About a year ago, Bandai Namco released Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures, a game that was meant to accompany the animated series. While it didn't do anything too special for the 3-D platforming genre, it was solid enough for genre fans to enjoy. Almost a year since that release, Bandai Namco is aiming for a repeat performance, but without much time in between games, fans are curious to see if Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is any good.

The plot is much simpler than the last game's story. Lord Betrayus is once again lamenting the fact that Pac-Man and his friends foil his evil schemes over and over again. He attributes his losses to his lack of a corporeal body and figures that he needs to break into the vault where his body is stored and steal it back. Knowing that Pac-Man will stop him, he devises a plan where he can make the yellow hero get the body for him. As villains are wont to do, the plan becomes needlessly complicated and sees Pac-Man and friends travel high and low before the tale reaches its expected conclusion.

Though the plot is simple, there are a few interesting things about it. First, it seems content with just rehashing parts of the TV series rather than using something new. You get this in the opening cut scene, where one of the henchmen suggests using a giant robot to terrorize Pacopolis, and all of the environments you visit is a direct callback to ones visited by the show. The story isn't afraid to mess around with continuity, as some elements and characters introduced in of the show appear without too much fanfare. It doesn't really alienate those who don't pay attention to the show. Finally, the game fails to use the show's humor to its advantage. There's very little in the way of slapstick humor, and the jokes are quite tired.

Much like the previous title, this one is a 3-D platformer where Pac-Man can run around, collect pellets, and chomp on ghosts without having to power-up first. Chaining together chomps is still here as a means to reach higher platforms and quickly clear enemy spaces. Enemies are varied by their attacks, and some have specific powers, like electricity or armored suits that need to be neutralized to be defeated. Specialized power pellets also make a return, giving you lots of special powers whenever you obtain them. Throwing fireballs and freezing enemies are some of the offensive abilities you can gain. Performing larger bounces by taking on a rubber form or sticking to metal platforms are some of the more passive abilities you can gain from eating special pellets.

The game features a number of tweaks to its formula in several different areas. The adventure is more truncated, with individual levels feeling like much smaller versions of what was seen before. Camera angles are fixed, so it helps convey the more compact nature of each stage, but there are areas where you can go off the beaten path to obtain more pellets or the three fruits hidden in each stage. The game also pays more attention to points this time around, with scores popping up for each enemy defeated. Tokens now act as temporary multipliers for chomps, and the scare tactic accomplishes the same result. A high score marker is always present in each level to remind you how important those points are, and each stage gives you a medal ranking between gold, silver, and bronze, depending on how many points you score by the end of the level. Also, each of the game's power-ups has received some tweaks. Rubber Pac, for example, has an added super jump and ground pound while Chameleon Pac loses his invisibility in favor of better range with his tongue, and Magnet Pac can rip off the armor from some enemies. You can still only have one of these powers at a time, but you have the option of turning them on and off at any moment, which is nice but a little strange since those powers don't strip you of any of your normal abilities.

Some new additions are here in the form of vehicles. In some of the larger stages, you'll have sections where Pac-Man drives down a tube and shoots ghosts while avoiding civilian traffic. Later on, he'll travel through space and shoot ghost aliens along the way. Pac's friends Spiral and Cylindria also come in as playable characters who fly through levels in their respective helicopter and hoverboard. Spiral also shows up in non-controllable form with a metal girder for you to latch on to as Magnet Pac. They also show up periodically in boss fights, some of which you'll play as a giant form of Pac-Man from a side-scrolling perspective.

Despite all of this, the game can feel disappointing to some due  to a few factors. Like the first title, the controls can be a bit slippery, especially during chomping chains. Most of the time, Pac-Man propels himself so far during these sequences that he completely misses the platform and falls to his doom. Controls also prove to be problematic during some jump sequences, since you can't get a good bead on the action with the fixed angles and because 2-D sequences are still treated with 3-D spacing, causing you to fall into the background. Though the levels are shorter, the game still feels like it drags on since you stay in the same environment for about 10 levels. The environments change, but the lack of wholesale change for long stretches is noticeable. Perhaps the more obvious thing for those who played the first game is that there are no new powers available. Even though the powers are tweaked, they aren't dramatically changed, and it feels similar enough to the first title that players may not find much excitement here.

Interestingly, Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 no longer has the minigames and multiplayer mode of the previous version, presumably an effort to cut down on some unneeded elements. In their stead are challenge levels, which task you with trying to get all of the pellets in a level within a short amount of time and with only one power-up available. On the one hand, this is a better tradeoff since the challenge levels are much more enjoyable than the previous title's minigames, and few will miss the multiplayer portion. On the other hand, this also means that the hub worlds serve no practical purpose other than to hide portals for the challenges. Just like the fruit hidden in each level, completing the challenges is only good for bragging rights, so only completionists have any real incentive.

From a graphical quality standpoint, the game is a shade below its predecessor. Bright colors fill each of the environments, making even the dreariest environments look rather rich. Animations are well executed, and there is a noticeable absence of some common issues, like clipping or pop-up. The frame rate seems to hold steady for the most part, but oddly, it can slow down dramatically when multiple waterspouts are present. One change that was made for the worse is in the backgrounds, which aren't as detailed as before and do not feature elements that make them feel alive. Seeing Pacopolis without the hordes of flying ghosts from the first game, for example, makes sense from a story standpoint, but it makes the game look a little weaker.

The slight drop in quality also affects the audio. The music is fine; the soundtrack mixes up tunes from the first game with some new material that matches it in tone and quality. The mix is loud enough to partially drown out the other sound elements, and the looping of the same track for each level isn't seamless, since you can hear the pause between the tracks. The effects are quite good, and lots of them come from the original arcade game, providing a good bit of nostalgia when you eat a power pellet, chomp down on a ghost, or lose a life. Like the first game, the cast is very different from that of the show, which is still a baffling decision to make. The cast does a good job with what it's offered, but the lines they utter just aren't that compelling.

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 is a pretty straightforward sequel that does a decent job of refining what's there instead of experimenting with something new. The shorter stages are appreciated, but the game can still feel like it drags on thanks to how many levels are thrown in. The refinement of powers is nice, but there aren't any new powers for returning players to discover. The additions of vehicles and new shooting sequences are good, but the neutral environments lack purpose. The result is a decent platformer that doesn't quite hit the mark of the first game, leaving behind a title that can be fun for platforming fans but is better as a rental than something to consider owning at a cheaper price.

Score: 6.5/10