Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (Wii U, PS3, 360, 3DS) "Did anyone even buy the first game...?"

[Sami]

As much as this may annoy the people who really like Pontac and Warren (and truth be told I think he could still be good), but I can definitely see the resemblance to current Sonic games' writing compared to episodes of Ghostly Adventures. Script, emphasis for the line deliverance, plot progression, tone, everything.

 

Yeah, he's one of many writers for the show, but they seem to all be on the same wavelength.

 

To be quite honest part of it makes me wonder if my fondness for Colors' script was at least partially a result of me really really wanting to like it.

[Kuzu]

Oh, hey, just what we need: MORE snark fuel for their dissenters!

 

I'm detecting hints of passive aggressiveness in this post :V

 

 

 

 

I saw a few episodes of the show...really nothing special, or inoffensive honstly; its hilariously bad at worst, and forgettable at best. The game itself looks fine though gameplay wise, even if it is borrowing heavily from Mario and the like. 

[Blue Blood]

If you're saying the first game doesn't look that bad, I implore you to watch this:

It's the very epitome cheap, repetitive and lazy licensed game.

- Wonky double jump required to do just about any vertical movement? Check!

- Wide, barren and linear yet deceptively open looking 3D areas? Check!

- The most mind-numbing my basic 'combat' with pathetic enemies at every turn? Check!

- Oodles of collectibles you'd rather not bother with? Check!

- Utterly unimaginative 'power-ups' like every other that serve their purpose only to get past specific areas? Check!

- The blandest of all soundtracks and awful sound effects? Check

- It just looks crap? Check!

inb4 someone tries to liken the above to a Sonic game.

[Your Vest Friend]

inb4 someone tries to liken the above to a Sonic game.

 

 

 

this game is reminds me way to much of sonic in the gameplay and attacks

 

Far too late to be before. 

 

Edit: Why the fuck are the main ghosts allies. 

[JezMM]

That is actually one thing that super bothers me about this franchise, the music.  Generic tunes that can't decide if they want to have techno elements or not and constantly drift between "cartoon" and "film" orchestra styles.

[VO.SUPER]

You're using the wrong example. 

 

 

This is the final boss...

[Celestia]

- Wide, barren and linear yet deceptively open looking 3D areas? Check!

- The most mind-numbing my basic 'combat' with pathetic enemies at every turn? Check!

- Oodles of collectibles you'd rather not bother with? Check!

- Utterly unimaginative 'power-ups' like every other that serve their purpose only to get past specific areas? Check!

- The blandest of all soundtracks and awful sound effects? Check

Sounds more like a Mario game!~

 

It's funny how GA borrows ideas even more (or perhaps more blatantly) than the Pac Man World games did. The main difference is those games interested me more than these ones do, heck, even now I can enjoy the World games...perhaps there's some nostalgia there, but still. Kind of a shame, but whatever. I keep forgetting about Ghostly Adventures as a whole anyway, so I'm not going to dwell on it.

 

Though I did laugh at the hover boards at the beginning of the sequel's trailer. Pac Riders??

[Tara]

If you're saying the first game doesn't look that bad, I implore you to watch this:

It's the very epitome cheap, repetitive and lazy licensed game.

- Wonky double jump required to do just about any vertical movement? Check!

- Wide, barren and linear yet deceptively open looking 3D areas? Check!

- The most mind-numbing my basic 'combat' with pathetic enemies at every turn? Check!

- Oodles of collectibles you'd rather not bother with? Check!

- Utterly unimaginative 'power-ups' like every other that serve their purpose only to get past specific areas? Check!

- The blandest of all soundtracks and awful sound effects? Check

- It just looks crap? Check!

I initially thought the game didn't look that bad, but after watching that video... it still kind of doesn't look that bad.  I'm not saying it looks like game of the year material or anything.  It just looks okay, I guess.  I can't really see the wonky nature of the double jump through the video (although playing it is a far different spectacle, I'm sure), and nothing else really bothers me about it.  I mean, yeah, I can see plenty of things that need to be improved.  The dialogue is dated and just a tad grotesque, (GET IT?  HE BELCHED!  AND BELCHING IS HAHA FUN-KNEE!) the music is well-composed but otherwise unremarkable and doesn't really resonate with the personality of the series, and the very setup of the game is a bit... odd.  Otherwise, it just looks... okay.  Nothing really offensively bad about it, except maybe the fact that the main ghosts are now good guys.  Even then, considering that this takes place after the original Pac-Man, I'm willing to leave open that some off-screen nonsense happened or develop my own headcanon or whatever.

