Namco Museum Vol. 3

"Represents the best and worst of Namco Museum"

Here we go with M. The game that got me into the whole Namco Museum and classic compilations frenzy.Why? It has Dig Dug! For awhile this was my favorite of the series,but the fact that half of the games are mediocre at best bring the collection down a bit.

Museum- Completely redesigned from the first 2 museums,and as such turns out alot better and more inspired. Game rooms have slight more interactivity and they added a librsry full of memorabilia and a nifty theatre (complete with Namco favs in the seats) full of graphics and sounds from the game.RATING: 9

GAMES-

Galaxian- The first full color game,and the precursor to the much more popular Galaga. It plays slower,making it more of an aiming game. This game can get very addictive,and in my opinion is more fun than it's sequals Galaga and Gaplus.RATING: 8.5

Ms. Pac-Man- Namco didn't even make this,but since it's so popular they bought it up from Midway. Has 3 more mazes than Pac-Man,and the patterns are gone. Excellent game,but not really my fav of the Pac games.RATING: 9

Pole Position II- 3 more tracks,better scaling, and smoother control than the original Pole Position. Not really that great to play at home, but it makes the original on NM1 pointless to play. I actually used the steering wheel with this one once,boy did I look ridiculous.RATING: 6.5

Dig Dug- Da da da da daaaaaaaaa....ladies and gentleman...I bring you the pinnacle of the Namco Museum games...of classic games in general....Tower of Druaga! No no that's not it....it's DIG DUG! I could play this game forever, I love the unique monster pumping gameplay,I love the Pookas and the Fygars and the eggplant powerups..heck I love everything about this game! Also check out the different but just as excellent Dig Dug 2 for the NES. Why Namco didn't put DD2 on one of the future volumes is beyond me. RATING: 10

Phozon- Some chemical matching puzzle game. Unique,mainly because no one wanted to make another game like it. It's minorly addictive at first,but then it gets way too hard. Worth playing for awhile,but not worth it when it gets impossible. RATING: 5

The Tower of Druaga- Press the button to pull your sword out and run into enemies. This jousting technique kind of ruins the action of the game. The original pressing of NM3 included a little tip book for all of the treasure locations.Like Phozon,too hard and ultimately not worth it. I like the theme and characters of the game,but the game itself??....FEH! RATING: 5

OVERALL- Some of the best games in the Namco Museum collections,along with some of the blahest. I guarantee you'll play Galaxian,Ms Pac-Man and Dig Dug like 10 times more than the other 3. RATING:8

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/28/01, Updated 01/28/01