Pac-Man World Rally

"Well, its kinda like Mario Kart"

Well, its KINDA like Mario kart.

Huh, lets start off with something the PSP is relatively good at, graphics.
Well to start, I believe this game looks rather good, everyone looks like who they are supposed to be and the tracks and characters look wonderful. The colors are bright and eye catching and none of the tracks to me seemed to be made of cardboard. I think that some people might find the way the tracks look to be, well, less them spectacular but I think that it looks good without causing the PSP to have to push itself or cause slowdown and other such nasty things. Speaking of that, slowdown is something I haven't noticed, or it hasn't been bad enough for it to interrupt me during game play. Now I think that how smooth it runs is also part of the graphics area, because it affects how it looks, so, lets say it gets a 7 in this area, and a +1 for smoothness.

Graphics: 8/10

The sound… to put it bluntly… sucks. The only track I enjoyed was the one that played when you race on the ‘Kings Korse' (Katamari Damacy) I suppose if you played the original games some of the tracks are from it would be a bit more entertaining to you, but to me, it seemed bland and boring, but not ear bleeding, so, 5 for sound, and a +1 for the Katamari track. (Yay)

Sound: 6/10

The controls for this game are rather strait forward, X for gas, and the directional pad or analog stick for movement. The rest of the things are kind of pointless as I really don't use them that often, and unless you hit a wall and get stuck in it, you will possibly NEVER back up… EVER. The L and R buttons control the power sliding, which is a nice addition, thought not as well implemented as it is in Mario Kart DS, which by the way, I tend to view my self as a snaking god in that game, so I felt that the sliding and boosting wasn't as well controlled or handled as it could have been, but when you need to, it does the trick. Since my directional pad is kind of screwed up, I only have experience with my analog stick, but even with just that I can tell you that the controls are as responsive as they need to be so one can do anything in the game. So in all, I give controls a 10, but a -1 for the odd and sometimes slippery sliding.

Controls/Gameplay: 9/10

When I first started on easy mode, I found it extremely easy to be able to lap them on the shorter courses, which in my book, is not a good thing for someone who had just picked up the game. But, as I continued to play, I noticed that once in the later modes of play, it tends to even out and become somewhat of a challenge (Or more so if you haven't played games like this before.) Only problem I had with the A.I really, was they kept hitting me with those blue bombs, which by the way, are a total rip-off of the blue shell. In total, I give it a 7… and I really got nothing to minus or add to it.

Difficulty: 7/10

Let me tell you this, the only reason I even glanced at this game was because I heard of the inclusion of 'The Prince', and to tell the truth, I didn't go in expecting much actually, since well, its just another kart racing game, another attempt to copy the greatness the Mario Kart has. (Oh yeah, I love that game... DS one especially.) Though after playing through it for a few days, I found that Its a rather enjoyable game.

Total: 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/06