Pac-Man World 2 is the sequel to Pac-Man World, released for PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo GameCube in 2002, with a Microsoft Windows PC port and a Game Boy Advance remake coming out in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
Hundreds of years ago, the evil ghost king known as Spooky terrorized the Pac-people, until a hero known as Sir Pac-A-Lot defeated him using five golden fruit created by the Great Wizard Pac.
Cut to the present day, the ghosts, Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde, who were causing mischief at night, steal the golden fruit, accidentally releasing Spooky from his prison in the process. Spooky, who intends to destroy the Pac-people once and for all, recruits the ghosts into his Evil Plan, which they happily oblige, stealing the golden fruit in the process.
The next morning, Pac-Man ends up learning of the events from Professor Pac, setting him off on a quest across Pac-Land and Ghost Island to retrieve the five golden fruit and defeat the evil ghost king once and for all.
The game would be followed up by Pac-Man World 3.
Pac-Man World 2 contains the following examples:
- Ancient Evil: Spooky, the Big Bad, has been trapped inside the tree since medieval times thanks to Sir Pac-A-Lot. The Mayor even uses the term word-for-word when telling Pac-Man of the situation at the beginning of the game.
- Arc Words: Pac-Man is often told that everyone in Pac-Land is counting on him.
- Big Bad: Spooky orders the four ghosts around and steals the Golden Fruit keeping him sealed away so he can take over Pac-Land.
- Bonus Feature Failure: Your reward in the arcade for getting nearly all of the tokens (180 out of 189, which is extremely
Nintendo Hard considering you have to nab all the collectible tokens in nearly every level and finish the rest with 100% Completion or do a time trial) is... being able to play Ms. Pac-Man. Keep in mind, you unlock the original arcade game at a measly ten tokens. It doesn't feel the least bit fitting for all your efforts for what amounts to a Mission-Pack Sequel for the original game, and it's not like it's a game you have to go out of your way to be able to play, considering it's littered across Namco Museum collections and several online console stores, and is usually a game of choice on the rare places that still have an arcade machine in operation. Unlocking it is practically a Bragging Rights Reward. - Bottomless Pits: The farther you go in the game, the more terrain becomes composed of nothing but thin lines and platforms surrounded by deadly elements such as pits, lava and freezing or grimy water. It's a huge part of how this game can be so difficult.
- Chainsaw Good: Treewood Forest, and to a lesser extent Butane Pain, have circular saw blades as common obstacles.
- Company Cameo: Each of the 189 collectible tokens has Namco's logo on one side of them.
- Cut and Paste Environments: Notwithstanding the gas burners at Butane Pain and other gimmicks between the aforementioned levels, they share similar geometry, just at different locations.
- Demoted to Extra: Helivators were a major platforming element that were littered all over the first game, showing up at least once a stage; in this game, they make a grand total of two appearances, across the same level in the same proximity no less!
- Difficulty by Region: The Japanese version of the game, released after the initial version and its revision, was made significantly easier: obstacles early in the game are made harmless (pits in the first world are filled in and bushes deal no damage), various enemies are removed or downgraded, collectibles are moved into more obvious and safer places, a few levels have sections cut out of them, and bosses have less health and weaker attacks.
- The Dreaded: Pac-Man. In the opening cutscene, Blinky flees from a shadow that he thought was Pac-Man.
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Subverted. In the cutscene just before the final boss, Pac-Man returns the golden fruits to the tree, causing him to turn gold himself... but his color is the only thing that actually changes, and the boss fight plays exactly like if he wasn't gold.
- Every 10,000 Points: An extra life is awarded for achieving 25,000 points in a level.
- Flawless Victory: Blade Mountain's time-to-beat is 62 seconds. The only way to achieve 61 seconds is by collecting virtually every clock and never taking damage once.
- Game Within a Game: By collecting enough tokens throughout the game, players can unlock the ability to play some classic Pac-Man arcade games at the arcade in Pac-Village. 10 tokens unlocks the original Pac-Man, 30 tokens unlocks Pac-Attack, 100 tokens unlocks Pac-Mania, and 180 tokens unlocks Ms. Pac Man.
- Go for the Eye: A variation on the one above; to defeat the big submarine in "Whale on a Sub," Pac-Man has to shoot the four stern propellers - while avoiding the mines the sub tosses in your general direction.
- Green Hill Zone: The first world, a meadow region referred to inexplicably in the manual as the "Forest", while the game refers to it as Paradise Meadows.
- Guide Dang It!: Some fruits/tokens are hidden in really obscure places you wouldn't think of looking, but Night Crawling in particular has an egregious example, one of the apples is hidden inside a bat hovering around helivator platforms over a bottomless pit, most people wouldn't be crazy enough to try and kill that particular bat (trying to flip-kick them is a real pain in the ass).
- Heroic Mime: Pac-Man, as per usual, doesn't speak, except in some versions where he comments on the bosses' weaknesses.
