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»Namco Museum 50th Anniversary
"True gaming roots, but has its share of faults."
Fifty years. That’s a hell of a long time for
a single company to be in business. To commemorate their golden
anniversary, Namco decided to release a compilation of some of their
most popular classic games on one cart. Making appearances in Namco
Museum 50th Anniversary are Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Rally X, Dig Dug, and
Galaga.
Unfortunately, there is not much that can be said for
the graphics and sound of twenty year old games. With each and every
one of these a throw back to the early days of gaming, do not expect to
be wowed by any of the visuals seen in this collection. Each title
appears to be a faithful port of their cabinet forefather. Pac-Man and
his bride still look remarkably similar as they chase down the four
ghosts, and Dig Dug still pops subterranean, fire-breathing alligators
with his bike pump. Nothing appears to have changed. The same goes for
the sound. The beeps and boops of encroaching ghosts and aliens still
take me back to the arcades of old.
Younger gamers may be
turned off by the 8-bit graphics and sound, but that really is a poor
excuse to not experience some of gaming’s roots. Once again, being
ports of older games, the controls here remain tried and true to their
predecessors. Granted, there is little more than steering your sprite
and perhaps mashing the A or B buttons, but they are responsive and not
at all difficult to master. When you want one of the Pac-Man family
members to turn down a corridor in pursuit of Pinky, you can damn well
be sure he/she is going to go barreling after her. No having to mash
the D-Pad more than you have to.
Selecting the game you want
to experience is very user friendly. As you navigate past the title
screen, you’ll feast your gaze on five arcade cabinets, each selectable
by a simple press of the D-Pad. Simply confirm your selection and you
are brought to the title screen of your chosen game. But wait! Did you
accidentally access Galaga when you wanted Rally X? Not a problem.
Hitting ‘start’ at any point not only pauses the game in progress, but
also brings up a menu that lets you reset the game, exit to the main
menu, change control schemes, or simply resume play.
Unfortunately,
Namco stayed a little too true to the originals, and did not include a
save feature for anything more than the high score. While I did grow up
in an age where games that saved your progress were exceedingly rare, I
have grown accustomed to this feature in the last fifteen years. I even
found myself wishing for a continue option in many of the games. But
alas, once you lose your last life in any of the games, it is back to
level one. Sucky! Fortunately, this can also be a good thing as it
encourages players to improve their skills and scores by attempting it
again and again.
While each and every one of these games is
enjoyable, many of them are available in better forms. Namco’s prior
offering, simply dubbed Namco Museum already boasts three of the five
games on this collection: Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, and Dig Dug. Frankly, it
may as well have Pac-Man as well, considering gameplay is identical to
his effeminate counterpart, save for different level design. The only
truly new offering is Rally X, and even there you are avoiding other
cars while picking up flags. Sound familiar?
As with any
collection of classic games, 50th Anniversary banks on nostalgia as its
selling point. While newer gamers have no doubt experienced these older
games, it was most likely in a different venue than an arcade. Perhaps
it was in a prior collection of games (which all of these have made
appearances on), or perhaps in a sequel or rehash, such as Pac-World or
Mr. Driller. Younger gamers may see replaying these games for the sole
purpose of increasing your skill level and high score as futile. There
is no plot, no dynamic or complex characters, and no ending cinematic.
There is only a goal and a rating on how you much you accomplished. If
this is your kind of thing, then you will absolutely love this cart. If
not, you may want to pass on it.
Article by: getahl
Posted on: Dec. 3rd, 2005 |
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Review Recap |
| Gameplay |
| Very responsive. Faithful to their arcade predecessors. No slow down, although younger gamers may be turned off by the lack of goals. Many of these games are available on prior formats. |
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Graphics |
| 8-Bit visuals that did not age well make this collection seem dated. May not appeal to younger gamers used to modern graphics. |
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Sound |
| Beep. Beep. Boop. It’s 1983 all over again! |
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Replay Value |
| Getting the high score is the only real incentive to keep pressing ‘start’ over and over again. |
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