Namco Museum 64

"Namco Classics hit Nintendo's Fun Machine!"

Back in the early 1980s, arcade games were the big thing. Konami, Namco, Midway, Atari and even Nintendo competed for the almighty quarter. Starting with Pong, many classics arose from this era from Space Invaders, Asteroids, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Pole Position, Pac-Man, and many more. Namco Museum 64 is a compilation of six classic games for the Nintendo 64.

Pac-Man – 9/10

This is the immortal maze game, which spawned tens of spin-offs and hundreds of clones from shareware to Playstation In this game; you control a small yellow circle (originally to be called Puck-Man, but changed for obvious reasons) around a corridor maze, eating pellets and avoiding four ghosts. Eating a power pill, you can eat the ghosts for points. Once all pellets are cleared, you start again. In between each two levels, there are small cut scenes. The sound effects begin to get annoying after long playing times, and there is a short opening music theme. The game was ported to tons of systems such as Atari, NES, Game Gear, Game Boy and even Playstation and Game Boy Advance via Namco Museum 1 and PAC Collection respectively. The latest game starring Pac-Man was Pac-Man World for the Playstation. The game even spawned a cartoon series.

Ms. Pac-Man – 10/10

This one was one of the first video games to feature a female protagonist. It one-upped (forgive the video game pun) the prequel in every way. The sound effects were clearer, the character was detailed (in Ms. Pac-Man’s case a small bow and beauty mole), there were multiple mazes, the cut scenes were improved and the artificial intelligence was vastly improved. Otherwise, it’s the same as Pac-Man. Like Pac-Man, it was ported to numerous 8-bit home and handhelds and classic compilations. The latest game starring Ms. Pac-Man was Ms. Pac-Man Maze Madness for Playstation, Nintendo 64 and Dreamcast.

Galaxian – 5/10

This is the oldest game in this collection (1979) is also the weakest. The control is semi-responsive and the difficulty level is much higher than its excellent psuedo-sequel, Galaga. It’s a top-down space shooter. It was ported to the 8-bit systems and handhelds and compilations, but has no sequels or remakes.

Galaga – 8/10

This top-down space shooter is much more responsive and enjoyable than the somewhat-dull Galaxian, in my opinion. The control is much more responsive, lowering the difficulty somewhat. Enemy craft come in waves, and on the ‘challenging stage’ the waves are much less predictable. You can even have two fighters if one is captured and then liberated from the devious enemy. Again, this one appeared on many 8-bit systems, handhelds and classic compilations. The latest game with the Galaga name was Galaga – Destination Earth from Hasbro.

Pole Position – 10/10

Arcade racing’s great-grandfather was the classic Pole Position. First, you have to race to qualify, and then participate in a race with an amazing number of AI cars. The game’s graphics are bright and colorful and also feature adverts for other Namco arcade classics. The sound effects include some scratchy voice samples (in 1982, no less!) and the usual car sounds. The music is actually quite enjoyable, although really short. Using the N64’s analog control stick, the control is spot-on. This appeared on Atari systems and possibly the NES, yet not on any handhelds (except in Namco Museum for GBA). It spawned a sequel (available on Namco Museum 3 for PSX), yet no modern remakes have arrived…yet. This game also was the basis for a short-lived cartoon.

Dig Dug – 10/10

This game is quite unique. In it, you are a small hero that digs underground and using an unusual weapon, must inflate monsters until they implode. The control is great and the music that plays while you dig (and stops when you stop) is adequate. Some monsters breathe fire, making the game more of a challenge. It spawned a sequel and is on many classic systems as well.

Presentation – 5/10

The menu is a static 2D selection screen so you can select the games. The 2D artwork is pretty cool. Yet, there are no extras such as on the PSX versions. This is understandable with the small limitations of Nintendo’s ROM cartridge format, however.

Overall – 8/10

This compilation is a good one. While Galaxian is the weakest link here, the others are quite enjoyable. It’s too bad Pac-Mania, Super-Pac Man, Baby Pac-Man, Pole Position II, Dig Dug II and Pac-Land couldn’t make it, however. Highly recommended.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/11/01, Updated 06/11/01