Namco Museum Vol. 1

"Mmmmmhhh.... Power Pellets...."

Namco, you will note, is a company that very much loves itself. All its games, in one place or another, like to refer to their classic games. For a company that put out Pacman, Galaxian, and Dig-Dug, among mountains of other classics, this is probably well deserved. So it probably wasn't going to be long before Namco did turn out a compilation of the classics they are always referring to. In 1995, the first Namco Museum game came out. Four more were planned. This could be interpreted as a fairly greedy way to package their games. This was shown by certain volumes of the collection, which didn't have enough decent games on them to truly warrant a 50 dollar purchase. But this is the first volume. Though not entirely free from the shackles of picking from the bottom of the barrel, this is as close to untouched Namco goodness as it was going to get for the series.

There are six games on Namco Museum Volume One: Pac-Man, Galaga, Rally-X, Bosconian, Pole Position, and Toy Pop. Pac-Man, the strongest man in videogaming today, likely needs no introduction. Galaga is one of the first few shooters to throw in all the added features that the genre borrows today: weapon system upgrades, bonus rounds, and boss enemies, for example. It still stands up well, and is highly addictive, especially since you're not paying quarters any longer. Rally-X is listed on the package as two games, Rally-X and New Rally-X. Both are just separate difficulty levels for what really is the same game, and to call them two separate games is, haha, to laugh. The game itself is probably an attempt to cash in on Pac-Man with cars and a larger playing field. The game has its flaws in that main feature, the bigger area, and thus, the smaller field of view, causig you to just crash into things unecessarily. But the game has its enjoyable quirks, and it's definitely worth a little play. Bosconian is one of the more obscure games. It's a shooter, but the playing field is larger than Galaga, and the game revolves around hunting down space stations and blowing them up. Enemies pop-up from time to time, and there are mines and asteroids around to stop you, but the game can still be very slow-paced. It's an okay game, but nothing special. Worth playing for the crazy voices, in any case. Pole Position was one of the first racing games. It started on the idea of a time limit, and extensions according to how well you did, an idea Namco and Sega have used on their racing games since. The last game on the CD is Toy Pop, an obvious example of Namco saving the rest of the good stuff for later. The game is, shall I say, quite awful. There really is not much special about the game. You are a toy, I think, and you shoot things. And sometimes you can't shoot things, so you run away from them, and if you get hit you lose your clothes, and.... you've seen all this before, and probably much earlier than the game's actual release in 1986. Then, there's the outer part of the package, the museum. In the first game, this isn't too amazing. Each room for each game strictly consists of a hallway containing some pictures of the arcade machine, a sound test, and some hints on the game. Nothing you'll come back to more than a few times. That's sealed, especially, by the prohibitive load times. The CG intro is okay as well, but considering this is a first-generation PS game, it's very short and not overly spectacular.

The quality of the games is something of a mixed bag, but if you are a fan of any of the games listed, I would advise picking the compilation up. After all, the game does not force you to play Toy Pop, and for that I am thankful.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99