Pac-Man World Rally

Pros • Lots of very cool levels with a lot going on • Powering up and eating the other cars is pretty sweet • Reasonably good graphics and animation • Excellent music • Very easy for beginners	Cons • It's practically a photocopy of Mario Kart • Save data takes up a surprising amount of space on your memory card
Bottom Line As Mario Kart clones go, this one's pretty good. But we have to wonder why you'd pick this one up when you can have the genuine article.

""The modes, tracks, power-ups are so very close to Mario Kart. It's almost like they just subbed different artwork. It plays pretty well ultimately, and if you've never played Mario Kart, you'll probably enjoy it (but shame on you for never playing Mario Kart). I do have to give props to the soundtrack though, which has several different riffs on the Pac-Man music and sound effects. I like the 50s Surfer rendition of the Pac-Man theme.""

Jason's Score: 6.5

I am looking over David Chapman's review of Mario Kart DS, and I am wondering if I can take the lazy way out for my Pac-Man World Rally review by doing a search and replace. You know, get into MS Word and replace "Mario Kart" with "Pac-Man World Rally." Drop a few features, make a few alterations here and there, I might get away with it.

Yep, getting to the point, Pac-Man World Rally is a clone of Mario Kart. However, it has the decency of being a very good Mario Kart clone at least.

The concept is very familiar: you race around tracks with different themes: jungle, swamp, space, castle, etc. using high-speed vehicles that resemble overhauled go karts. Instead of Mario, Toad, and Donkey Kong, we have Namco characters in their place: Pac-Man, Miss Pac-Man, the ghosts, characters from Dig Dug, and even the Prince from Katamari Damacy, who is an unlockable character. Each cart has its own speed/handling characteristics, and as you race you get a variety of weapons that allow you to temporarily trip up your opponents.

The similarities to Mario Kart go on: the weapons and power-ups are placed in cubes around the track, and one of the weapons is a fake cube that will wipe out anyone who picks it up. There is one slight difference in Pac-Man World Rally: the tracks are full of dots. Eat enough dots, and you will power-up into this invincible super car that is able to eat all the other cars, which have turned into slow-moving ghosts. It's just like when Pac-Man ate a power-pill back in the day.

The tracks have the usual themes, but they did throw in a few interesting ones based around old arcade classics, like Galaga and the original Pac-Man. It also helps that there's a lot happening on these tracks. By collecting fruit, for example, you can open up short cuts. There are also usually enemies and other hazards wandering around the tracks too.

Pac-Man World Rally doesn't have many major faults. It's pretty easy, but perhaps some people will consider that an advantage. Beyond the fact that it's a clone of a game that rules the kart racing scene, there's not much you can pan it for. Then again, because it is a clone of Mario Kart, there's nothing much to work up praise for either. Except perhaps the soundtrack--a remix of Pac-Man music to different genres, which sounds better than you might think.

So there you have it. If you prefer racing with Namco characters as opposed to Nintendo characters, this is the game for you. But Mario Kart still finishes first with everybody else far behind. If you don't mind playing an also-ran, pick it up.

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