balls that turned the ghosts
blue in the original Pac-Man. You only get three maximum, so use them
stratigically.
Pac-Man 2 has some reflex-based stuff in the game, but by and large
it's a strategy game. There are clever puzzles you have to solve in
order to move on, and the game is very humorous.
Pac-Man himself has much more character in this game than the
ball-eating Pac-Man from the original game. He acts funny, and his mood
changes depending on what happens in the game. Shoot him with the
slingshot, and he'll get angry and sad, let him eat an apple and that
makes him happy. Some points of the game can't be beaten unless Pac-Man
is happy, because he just ends up not caring about solving the puzzle,
turning around and walking away. Pac-Man is also very aware of his
surroundings, which is a good thing, as bad A.I. would've totally
ruined this game, because it depends on it so much.
The game also provides some distractions. You can hang glide for
example, and you can go to an arcade in the game and play the original
Pac-Man and Pac-Man Junior, which is a nice touch. Overall, the
gameplay in Pac-Man 2 is fun, but isn't for everybody, and for some it
can get boring pretty quickly. I, personally, enjoyed it.
The graphics in Pac-Man 2 are good for the Genesis. The levels have
some nice details and are very colorful. The items and animals in the
game all look good too. Pac-Man himself looks great. He has a nice
array of expressions, and they're very well done. You definitely can
see easily what kind of mood Pac-Man is in just by looking at him.
Overall the graphics in Pac-Man 2 are well done.
The sound in Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures isn't horrible, but it's not
standout good either. Pac-Man speaks, but only in gibberish. The sounds
of the slingshot are average, the music is good at setting the tone for
each specific area, but nothing of it is too shocking. It turns out the
best piece of sound in the game is when you're playing the classic
Pac-Man in the arcade part of the game, just due to the nostalgia. Like
I said Pac-Man 2's sound isn't bad, but it's not a memory that'll just
burn into your mind like the original Pac-Man or Mario or Sonic, or
Zelda or any of those games.
Pac-Man 2 is a game that unfortunately gets boring rather quickly. It's
fun while it lasts, but if you keep doing the same thing like in this
game, iit gets a bit dull and repetitive, even though the game is so
witty and the nature of the game is pretty fun.
I gave it a 9 for tilt because I really did enjoy this game. If you're
a Pac-Man fan who hasn't played this, then I'm sure you would enjoy it
too, despite it's shortcomings. If you still have a working Genesis,
and get bored one night, why not check out the back catalog of Genesis
games and get this? Or you could just get a ROM, that would be easier.
Either way, Pac-Man 2 is completely different from the original
Pac-Man, but it's still very fun.