 

It looks no worse or any less generic to me than Pac-Man World 2, a game that I also enjoyed and am thrilled to see that others did as well.  To me, that game just screamed of generic and cheap as well, but there's nothing really wrong with it.  It just looked like a noble, but not perfectly executed, attempt at keeping a mascot from the 80's alive and relevant in today's market.  To me, that's all this looks like.  No better or worse, really.

[VO.SUPER]

If there's anything about Pacman world 2 that was far from Generic, it was the music.

 

 

[Blue Blood]

I initially thought the game didn't look that bad, but after watching that video... it still kind of doesn't look that bad.  I'm not saying it looks like game of the year material or anything.  It just looks okay, I guess.

*snip*

It's not like some absolute travesty of a video game, but I just think it looks so offensively mediocre, unoriginal and (that word again) generic that it really deserves to be lambasted. It's perhaps 'okay' as it's own thing, but not when you look at everything else on the market that's exactly like it. Licensed games that are nothing more than cash-ins are amongst the worst.

[JaidynReiman]

You're using the wrong example. 

 

 

This is the final boss...

That... was horrendously bad. I couldn't finish watching it. Pac-Man's voice is horrible, the jokes were hilariously unfunny, and there wasn't even any music during the whole battle. It just looks... ugh, no, please no. About the only good thing to come out of this is it appears this is Pac-Man Jr. and not Pac-Man, but that doesn't make it a whole hell of a lot better.

 

At this rate I really do not care at all about Pac-Man being playable in Smash Bros. Granted, Sakurai could probably do some good with him, but there's better choices from Namco out there. The only legit reason I wouldn't mind Pac-Man in is for the sake of having four famous video game icons in one game (well, there's a lot more Nintendo ones, but Mario, Sonic, Pac-Man, and Mega Man all in one game would be cool, but its cool enough without Pac-Man represented honestly).

[Conando]

 

 

 

 

You mean this guy? Or the floating cheese? :v 

 

It's weird how people forget Pac-Man's always had this design since the first game. I get that his face he's had in media for ages is the floating cheese but that's the same with Brooklyn Mario and Mohawk Sonic to me. :v

 

 

He clearly meant Midway's Pac-Man.

 

 

(Good Christ, he's horrifying. I still can't get over seeing that thing on the arcade cabinet when I play.)

[Chariot]

Both games look way too similiar to Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2. In my opinion the best Pacman game that I've played would probably be Pacman Arrangement 1996. I loved the look of the game, the music was just great, and it introduced some new things to add variety to the game will still being the same Pacman game we know and love. As for the Pacman World games they're not bad but at times they can get incredibly boring and cheap especially Pacman World 1. Out of all them Pacman World 3 has to be my favorite mainly because it fixed the problems that plagued the 2nd one.

[Blue Blood]

So I just decided to look up the developer for this, "Monkey Bar Games". It's funny, really. Their entire catalogue consists of nothing crappy licensed movie/TV show tie ins!

2005 Dora the Explorer: Journey to the Purple Planet

2006 Curious George

2006 Flushed Away

2008 Ben 10: Alien Force PlayStation

2010 Despicable Me: The Game

2011 Ben 10: Galactic Force Racing

2012 Madagascar 3: The Video Game

2013 Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

No wonder Ghostly Adventures is such a piece of crap.

[Tara]

That... was horrendously bad. I couldn't finish watching it. Pac-Man's voice is horrible, the jokes were hilariously unfunny, and there wasn't even any music during the whole battle. It just looks... ugh, no, please no. About the only good thing to come out of this is it appears this is Pac-Man Jr. and not Pac-Man, but that doesn't make it a whole hell of a lot better.

There was music during the battle.  BUT the sound mixing in the game is pretty poor, to say the least, so it's hardly audible under everything else.

 

It still doesn't look that bad to me, though.  Underwhelming final boss, notwithstanding.

