Namco
Museum: 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection feels like the 50th time I’ve seen
Namco re-release their classic games. That aside, it has been stuck in my GBA
since it arrived, which in turn has been stuck to my hands. Dig Dug, Galaga,
Rally X – who hasn’t played these games a zillion times? I’ve never met anyone
who hasn’t heard of Pac-Man, one of the world’s most influential arcade games.
These classics, along with Ms. Pac-Man, have had their day and no longer own
our pocket change.
But they do
own our 10s and 20s.
(I have
three or four game compilations with versions of Pac-Man and/or Ms. Pac-Man.
Call me crazy, but please note that the guy in the white coat who holds up
squiggly pictures – he says I’m sane.)
Since we’re
dealing with a compilation, let’s dissect each portion to determine whether or
not this frog was well made.
Pac-Man
As far as
retro gaming is concerned I hear Pac-Man’s name more often than Sonic and
Mario. This side-scrolling, single-screen game is an ongoing battle between
the pizza-shaped superhero and a pack of four ghosts who would love nothing
more than to have a deep dish with extra cheese. But they’ll settle for
Pac-Man.
In many ways
Pac-Man is a strategy game, as well as a game of survival. Life bars didn’t
exist back then, only lives. Lives were limited in order to get players to
part with more quarters, but the ultimate goal was to get as far and score as
high as possible with just one quarter. Competing on this level was the mark
of a true master.
Looking back
the goal of collecting yellow dots seems trivial, yet it hasn’t lost its
charm. I can’t go back to Pac-Man without wanting to go back again. The more
you play it the more you want to play it and that’s the way it has always
been.
Ms.
Pac-Man
Ms. Pac-Man
was the first female character to land a starring role in a game. Arguably
faster and certainly more colorful, this version offered gamers an alternative
to the original.
This
is what the side view looks like
(see “Concept” portion of this review for more).
Galaga
My first
space shooter. Clever and highly original, Galaga led the way for future
generations of space shooters. The idea of letting your ship be captured just
so you could reclaim it and fight with two ships at the same time is
brilliant. It was also rather risky for the player, who could lose two ships
in one swoop if the enemy ships got the better of them. Enemy ships? More like
giant bugs.
Gunfire was
limited to two tiny blasts at one time. No more could be fired off until the
first blast left the screen. I assume this had to do with the primitive
technology available at the time Galaga was conceived. However, we ended up
with a more interesting game because of it.
Dig Dug
I really dig
this one. Okay, I admit it – that was cheesy (and true). Dig Dug is a game I
barely touched in my youth. "Digging? I can do that in Super Mario Bros. 2." I
didn’t know what I was missing till I became engrossed with the game last
year.
Dig Dug,
incase you didn’t know, is about digging for monsters. You hunt them and they
hunt you. Only one weapon can prevent death from knocking at your door: a
harpoon that inflates monsters like balloons, expanding their bodies until
they blow up. This effect is like a cartoon and is not at all violent, though
I have to wonder if it served as inspiration for some of Mortal Kombat 3’s
outrageous fatalities.
Dig Dug
constant race against the clock. Not an actual clock – an imaginary one that
determines how much time you have before the monsters go wild and start
attacking. For the most part they’re scared and will run away, or continue
moving up and down or left and right. Their patience decreases while the
number of monsters that appear on-screen increases. Intensity rises; your
pulse races; and within a matter of minutes Dig Dug is added to your mental
list of all-time favorites.
Rally X
Another
strategy game! Rally X was designed to look like a racer, allowing the player
to indulge in the joy of spilling oil in their opponent’s face. Really you
can, and it’s your single defense in a world where deranged drivers are trying
to crash into you. The top-down view is without a linear path; instead you
must obtain yellow flags to pass each level. Flags are scattered – it’s
reminiscent, though not a clone of Pac-Man.
Levels are
repetitive mazes that don’t evolve much as the game progresses. The speed at
which your opponents strike steadily rises, creating another addictive arcade
game that Namco would, unbeknownst to them at the time, continue to entertain
us for generations to come.
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Gameplay: 8.0
Namco saves their
earth-shattering innovations for the Tekken and Soul Calibur series, though
I’m sure you’ll agree that the stretched view is a great improvement. The
priceless gameplay of chomping yellow dots, avoiding multi-colored ghosts and
digging to slay monsters – they just don’t make games like that anymore. You’d
think that Galaga’s enemy attack patterns would get old since they never
change. Somehow they never have.
Graphics: 5.0
Namco Museum:
50th Anniversary looks like it’s stuck in the 80s. I appreciate retro game
art, I really do. But in the early 90s Nintendo released Super Mario
All-Stars, a Mario compilation that featured 16-bit quality graphics for each
game. It would have been awesome if Namco had done the same with these games.
Sound: 7.0
The classic
sounds of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Rally X and Dig Dug. No improvements,
no changes.
Difficulty: Easy/Hard
Easy to learn,
hard to master. Namco’s arcade wonders have, for the past two decades,
consistently done two things: (1) gained new fans with each new generation of
gamers, and (2) they kept their challenging edge in a world where game
difficulty is always evolving. It’s weird to think that I can play an
astonishing, revolutionary game like ICO or Full Spectrum Warrior, find them
both challenging, and then be equally challenged (though in other ways) by
games that are two decades older.
Concept: 6.9
Handhelds are not
usually the best platform for arcade titles. The aspect ratio of arcade
machines is nowhere near the aspect ratio of the Game Boy Advance. What to do?
Keep the aspect ratio by blocking off a chunk of the GBA’s screen with text.
Or you can do what Namco finally did with Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary and
stretch the game till it fills out the GBA’s wider screen. They’ve also
included a sideways mode so that you can know what it feels like to hold your
Game Boy Advance in an awkward position, giving passersby reason to say,
"Dude, you’re holding it the wrong way."
Overall: 7.0
Namco Museum:
50th Anniversary isn’t going to sell a ton of copies to gamers like myself who
already own each of its featured games. But consider the facts: these games
are short and sweet. They’re great time-killers. Everyone’s played them,
taking the question mark out of Christmas shopping – a stocking stuffer for
all, and to all who receive it, a good night. Furthermore, Namco went the
extra mile (maybe half a kilometer in this case) and re-tooled the games to
match the ratio of the GBA’s screen. It looks a little stretched, but it was
either that or a smaller picture with black bars. No question, I’ll take the
stretched version.