- In Case of Boss Fight, Break Glass: Inky and Clyde are defeated by cracking the glass on their ghost mechs. Pinky also has a glass hitbox that shows cracks and deformation as she takes damage, but the player can't actually reach it.
- Infinite 1-Ups:
- Many checkpoint sections have more than one extra life for which the surplus can be abused, but the best one is the secret area in Butane Pain, which can give eight one-ups for the price of one!
- Blade Mountain is incredibly generous on lives. Not so much the first time through, but normally when a token is collected on one visit, every revisit will replace it with a health wedge. Blade Mountain has a few crates that hang in mid air, but instead of being replaced with health wedges, they're replaced with LIVES. You're forced to open most of these crates too, so you can potentially gain thirteen lives on one visit. Very few are hidden for the most part.
- Law of 100: For every 50 Pac-Dots you collect, you regain a health wedge.
- Lock and Key Puzzle: Fruit chests are nowhere near as prevalent as fruit doors from the previous game, but they serve the same purpose.
- Lethal Lava Land: Overlaps with Underground Level: the fourth world is located in the heart of a volcano, featuring platforming sections over flowing lava.
- The Maze: Ghost Bayou is a giant maze made up of paths in a swamp. It is also the longest level in the game.
- Mad Marble Maze: Magma Opus has a section like this near the end of the level where you have to roll Pac-Man like a ball as he slides down slopes.
- Meaningless Lives: Basically any slightly difficult section in the game will have an extra life at the beginning that will respawn every time you die.
- Nintendo Hard: 100% Completion requires very skilled platforming to collect everything compounded by the screwy camera, the precise jumps required, and one-way levels such as Blade Mountain. In addition, Time Trials have strict upper limits for the Bonus Token reward and of course, dying at any point is an instant failure. Of course, the requirement for unlocking Ms. Pac-Man is nearly every token, which means you have to complete most of the challenges to play it in the game.
- If you had a release that was pre-Greatest Hits/Platinum Hits/Player's Choice, the game was even harder. The ghosts killed you in one hit, the platforming was more dangerous, and the power-ups didn't last as long. Games do go through revisions from time to time, but very few are this notably different from each other.
- Not the Fall That Kills You…: In addition to regular Bottomless Pits, the game has a special code check in the level "Butane Pain": falling for about six seconds instantly kills you, even if there's ground underneath you. Using a Butt-Bounce speeds your fall, allowing you to reach that ground before your six seconds are up.
- One-Hit Kill: Ghosts in the original release (Pre-Greatest Hits/Platinum Hits/Player's Choice) would instantly kill you upon contact. Later releases Nerfed them to only taking off a health point if you touched them, which greatly reduces the difficulty in some areas especially in the last world where they no longer pose much of a threat.
- Plot Coupon: The five Golden Fruit, which you need to collect in order to advance the game's plot.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Clyde, taking note of the other ghost's mistakes, makes the metal of his Humongous Mecha out of sturdier stuff (i.e. metal that won't crumble with a few rev rolls), so the only place you can hit him is the cockpit, which is really hard to hit, mind you.
- Recurring Boss: Three out of the main four ghosts use an identical-looking (aside from color) machine shaped like a giant ghost that spits out projectiles.
- Recurring Riff: The intro to the Pac-Village theme often shows up as part of the rest of the music tracks.
- Rise to the Challenge: Volcanic Panic has a short section at the end that is like this, featuring rising lava.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Spooky, the main antagonist, is sealed within the Golden Fruit tree.
- Shout-Out: "Whale on a Sub" is a pun on "Wheels on the Bus." Yellow Pac-Marine is, of course...
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The third world is an ice/snow world featuring ice rivers, ice-skating sections, giant snowballs chasing you, and surfaces so slippery you'll temporarily lose control of Pac-Man if you jump onto or butt-bounce on them.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The track for Pinky's Revenge starts off way too cheerful for a boss fight, but then the Psycho Sampling starts up...
- Stalker with a Crush: Pinky, despite the fact Pac-Man is already married. Though keep in mind she will NOT hesitate to kill you. In the opening cutscene, she's even seen peering into Pac-Man's window as he sleeps while picking at a flower.Pinky: Well, If I can't have you... Nobody will!
- Timed Mission: A sidequest for each non-boss level, available once you beat the level normally. All checkpoints disappear, but you don't lose extra lives for dying. Also fruit and extra life pickups are replaced with clock that freeze the timer for two and four seconds, respectively.
- Unexpected Genre Change: "Yellow Pac-Marine" and the Whale Sub boss are both rail shooters.
- Heck, the entire ocean world is made of forced scrolling levels.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: In the Pac-Village, you can actually butt bounce on all of the inhabitants who happen to be standing in the open (Professor Pac, Handy Pac, and Sue in the arcade), and they will react to it too!
- Villainous Crush: Pinky has one on Pac-Man, to rather disturbing degrees.
- Yandere: Again, Pinky. Either Pac-Man will be with her, or she'll outright kill him. Or she'll try, anyway.
