The 5 Golden Fruits are stolen by a gang of ghosts and darkness falls over the land and the evil spirit Spooky is unleashed. It is up to Pac-Man to get the Golden Fruit back and restore order in Pac-Land. Run, bounce, roll, and swim your way through a variety of worlds to find the hidden fruits. There are also extra hidden Galaxian keys which unlock classic Pac-man mazes.

Pac-Man World 2 is a side-scrolling platform game which has some depth to the play-field to allow for more movement than just left and right. There are a bunch of moves Pac-Man can pull off, such as a butt-bounce, a rev roll, a flip-kick or a rev jump. Some of these are dual function and aid in both reaching higher platforms or getting up steeper hills, as well as attacking enemies.

The game also features a password system to get back to levels you have already played.