i'd be hard-pressed to agree considering klonoa exists and doesn't have nearly as unbalanced of a difficulty curve, or as much jank to the hit detection. i think pac-man's hitbox is simply too big - where platformers usually keep player characters' hitboxes smaller than their actual sprite or model to give the player some leeway, i don't think they did that with pac-man world; if they did, they didn't do it enough (mario's hitbox in super mario world is tiny, for example; it's like, six pixels).

that, and... people say a lot of good things about tekken and ridge racer and ace combat. even if not, mr. driller is a fantastic arcade puzzle game with a soundtrack that's about as good as pac-man world's, scored by a guy who isn't as untrustworthy as tommy tallarico

i don't dislike pac-man world, to be clear. i want to like it more than i actually do, but it's just... wracked with a general lack of polish and consistency that i expect from my platformers that's hard to overlook in spite of the sheer amount of charm pac-man world possesses.

but hey, it's much, MUCH better than rayman 1.