The Excuse Plot is that Betrayus has led yet another attack on Pac-World, and this time has stolen the Frigidigitator, a huge Freeze Ray capable of transforming entire areas into icy landscapes. Pac sets off to stop him before he can do any more damage.
As Pac, you must run, jump, and chomp your way through several worlds, utilizing the various abilities of the Power Berries to progress further. The console versions are 3D, while the 3DS version is 2D. The console versions also have a multiplayer mode, where four players play the original Pac-Man - as the ghosts.
It saw a sequel the following year, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2, this time published simultaneously on the three home consoles and 3DS, while the PC port was cancelled due to the poor reception of the original on that platform.
This game provides examples of:
- 1-Up: Pac can gain extra lives by eating Pacberry Pies found within the levels. If he uses the Boo! attack on a group of ghosts, then eats five in a row, a Pacberry Pie will always spawn.
- All for Nothing: Throughout the game, Pac collects three different ancient tablets that give clues regarding the whereabouts of other temples. In the ending, Sir C reveals that the final tablet translates that the Tree of Life is the only source for Power Berries in the universe, and that they serve as the source of power in PacWorld, something that everyone already knows. Pac and friends are visibly frustrated when they learn this.
- An Ice Person: The Ice Pac form allows Pac to fire an ice beam at enemies to freeze them solid, making them easier to chomp.
- Be the Ball:
- Granite Ball Pac transforms Pac into a giant ball of stone that can only move around by rolling. The form's size and weight makes it necessary to break through certain enemies and obstacles, and it can defeat ghosts by simply rolling over them.
- The Rubber Pac form causes Pac's limbs to disappear, and makes him much bouncier, allowing him to reach higher places and bounce off walls.
- Boss-Only Level: The final world in the first game has two. "A Fluffy Reception" is entirely dedicated to a boss fight against Fluffy, while "Ghost of a Chance" is dedicated to the final boss fight against Betrayus.
- Breakable Power-Up:
- All of the Power Berry forms will be lost if Pac takes damage while he has them. On the plus side, he loses his alternate form instead of losing health in this case.
- The Fire Pac form can be lost by simply touching piles of snow.
- The Balloon Pac form only comes with a limited amount of air for every Balloon Berry Pac eats, and he reverts back to regular Pac once he runs out.
- Breath Weapon: The Ice Pac form's attack comes in the form of a beam of ice breath that Pac fires from his mouth.
- Bullfight Boss: In the boss fight with Fluffy, he charges in the direction that Pac is. Pac has to lead him into piles of dirt, where the dog will find a bone, distracting it long enough for Pac to chomp his tail. There's only enough dirt piles for the first two hits, however. The final hit requires Pac to defeat all the nearby enemies to make Fluffy vulnerable instead.
- Cash Gate: The Temple levels cannot be accessed unless Pac has collected enough Globe Energy orbs throughout the game. Since the Temple stages are always mandatory to progress through the story, failing to collect enough will require the player to backtrack to collect more.
- Checkpoint Starvation: You die every time you fall into a Bottomless Pit. And when you die, you are usually brought back a considerable distance with ALL of your progress undone. Granted, the game does offer quite a few checkpoints along the levels, but even then it can be rather annoying.
- Convection, Schmonvection: Taken to absolute extremes in the Netherworld and especially Frozen Ruins, where not only is it possible to freeze a stone block and then throw it into lava without the ice melting (not immediately, anyway), there are entire sections where everything is frozen yet there's still lava flowing everywhere and even touching the frozen landscape with nothing melting. It's even lampshaded at some point and handwaved with it being the results of the Fridigitator's powers. On top of that, falling into lava only results in Pac-Man's Pain-Powered Leap and losing a single heart. It's perfectly possible to get back onto stable land after that and continue as normal.
- Creepy Souvenir: Pac collects ghost eyes. The cutscene introducing this in the first level lampshades this.
- Damsel in Distress/Distressed Dude: Spiral and Cylndria end up kidnapped by the ghosts after clearing the first world. Spiral is rescued towards the end of World 3, while Cyli is saved in the final stage of World 4.
- Eating the Enemy: Pac-Man's basic attack is a chomp. Unlike the majority of other Pac-Man games, he can use this attack on ghosts without needing to eat a Power Pellet first.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Downplayed - In order to defeat the fire and ice ghosts, Pac has to weaken them first by using the opposite element's Power Berry. Trying to chomp them without doing so will do nothing but hurt him.
- Fighting Your Friend: The boss fight in Chapter 4, as Dr. Buttocks possesses Cylindria.
- Fireballs: The Fire Pac form allows Pac to attack by throwing fireballs from his hands. This attack is required to be able to safely damage ice ghosts.
