Namco Museum 64

"Not 100% perfect, but it'll do, I guess."

Ever since the N64 came out in 1996, I had always wondered if Namco would ever consider putting out their Museum series on a cartridge. Well, looks like we have the results. Unfortunately, they made a few errors...again!

Graphics: 10/10
Sure, they aren't saying much by today's standards, but they're perfect arcade replications! Everything, from the explosions in Galaga, the bursting monsters of Dig-Dug, and the ghosts of Pac-Man. They even fixed the choppiness that plagued Pole Position on PlayStation!

Sounds: 6/10
Yeah, the game uses the original PlayStation code, no doubt. So the music sounds a little like the original. Even worse, though, is the fact that often times most of the songs are in the wrong places and/or out of tune! For instance, the song that plays when you finish the challenging stage and get a perfect? That's supposed to be the #1 high score ranking song! And the organ music when you don't qualify for high scores in Pole Position? That's supposed to be the number one ranking theme!

Then again, there are some positives. For one thing, they FINALLY brought back the flag girl saying ''Prepare to qualify'' in Pole Position! Also, the explosions sound like the real things and not like fender benders like they did on PlayStation! On the other hand, many of the original songs are out of tune from their originals.


Controls: 10/10

Don't have an arcade stick? The analog stick works just fine! Of course, sometimes you may want to use the control pad, namely for Pole Position, because the analog sometimes makes the car look a little screwy while turning. Also, the control configurations are fully customizable!

On the subject of customization, did I also mention that you can set the number of lives, the extension scores, and even the difficulty? Yup! Now you can make it as easy (or hard) as you want it to be! You can even play two players with one controller!


Replay: 10/10
There are 6 great games on here. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man I'm sure you know. Galaxian (which came out in 1979!) is like Space Invaders, except you pilot a ship instead of defending earth. Galaga is the sequel, where you shoot at aliens who dive bomb you, plus you can earn dual firepower, and earn bonus points in bonus rounds.

Dig-Dug is a fun game where you go underground trying to blow up monsters with an air pump. Out of all of them, though, I definitely got this for Pole Position, my all-time favorite video game hands down! It was the first racing game to be done with a chase-cam view as well as realistic controls and sounds. It was the game that made racing games as realistic as they are now!


Overall: 9/10
Sure, there's a demerit for poor sounds, but otherwise, it's a 99.9% accurate port of six great games. Any N64 owner who enjoys classic games should not pass this one up at all!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 03/12/00, Updated 07/16/01