Controlling Pac-Man, the player must complete each of the game's six worlds by collecting keys to free his captive family members, and reaching the end of each stage.

[4] The player can find crates scattered around in levels, some of them giving Pac-Man access to new abilities, such as a metal suit allowing him to walk underwater.

[4] At the main menu, the player can play a port of the original Pac-Man arcade game, which is the same version found in Namco Museum Vol.

[7] Namco's Japanese division put pressure on the project with strict guidelines — Anderson recalls being unable to use a 3D render of the character as a reference, requiring the team to make it themselves.

[7] When the prototype was presented to Namco, they became unhappy with it and cancelled it for quality reasons, firing the entire development team aside from Rogers, an artist and a programmer.

Rogers, who had previously worked on localization for Namco's own Soul Edge and Xevious 3D/G, became the head designer of the project and created many of the enemies and stage layouts.

[8] The team set out to retain the "flavor and feel" of the original Pac-Man, and to bring the character into an entertaining platform game.

[8] The game originally featured cameos from other Namco characters, including Taizo Hori from Dig Dug and Valkyrie from Valkyrie no Densetsu; however, these were replaced with members of Pac-Man's family in the final version — a Pooka from Dig Dug was later added into the game due to the character's popularity in Japan.

[8] The game's main antagonist, Toc-Man, is named after Namcot, the older Japanese home console division of Namco.

Tommy Tallarico's studio was hired back for the game's audio, with Joey Kuras being responsible for the sound design and Todd Dennis composing the music.

[11] The advertisements notably featured Mr. T and Verne Troyer as neighbors in Beverly Hills who are shocked to see Pac-Man move into and renovate the house across the street from them.

[21] GameSpot compared the game favorably to Namco's own Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, praising its colorful graphics, character animations and controls, concluding that it was "worthy of anyone's library".

They criticized the game for lacking originality, particularly comparing it unfavorably to Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot, as well as for having an unbalanced difficulty level and "quick, corner-cutting development".

Unlike prior releases in this console generation (Katamari, Mr. Driller, Klonoa), it is not a part of Namco's "Encore" series of 3D franchise remakes.

Bandai Namco has not officially stated reasons for the replacement of the characters, though news outlets have assumed the changes are tied to Ms. Pac-Man's ongoing AtGames dispute.

[31] Pac-Man World Re-Pac received favorable reviews for its gameplay and visual improvements, but was criticized for its lack of innovation.