Pac-Man World 3 is the first of its series on the Nintendo DS, but it’s the third title in the series that started out on the console circuit and GBA some years ago. The concept of Pac-Man World is a 3D platformer take on the old Pac-Man universe with some various features and locations added to try and spice up the 25 year-old characters, while keeping it interesting for a new generation of fans. In the Nintendo DS version of Pac-Man World 3, the user is given a well-crafted, expansive 3D world to navigate around within in as Pac-Man and other characters try and stop an evil genius by the name of Erwin from wiping out Pac-Land forever. Over the last five years, the series has received mostly mediocre reviews. Does this game swallow the power pellet to giving it the goods to deliver, or has Pac-Man taken a bite out of the light blue ghost monster and bit off more than he could chew?

Audio and Visuals
The audio and visual packages of the game are a real compliment, for the most part, to the feeling of a real Pac-Man world. The visuals throughout most the title I have found to be a real testament to what can be done as far as more basic 3D can be handled with the Nintendo DS. Within each of the stages and worlds in Pac-Man World 3, it is obvious that the developer’s energy went into making a wide-open, expansive world with long draw distances and a solid frame rate.

Much like some Nintendo 64 games, the game seems to deal with some of the issues found in the series’ predecessors. Developers, in the past, would try to make a larger world with a solid speed to it, but it would come at a cost. With this game, what is here looks nice, there isn’t much to be found, visually speaking. Furthermore, this is also true for the few enemies you come across throughout the title It seems to keep good draw distances, and the developer went with the classic hardware fogging effect found in Nintendo 64 titles instead of just using cheap walls and narrow corridors to keep the detail at a better level.

Unfortunately, the camera is a little wonky. When the camera finds itself in a awkward spot, you may end up looking at the inside of a wall or even Pac-Man himself, which plays out for some very annoying graphical clipping. For what there is, as far as the visuals go, the game is a beauty with large open areas with some nice detail work done here and there on stages and enemies, but for the most part many textures are repeated and other iconic items and enemies just seem flat in comparison.

The audio package of Pac-Man World 3 seems to fall into the same boat that the visual package does. Overall, audio is a pretty well-crafted piece of work. There are some select moments where the music falls into a category of generic forgettable audio, though. Throughout the opening menu of the game, through the cut scenes and stages, we are given some excellent music that is very well-crafted. Each piece of music has a feel to it that just matches the general theme of its stage.

If there is only one true flaw to the music of the game, it is that not one single piece from the entire package has any memorable quality. Oppositely, the sound effects found within the game actually stand out. Fun things like the wakka-wakka from chomping the power pills or the classic gulp from downing fruit are there and add some fun, minute levels of audio depth. When those are taken away though the rest of the sound effects are quite flat and sound nearly like they’re from a generic studio sound package. So, aside from the great retro tidbits the audio package is fairly flat so it’s a mixed bag.