Namco Museum 64

Namco Museum

Namco is back yet again with another collection of past arcade favorites. This time they have given us Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man, Galaga, Galaxian, Pole Position, and Dig-Dug. There is not much to begin with, but I have one question. Can this game have the addictive feel that the arcade versions once and still do have?

Pac-Man

Pac-man is a fairly simple game. You control a small circle shaped character whose main objective is to clear all of the dots out of a maze, by eating them. At the same time, you are avoiding contact with four enemy ghosts that are chasing you. If you touch a ghost you lose a life. The game goes on for hundreds of mazes, and gets harder each time.

Ms. Pac-Man

Ms. Pac-Man is basically the same game as Pac-Man, but with some new features. First of all, you now control a female version of the circled creature that loves to eat dots. As you clear mazes, you venture...

THE GOOD:
6 perfectly-converted classics. Customizable options. Can save high scores to memory card.

THE BAD:
Nothing.

SUMMARY:
One of the best N64 classic titles released late in the system's history, this compilation features Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Pole Position, & Dig Dug. All the games look just like they did in arcades back in the 1970s & 1980s, plus they include special operator-adjustable options (for changing difficulty, extra lives, etc.)
Controls are excellent, easy to learn, and customizable. You often need only to use the control pad or stick and one button for other actions-worth noting that there's no sterring wheel compatibility/option for Pole Position, which takes a little bit of the experience away. The other nice thing about this title is price-it retails for under $20, which is about half of what other new titles sold for, and a fraction of what you'd pay for all of these...

THE GOOD:
Six games for the price of one.
Pac Man, dig-dug, Galaga, Ms. Pacman.

THE BAD:
Galaxian and Pole Position aren't really that great anymore.

SUMMARY:
I like these compilation games. It allows us to expirience the games that used to be the best. Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are still really fun to play. Dig-Dug is still fun and Galaga is still an adicting game. However, Galaxian hasn't aged well and neither has pole position. It gets kind of annoying whenever you bump into another car your car will blow up. Still, the game is still worth checking out just for the four games that are good. Another fun thing is that the game is set up like an arcade machine. You push a button to get more credits. Unfortunately, this kind of is redundant since you really can't run out of credits because you can just get pressing the button.

Bottom Line:
You'll love this game if you are a classic gamer.