Originally on gamestoaster, here.

Pac-Man, the story goes, was inspired by a tired glance at a quarter-eaten pizza. The round, open-mouthed character was born, and the game followed from there. He wasn’t so much a character, as a single characteristic - a set of big yellow jaws, and the various Pac-Man arcade games employed him in the only way they really could. Why, then, is he now mucking about in go-karts and motorbikes?

Pac-Man Rally is a cartoon racing game very much in the vein of Mario Kart. Various Namco characters compete in a variety of cups by racing across various stages, collecting weapons, power-ups and so on, all for reasons best known to themselves. Split-screen 2 player and battle modes are also present, offering a diversion to the single-player proceedings. It is very unashamedly Namco Does Mario Kart.

There is an inherent problem with this, however. Whereas Nintendo’s roster of colourful cartoon characters lends itself well to such a game, Namco’s catalogue is a little less inspirational. Their most successful games of recent times have been Tekken and Soul Calibur, and their back catalogue is full of arcade relics. Someone somewhere along the line decided that Pac-Man was more child-friendly than Voldo, and left it at that. The result is a character list boasting blue ghost, red ghost, pac-man, ms. pac-man and other personality-devoid creations.

And that’s something of a pity, because with more imaginative characters, the game could be gunning for the top of the podium. The racing is solid, with innovations in the form of fruit-pickups enabled short-cuts and a big mechanical Pac-Mobile power-up, and the multi-player is more than capable. Mario Kart nudges it in terms of challenge offered, albeit by ‘cheating’ AI, but that’s hardly of importance in a game so squarely aimed at the younger market.

So when all is said and done, we’re left with a below-par Mario Kart. it is probably the best option on the PS2 for those looking for similar thrills, but don’t expect a lasting challenge.