- Freeze Ray: Betrayus steals a weapon called the Frigidigitator, which is powerful enough to cover entire landscapes in ice and snow. This gets demonstrated when it gets used to freeze over the entire Netherworld.
- Game Within a Game: There are several arcade machines in Pac's school, which can only be played by collecting enough of its corresponding fruit.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere
- Grand Theft Me: One of the boss fights has Dr. Buttocks doing this to Cylindria.
- Hailfire Peaks: Played with - after going through the Netherworld, the Frigidigitator is used to turn it into a Slippy-Slidey Ice World, setting the scene for the next area. (It still has lava pools, though.)
- Hearts Are Health: Pac-Man's health bar is represented by how many hearts he has.
- Heart Container: Collecting enough Slimetanium scattered around the levels will increase Pac's maximum number of hearts. He starts with three, but gains a fourth at 15 Slimetanium orbs, a fifth at 35, and a sixth at 60.
- Hedge Maze: The final stage in the first world has Pac navigate through a maze of shrubbery. While the maze is mostly linear, there are a few walls that get cut away by giant mowers.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The final boss fight requires Pac-Man to trick Betrayus into firing the Ghost Ray at reflective crystals surrounding the arena to reflect his shots back at him. Once all four crystals have been used, the Ray explodes, leaving Betrayus defenseless.
- Hollywood Chameleons: Chameleon Pac can turn invisible.
- Hub Level: Pac can walk around Maze High School between levels. Here, he can talk to various characters from the show, collect some extra Globe energy orbs, and access the various arcade games.
- Level in the Clouds: The stage "Roundhouse Rumble" starts Pac-Man flying the Cherry Copter up to a station above the clouds. He must use the Balloon Pac form to float between a series of platforms with the clouds below him if he falls.
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Licensed Game: A video game based on the Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures television series. - Load-Bearing Boss: After Pac destroys the Frigidigitator (being controlled by Dr. Buttocks possessing Cylindria), the ray's effects on the Netherworld start to weaken, leaving nothing to keep the volcano the fight took place in from frozen.
- Multipurpose Tongue: Chameleon Pac's tongue can be used to eat ghosts, but it can also be used to swing on certain poles.
- Overworld Not to Scale: A Mario World-styled one is accessed through the Hub Level.
- Parrot Expo-WHAT?: In the intro.Sir C: Oh no! That's the Frigidigitator!
Pac: Frigidigiwhatsit? - Playing with Fire: The Fire Pac form grants Pac the ability to attack the ghosts by throwing balls of fire out of his hands. This attack is also required to be used on the ice ghosts before they can safely be chomped.
- Ray Gun: At the end of the fifth chapter, the ghost gang reveal that Betrayus is working on a weapon called the Ghost Ray. The final battle has Betrayus use the Ghost Ray as his primary weapon.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Many of the songs in the game's soundtrack are reused from other Pac-Man games, like Pac-Man Party and Pac-Man Championship Edition.
- Rolling Attack: Granite Ball Pac can defeat enemies by running over them. He can also use a charged version to roll much faster and break through certain obstacles.
- Spin Attack: The Spinner Pac form gives Pac the ability to attack the ghosts by quickly moving around while spinning like a tornado. Pac can draw out a path the attack will follow before activating it.
- Tactical Suicide Boss:
- The Guardian in the Temple of Slime can only be damaged by using the Granite Ball Pac form to roll into the giant orbs rolling around the arena, and knocking them into the Guardian's teeth.
- Another Guardian appears in the Temple of Mystery. This one requires Pac to use the Ice form to freeze the flaming boulders it fires at him, so that they hit the springs surrounding the arena and get launched into it.
- Pac can only damage Betrayus by tricking him into firing the Ghost Ray into some reflective crystals surrounding the arena, so the shots are reflected back into the Ray.
- Temple of Doom: The Ruins area.
- Timed Mission:
- One level in Pacopolis Revisited ends with Betrayus challenging Pac to defeat 40 ghosts within 60 seconds. Failure to do so in time will cause the challenge to reset, albeit with no additional penalties.
- The Pacachini Panic minigame has a time limit for every stage. The timer can be extended by reaching checkpoints, but if time runs out, it's Game Over.
- Tube Travel: The first world has a series of transition sequences where Pac uses tubes to get from one place to another. These same tubes also appear during the revisit to Pacopolis in the fifth world.
- Video-Game Lives
- Wall Jump: Rubber Pac can bounce off of certain walls to reach higher places.
- Welcome to Corneria: The NPCs walking around Maze High School are never required to be spoken to, and mostly provide encouragement to Pac.
