Pac-Man World Re-Pac from Bandai Namco Entertainment is a remake of the 1999-released game that I’ve always hoped would happen. While I enjoyed the original Pac-Man on DOS, playing Pac-Man World on the original PlayStation was an amazing experience. I had long given up hope on it returning, so the announcement for this release coming to all platforms was a welcome one. I’ve now played Pac-Man World Re-Pac on my laptop and Steam Deck for review, and the port is excellent. For this Pac-Man World Re-Pac PC review, I will cover the graphics options, control options, Steam Deck performance, and more.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac PC requirements
Pac-Man World Re-Pac PC minimum requirements
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i3-2100、AMD A8-5600K
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 460、Radeon R7 250
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 10 GB available space
Pac-Man World Re-Pac PC recommended requirements
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2300、AMD FX-4350
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: GeForce GTX 650 Ti、Radeon HD 7770
- DirectX: Version 11
- Storage: 10 GB available space
Pac-Man World Re-Pac PC graphics options
Pac-Man World Re-Pac lets you adjust screen mode (fullscreen, borderless, windowed), the resolution, cap your frame rate to 60fps or stay uncapped, toggle v-sync, toggle post-processing, and then adjust anti-alising, shadow quality, and texture quality across low, normal, and high. These are more options than I expected for a game like this. You can also do this at anytime while playing if you pause the game from the menu.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac PC control options
Pac-Man World Re-Pac has full controller or keyboard/mouse support. It even has the correct button prompts when using a DualSense controller, and automatically adjusts button prompts on the fly. You can also adjust the confirm button in the “All” menu under options. This is also where you adjust the Metal skin if you have that DLC.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac PC performance: frame rate and resolution
On a laptop with an AMD Ryzen 5-3550H processor (2.1GHz Base speed up to 3.7GHz), 16GB DDR4 RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GPU, I kept everything at the highest settings and managed 1080p 120fps. I enabled v-sync to avoid screen tearing. This release isn’t demanding at all for hitting 60fps, and it runs without trouble on this laptop and Steam Deck.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac on Steam Deck
Given how well it ran on the laptop, I first forced Pac-Man World Re-Pac to 1080p on Steam Deck. Even at 1080p and if I uncap the frame rate, Pac-Man World Re-Pac runs at well above 100fps at all times. I did cap it to 60fps for my playthrough on Steam Deck though. I had it uncapped just to see how high it could go on this hardware. Note that there are aspects of the game that move at a lower frame rate from what I can tell like the fixed camera. Barring that, it loads quickly and plays brilliantly on Steam Deck. With the 16:10 aspect ratio support in parts when I select fullscreen, this feels like it is ready to be verified on Deck right now.
Should you play Pac-Man World Re-Pac on PC?
With its budget price, Pac-Man World Re-Pac is an easy recommendation on PC right now if you were interested in it. I enjoyed the original back in the day, and it was great revisiting it through this release. The new features help making it more accessible, and it also has an excellent PC port. If you have a Steam Deck, this is likely the best portable version of the game given the Switch version’s frame rate is “up to 30fps” going by the official website while this one can do 60fps without issues and even go well above that if you connect it to an external display with a high refresh rate after playing around with the settings.
One thing to note is that despite the good PC port, Pac-Man World Re-Pac is on the easier and shorter side. I didn’t have issues with the game, but I’m still glad that there’s an optional easy mode for the sections that might be annoying for some. With this release, Pac-Man World has gotten another chance with a new port on literally all consoles and PC with a fresh coat of paint and some nice new features. Hopefully it does well enough for us to get more releases like this in the future. Pac-Man World Re-Pac is easily one of my favorite Pac-Man releases in years. While I was glad to be able to experience Klonoa through the recently released collection, this is my favorite Bandai Namco Entertainment revival release since Katamari Damacy Reroll.
Hopefully my Pac-Man World Re-Pac PC review helped you decide whether it is worth investing into this remake. Pac-Man World Re-Pac releases on August 26 worldwide for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam. Check out the official website here.
Updated on August 26: Added Pac-Man World Re-Pac PC requirements.
