Namco Museum

"Namco Museum NEXT-GEN!!= Sweet stuff!"

Namco Museum. It started out on the PS1 with 7 games and a museum crammed full of extras. This successful series, which for the most part includes Namco's best games, has been on several systems like N64, Dreamcast and PC. Unfortunately, the games were never perfectly ported/emulated and resulted in omissions, toned down graphics, framerate issues, sound issues, etc. Now on GameCube, which can easily handle each and every one of these smash hits, it's perfect...or is it? Here's my review for the GameCube version of Namco Museum:

Graphics: 10/10

Each game has the same graphics as their arcade originals with no losses in quality. If you played one of these games back in the 80's or 90's, you'll instantly recognize them here.

Sound effects/music: 9/10

This is where the problem comes in. The five museum volumes for the PS1 had a few sound issues in the games. Pole Position 1 & 2 even had their voice samples ("Prepare to qualify", "Great driving, you qualified the race", etc.) removed. Luckily on GameCube, the voice samples have returned in their original compressed glory from 1982 and 1983. Some of the sound effects in the various games are a different pitch, like the 1-up sound in Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man being higher pitched. Fortunately, all of the music has been preserved in it's original glory and have no differences in quality.

Gameplay: 10/10

Namco Museum NEXT-GEN! It's gotta be good! Well, it is. 12 complete arcade games have been included in one disc. Excellent! I gotta say, this is easily the greatest collection of Pac-Man games ever...and nearly half of the games contained in this disc are Pac-Man games! You get:

*Pac-Man
*Ms. Pac-Man
*Galaga
*Galaxian
*Dig Dug
*Pole Position
*Pole Position II
*Pac-Mania
*Pac-Attack
*Pac-Man Arrangement
*Galaga Arrangement
*Dig Dug Arrangement

All 12 have their original gameplay intact from the Arcade originals. Eating dots and ghosts in Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man, shooting aliens in Galaga and Galaxian, racing and crashing in Pole Position and Pole Position II, etc...it's all here. The games even include their start-up modes (Test patterns, seen when you plug-in the arcade units) and DIP switch settings (For adjusting difficulty, starting lives, stage selections on or off, etc. Previously only available to play around with for people working in Arcades or owners of the original Arcade units). This is mainly because most of these games are running on an emulator, which guarantees the 100% original arcade experience. Which games? The older games like Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug, etc.

Extras: 7/10

Sadly, you won't be exploring a museum with loads of extra content like the PS1 museums. Still, Namco Museum for GameCube still does include a handful of extra options. Extras include: volume levels for both music and sound effects, adding a rumble feature to every game, controlling each games' Start-Up mode (by turning it on or off), a controller configuration in Pole Position 1 & 2, Game Tips for all 12 games, 3 screen sizes, saving high scores, a music track inspired by the games included in the collection that plays on the main menu, preview videos, etc.

Overall: 10/10

Like Namco's classic 80's games like Pac-Man and Pole Position? If yes, then this is a must-have for your GameCube collection. Otherwise, stay away from this. Overall, I like and highly recommend it! Gotta love those Pac-Man classics and the fact that there are 5 of them included in this collection!

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/08/05, Updated 03/20/06