Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Pac-Man World Rally

Go To

  • Awesome Music: Despite the game being So Okay, It's Average, most fans agree that this game is packed with awesome music. Check out its section in the Pac-Man World page for the list, which covers almost every soundtrack.
  • Best Level Ever:
    • Players consider the entirety of Classic Cup to be this due to being throwbacks to past Namco games. It also helps that the Awesome Music is in full force in every track featured in that cup.
    • Watermelon Cup's Funhouse of Terror is either this or That One Level depending on the player. This is one of the most complex tracks in this game due to the reliance of multiple paths and in-course "puzzle", as it's one of the later tracks that feature all three fruits. Its surreal Wackyland aesthetic also makes it one of the best-looking tracks.
  • Fridge Brilliance: Why does Pooka, a Dig Dug enemy, have a blue Guardian (good) while Fygar has a red Guardian (evil)? The Pooka might be the same one who is Pac-Man's friend in the first Pac-Man World game, while Fygar retains his "enemy" alignment due to never meeting Pac-Man and company until this game, let alone befriending him.
  • Game-Breaker: The unlockable items tend to border on this.
    • Siria the Ice Dragon is a trap-based item that allows the user to summon 3 ice blocks that, much like the Snowman item (sans the snowball throws), instantly freeze a racer solid upon contact. And this item's appearance rate isn't rare. Using it on narrow paths pretty much guarantees you extra distance from other racers much easier. The only weakness being that the ice blocks can't be summoned in mid-air, but nothing stops you from freezing nearby opponent mid-air and causing him/her to fall to his/her doom.
    • Galaga Ship. As a Comeback Mechanic, only players that are near dead-last can possibly obtain it. But here's what makes it broken despite its comeback purpose. On use, the ship will fly alongside you and will fire shots on its own to other racers in its line of sight. A shot from a Galaga Ship will cause an opponent to spin in place. And this ship can spam it, so even Mercy Invincibility won't save them. It's even worse when used while jumping across a bottomless pit. Woe betide any racer that gets caught in a Galaga Ship's shot in the middle of a dangerous jump. And that's not the end of it. Galaga Ship can linger much longer than one might think, to the point that the best way to deal with Galaga Ship holders is by attacking them with certain items that can destroy held items or making them fall into a bottomless pit.
    • For battle-exclusive items, Banana Ram and Blueberry Blaster. Both are the epitome of Boring, but Practical, because the former can easily deplete a rammed opponent's health to nothing in less than a second if you bump into him/her head-on (even a racer brushing against one can lose a significant amount of health) while the latter results in a One-Hit Kill. More so with the latter, as it's a ranged weapon. You simply need to lock-on on another racer (which is easy to do for homing-based weapons) then fire your Blaster. The only flaws of these weapons are the fact that Banana Ram is a close-range weapon which can put you into risk of getting damaged by other racers and Blueberry Blaster is limited to 4 ammo and if it's fired when you're not locking-on to an enemy, it'll just fly in a straight line from where you're currently facing, lessening its accuracy. But those factors won't matter much if you can score a lot of kills easily, especially in Deathmatch and Free-For-All modes.
  • Gameplay Derailment: The game's physics engine is programmed in such a way that allows you to abuse the "hop" mechanic. Normally, hops are used on ramps or right before powersliding, but abusing this mechanic allows you to reach heights not normally possible in a track or can even outright skip large amounts of said track. Seriously, try to do your own timed hops on a straight line, you'll be able to jump boost without a need of a ramp.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: Pac-Mobile's chomping sound if it manages to eat a ghost. Unless you're the victim.
    • Most characters' voices if they win first place in a race. It feels satisfying and is preferable to listening to them whining.
  • Polished Port: The GameCube port bumps the framerate on the PS2 version from 30 to 60.
  • Porting Disaster: Although the game itself is still playable, something must've went wrong during the PC version's development, as not only does it have trouble installing on modern systems, it also lacks the multiplayer modes from the console versions and doesn't have Mappy, Mr. Driller, or Subterranean Speedway from the PSP version.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: There's a meter that, when filled, turns your character into a Pac-Man mech that eats other racers. This sounds cool until you learn that you don't move that much faster than you already do, and it's only really useful if you're lagging behind.
  • So Okay, It's Average: This game received mixed reviews. But it's most often agreed that this game is merely a "cookie cutter" Racing Game with nothing too special yet no fatal flaws.
  • That One Achievement: Trying to unlock the Galaga Ship item. To explain how it works, additional racing items can only be gained by chomping a specific number of ghosts in Pac-Mobile form in specific cups in Grand Prix mode. Unlocking Black Pac-Bomb is hilariously easy that you can simply finish it in the first track. Siria takes a bit more effort, but can be fulfilled after 2 tracks in minimum. Sir Pac-a-lot is more challenging but can still be doable in one run. This item, however, requires multiple tries. Why? Here's the scoop, you chomp 12 ghosts in one perfect run of Classic Cup. Classic Cup contains 3 tracks (home console versions). Now you see the problem. Unlocking this item borders on Luck-Based Mission, even in the PSP version despite Classic Cup in that version having the same number of tracks as the other cups due to the reduced number of racers. Simply put, you'll prefer to sacrifice your ranking more often in this cup than any other cup.
  • That One Level:
    • Funhouse of Terror. It has loads of Bottomless Pits and tricky turns, especially on the "railless" parts of the racetracks, which is most of the track. Also, first-timers may get confused by the multiple paths, like in the first instance of a branching path where taking a wrong path before getting the correct fruits will slow you down due to hazards that can only be bypassed with said fruits.
    • Subterranean Speedway, exclusive to PSP version. The way the track looks seems to fit better for "home console"-exclusive racetracks, because it is one of the longest racetracks in the game. In the same cup that features Retro Maze. On the handheld version. Sure you can pause for a break, but it just ruins the fun.
  • They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Often labeled as a Mario Kart rip-off.
  • Ugly Cute: Fygar's 3D appearance in this game just screams this. He sure looks Gonk, but he's a little dragon.

Top