Namco Museum
Reviewed by Yardbird
Namco Museum is a compilation of five Arcade games
from the years 1979-1982. The games are Pole
Position, Ms Pac Man, Galaga, Galaxian, and Dig Dug.
Obviously this game will probably be enjoyed more by
people who actually played the Arcade versions and
have that warm feeling of nostalgia when they pick up
this cartridge. However, anybody that appreciates
addicting, simple gameplay will also find something
they like on this collection of games.
The games
Pole Position: A racer that became the inspiration to
almost every racing game that followed it.
Dig Dug: A weird game in which you go underground to
kill monsters with a pump.
Galaga: A fun shooter in the same vein as Space Invaders.
Galaxian: A not quite so fun shooter and the sequel to Galaga.
Ms Pac Man: Possibly the most popular sequel ever.
My views
My least favorite of the five is Galaxian, though Dig
Dug runs a close second to it. Galaxian is a slower
Galaga and it didn't improve in ANY way on the
previous game. Graphically it is not better, in the
gameplay there are no improvements either. So what is
the point of Galaxian? The point was just to rehash a
game that had became quite popular at the time,
Galaga....But Galaga itself was just a game playing
on the popularity of another game, Space Invaders. To
ME though, Galaga is much better than Space Invaders.
I can't say the same for Galaxian.
Pole Position is an elite racing game and it's not
going out on a limb to say it was a very influential
game. I think almost every racing game released after
1982 owes something to Pole Position. The female
voice calling to the player "Prepare to qualify"
brings back vivid memories for me and to hundreds
other as well that can remember playing this game at
the Arcade.
Arcade perfection?
Not quite. The most notable here is Ms Pac Man. You
can play this game in 2 views, either as a full
screen view, which is how it appeared at the Arcade,
or as scrolling. Full screen is very small, but it
gives a full picture of the playing field. Scrolling
closes in on the area of the screen where Ms Pac Man
is, which allows for a better visual idea of the
game, but it doesn't seem like the real Ms Pac Man at all.
This poses a dilemma for me.....play it in its impure
form or play it as a full screen and not be able to
see everything in close detail.
This is all graphical quibbles anyhow, though it does
take away a lot of the Arcade feel of the game. The
game is just as addictive as always, making this the
best reason to have this collection of the games. The
little scenes that ran at the Arcade of Pac Man and
Ms Pac Man meeting, having a courtship, and a little
baby Pac Man are all here.
Pros
*Ms Pac Man is as addictive as always
*Portable Arcade classics...the portable factor adds
a whole new dimension to the collection
*Fairly faithful to the originals
Cons
*Galaxian is a poor sequel to a Space Invaders clone
*Dig Dug is an acquired taste
*The scrolling takes away the Arcade feel of Ms Pac Man
*The full screen version of Ms Pac Man isn't detailed
or large enough.
Namco Museum --- the Final Word
The portable factor brings this all up a point. It's
worth a purchase if you like any of these games and
you want to be able to play them anywhere. BUT it's
nothing outstanding....
Overall: 7 out of 10