[Gabz Girl]

Oh God this looks terribad. Let's all be glad that Sonic Boom is not going in this direction and is actually being made by a team of competent game developers.

[Mania Pipe]

You're using the wrong example.

This is the final boss...

Wow, that final boss... Underwhelming doesn't even seem like the right word to use for this. That was just... pathetic.

Everything about this whole Pac-man and the Ghostly Adventures series seems, to me, rather lazy and just generic from start to finish. The dialogue is poorly written and really cringe inducing with its humor. Pac's voice... it isn't too bad, but they should've gotten a better voice actor/actress to make him more tolerable. The names of these certain characters are just ridiculous (Seriously, what the fuck kind of name is "Betrayus"? Sir Cumference? Is that supposed to be cute?). I think this might have had some promise from the conceptual stages, but with this show and game being coupled with the likes of bad dialogue, poor writing, horrible sound mixing, forgettable and bland music, unoriginal gameplay and level design, and uninspired power ups; I don't there's going to be a good future for this series. The sequel isn't going to help much either.

I know it my mind that people are going to try and constantly compare Sonic Boom with likes of this. I don't think it will ever have the same mediocre reception as Pac-man and the Ghostly Adventures, because of having a competent staff who knows what they're doing. There's no way in hell Sonic Boom will turn out to be anything like this generic trash.

[azoo]

Why exactly is Namco handing off their mascot to some knock-off company anyways? It's like Sonic Boom, but without the part where the developers care.

[JaidynReiman]

There was music during the battle.  BUT the sound mixing in the game is pretty poor, to say the least, so it's hardly audible under everything else.

 

It still doesn't look that bad to me, though.  Underwhelming final boss, notwithstanding.

Oh, I know there was music, I heard it. But it was so incredibly quiet it was barely audible (as you said).

[Kaze no Klonoa]

Why exactly is Namco handing off their mascot to some knock-off company anyways? It's like Sonic Boom, but without the part where the developers care.

Because Namco doesn't feel like wasting time (or money, but they probably spend more on having the publisher actually make the game) to develop a game for a TV show based on their popular mascot and instead hand it over to somebody who will be willing to do that for money.

 

So I just decided to look up the developer for this, "Monkey Bar Games". It's funny, really. Their entire catalogue consists of nothing crappy licensed movie/TV show tie ins!

2005 Dora the Explorer: Journey to the Purple Planet

2006 Curious George

2006 Flushed Away

2008 Ben 10: Alien Force PlayStation

2010 Despicable Me: The Game

2011 Ben 10: Galactic Force Racing

2012 Madagascar 3: The Video Game

2013 Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures

No wonder Ghostly Adventures is such a piece of crap.

Funny enough, dig in more and you will discover that the Dora the Explorer game IRONICALLY received mixed to positive scores, getting a 7 (YES, A 7) from IGN. That's apparently their best received game. Other games on the list were given negative to mixed reviews, and Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures sadly joins the list.

[Willsy]

So the Dora game got good reviews yet they fucked up the Pac Man game? ¿Qué demonios?

And what the fuck is up with that picture of Pac on the HUD?

[Tara]

I know that Dora is intended for younger demographics, but can someone please explain to me a good reason why the Dora game should naturally be given a lower score than the Pac-Man game?  The subject matter isn't definitive of the final product.

 

Granted, it does surprise me given that Nick games, with some exceptions, tend to be very poorly-made, as with any licensed game.  But really.

[SIXTH-RATE SOMA]

I know that Dora is intended for younger demographics, but can someone please explain to me a good reason why the Dora game should naturally be given a lower score than a Pac Man game?

I don't think anybody said it was law to be that way, it's just surprising that a licensed game beat out one of gaming's oldest mascots. There are generally as many licensed games as there are terrible licensed games, as they're sadly made with the mindset that inset brand recognition = less effort required to sell game

[LovieHats]

...is it just me or did they say "freedom fighters" in the beginning of that trailer?

they did

[nintega137]

Just ran into this thread by accident, and wow it's funny to hear everyone talk about the sonic boom game now compared to back then, I mean wow, just wow. Anyway in regards to pac man's voice, it's funny but I noticed it's the same voice as Ryuko Matoi in english, and I loved that voice for her but for pac man..................... maybe they should've gotten someone else.