Namco Museum Collection

Namco Museum Collection

If you're the kind of gamer that fondly remembers feeding ten pence pieces into squawking, garishly-coloured machines before getting your backside handed to you by gameplay created by sadistic Japanese developers then the idea of a compilation of over twenty arcade classics may seem like a good idea. Especially when it comes from the aged devs over at Namco. I mean, they made Pac-Man, Galaga and numerous other iconic arcade titles. That has to be worth something, right?

Add to that all of Namco's Xbox Live Arcade output as well and you've got a yourself a bit of a bargain. Well, yes and no. It depends on you and how you answer the following question. 'Do you have a burning desire to play countless versions of Pac-Man?' If you answered 'yep! I went to a special school and am cursed to be parted with my money the second I get my hands on it' then get ready for generic, repetitive fun right up the wazoo. However, if you're a tad more discerning then there are a few things you know before you seek this compilation out.



The XBLA part of this disc has nine games on it. Of these, one is essential (Pac-Man: CE - which is a luscious, reinvigorated version of the original game with tight gameplay and great presentation), three are okay but nothing special (Dig Dug, New Rally X and 2008's Galaga Legions which is an interesting but ultimately flawed shooter with some horrific difficulty spikes) and the rest are, putting it nicely, utter cack (Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man, Mr Driller Online, Xevious and Galaga.

On the Marketplace that lot will add up to over forty quid which makes this sound bargainous. Personally, I'd just stick with Pac-Man: CE and forget the rest. Still, achievement junkies might be tempted by the wealth of easily attained gamerscore available from these games.

The rest of the disc features twenty-two straight up ports and three, mostly awful, 'Arrangement' versions (Pac-Man, Galaga and Dig Dug - of which only the last one is worth looking at more than once). This collection spans the usual Namco nonsense including another three versions of bloody Pac-Man, more Galaga, the Pole Position games and a bunch of other stuff that really should have been buried in history and not regurgitated every year by Namco.



There are some gems though, namely Rolling Thunder (a slick, spy-based shooter that still looks and plays as nicely as ever), Metro-Cross (a quirky side-scroller that has you racing through obstacles on foot against the clock) and Galaga '88 (easily the best in the series). However, these are strictly bare-boned ports with this part of the disc featuring no bonuses at all. No videos, no artwork, no achievements, no online modes and no leaderboards.

So the bottom line is: don't buy unless you're some kind of Namco junkie and, if you are, maybe you'd be off getting addicted to heroin instead? It'll be better for you in the long run. The arbitrary-score-oh-tron says...

3/10.


Achievements:

Available points: 1800 (across the nine XBLA titles).
Easy maxes (200 points each): Dig Dug, New Rally X, Xevious, Pac-Man: CE.

Great review mate!
Have some rep!

Good review Bluce, made me chuckle so it did.