Namco Museum

"A solid game, but not for all gamers..."

Namco Museum takes you back to the early 80 's and playing games like Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga in the arcade. Yeah, those days were fun...but would they still be fun now???

Alright, Namco Museum consists of 10 classic arcade games and two un-lockable games. The games include: Pac-Man, Pac-Man Arrangement, Galaga, Galaga Arrangement, Dig Dug, Dig Dug Arrangement, Pole Position, Pole Position II, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Pac-Attack (un-lockable), and Pac-Mania (un-lockable). In addition, all of the Arrangement versions of the games have never been released on a home console!

GAME-PLAY: 8/10

There is much fun to be had with Namco Museum, whether you're playing by yourself or playing with a group of friends. Even if you don't like the classic games, you are bound to find some fun. Just some people are going to find more fun than other people.

The Arrangement versions are different from their originals and look a lot better. It offers a different way of playing the game and in Galaga Arrangement, you can play with another person at the same time, with two ships on screen! The Arrangements offer a little more variety and you can give yourself unlimited continues so you can actually beat the game. That brings me to another point, on any game you can change the difficulty, how many lives you start off with, the volume, and the point value that must be reached to earn an extra life! Wow! Now you can actually score 250,000 points in Galaga!

GRAPHICS: 3/10

This is where the game's rating gets hurt. The graphics were great in the 80 's but they don't look too pretty nowadays. Of course, if you're looking for that classic look, there is nothing wrong with it, but younger gamers who never played the originals might not appreciate it as much. I can understand why Namco didn't enhance the graphics at all because they wanted to keep them in their original arcade formats....or maybe Namco was just too lazy.

SOUND: 6/10

I do have to admit, these are not the best sounds to listen to as you are playing a video-game and they can get quite annoying after awhile, but if you think about it, those beep and bleeps sure fit in well with the game. No major complaints here.

REPLAY VALUE: 7/10

This is a bundle of classic arcade games, so you can always come back and play them again. They'll never get old (unless you play too much of them at one particular time) and people will probably still be playing Pac-Man and Galaga 30 years from now. They're timeless classics. Not to mention you'll be having fun trying to unlock the two games (but they're not too hard to unlock).

OVERALL: 7/10

This game is overall a better than average game, but the rating all depends on the gamer. If you happen to like classic games, then Namco Museum is GREAT, but if you're more into the next-gen stuff, then this might not be the game for you.

BUY OR RENT?

Personally, even if you don't particularly care for classic games, you should buy this game just to check it out. It's a Greatest Hit, so you can get it new for $20 bucks. You can probably find it cheaper on EBAY or get it used. You can't go wrong with this game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/16/04