Pac World Fighting Man 3

Pac World Fighting Man 3 will have an arsenal of power-ups

The game is a stereotypical 3D platformer, a weak imitation of Super 64 (hint: also available on the DS...)

in which the main character jumps, punches, and butt stomps his way through a series of levels, while facing moronic enemies,

awkward camera angles, and arbitrary collectible items.

The only notable references to the original Pac games are a handful of mini-boss events in which Spectral Enemies

(not the original ghosts…those are now your friends) chase Pac until he touches a special pellet,

which reverses the food chain and allows him to chase down the Spectral Enemies (not ghosts!) until they're all gone.

These sections would be legitimately entertaining and challenging, except that collecting the normal pellets nearby is optional (and useless),

and that the maze designs are half-hearted at best.

Sometimes these battles take place not on a maze but in a generic square room with one power pellet,

which has to be given time to regenerate so you can defeat the multiple waves of Spectral Enemies

(okay, so they look like ghosts, and they behave exactly like the original Pac ghosts Man, but I'm telling you, the ghosts are now friendly, whereas these guys are ornery as hell).

So, if Pac World Fighting Man 3 doesn't have much to do with the original character or game,

is it at least fun on its own merits? Sadly, no. The fourteen levels (which are strung together in random order)

are chock full of platforms, lava pits, invisible platforms, and even aerial tramways.

These elements are not necessarily put together in a clever fashion, but even so,

they would provide for some platforming fun if not for the camera problems.

There is zero vertical control of the camera, and it isn't smart enough to tip up or down at opportune moments,

so many jumps are blind leaps, and even routine platform jumping is made difficult because you can't easily gauge the distance from ledge to ledge.

A first-person viewing mode might have helped in some of these situations,

but that common feature is also missing.

Perhaps even worse is the bizarre mission objective structure.

Other than the introduction and ending slideshows, which make no sense anyway, this game has no cut-scenes.

There are no flybys to show you where to go, no remote cameras to show that a particular door has been opened by the switch you just pressed.

Some of the levels are quite complex, with series of switches that must all be activated, but often you'll have no idea what the switches do after you hit them.