Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection

THE BAD:
Unusually long load times. Not as much flexibility in changing options compared to the previous Museum game. Some serious control flaws & bugs/glitches. No Xbox Live scoreboards. Not much different vaiety of games from previous version.

SUMMARY:
In commemoration of Namco's, and more precisely Pac-Man's, 25th Anniversary, Namco hopes to capitalize on the occasion with a sequel to their original Namco Museum, which became a top seller on console. It should be noted first off that the "50th Anniversary" title is very deceptive, as video games haven't even been around 50 years, so don't fall for that trick. This collection brings 16 1970s & 1980s arcade classics home, 8 of which are making their home console debuts; the other 8 return from the original Namco Museum.
The graphics are about the same as in the first Museum, but with a couple notable changes: The games themselves loook exactly like in the arcades, but now the games don't have the "cabinet art" on either side of the screen like the first Museum had. This takes away a little bit of the authenticity that the originals had. A nice change was in the game selection menu-each game is now shown as an original game cabinet complete with art & control layouts, plus the game is shown in "attract/demo mode", a really nice touch except the art on the sides of each cabinet is incomplete, namely no logos & inside art. Sounds are almost perfectly converted as well, with only minor changes to some sound effects. Another nice touch is the game select menu features classic rock hits from the 1980s, which are fun to listen to while choosing your game. Controls generally are good and responsive, but some games, namely the Pole Position titles, have major flaws due to the setup. In the arcade, these games used steering wheel controls, and standard Xbox controller makes the controls for these games way too sensitive until you figure out that you have to use the control stick like a real steering wheel. Otherwise controls are good if not just a little sluggish-feeling at first. Gameplay is simple yet addicting and fun; All the games are either action, shooters, or driving games that are relatively simple to learn. There are a fair number of options to change for each game, but notably lacking here is being able to change the game's difficulty level, which the previous Museum title had. Additionally, there is a major bug/glitch in the game-Rolling Thunder has an "Invulnerability" option that if turned on, can cause the game to unexplainably freeze during gameplay, causing you to lose all your progress. Also, this title features inexplicably long load times when you first put the game into your console, and after exiting a game to the main menu-it not only takes a good 15 seconds each time, but the first time it may make you think that something's wrong with the system when there really isn't since you don't hear the Xbox running. Additionally, even though it says there are 14 titles, there actually are 16 because 2 games (Galaga '88 & Pac-Mania) are hidden and can be unlocked through gameplay. Although these are nice, the game is brought down by several notable omissions: First, there is no extra bonus or historical content included, a staple of almost every other retro arcade collection. This might be because Namco really didn't make all these games originally (most originally were Midway, Atari, Taito, or Romstar games) but purchased the licensing rights over the years. Also, although online play would not be possible here because of the nature of the games, Namco failed to include a Scoreboards option for Xbox Live players, another feature present in other retro compilations. While not a major complaint, it's something that still would have been nice to have. Finally, although there are 16 different games here, 8 of them were included in the previous Museum, so technically there are only 8 new games here. This makes it more difficult to justify buying it if you have the first Museum-although the $20 price tag is awesome, you're just paying for the 8 new games and winding up with 8 duplicates.
While overall this is a great title and an excellent bargain bin pickup, it's very hard to justify buying this one because it's so similar to the first Museum outside of the 8 new titles on 50th Anniversary. If you don't have the first one, this is a good buy, but if you do have it, only consider this one if you liked any of the new games or if you must have every retro collection out there. It really comes down to "do the new games and new look justify buying this one over the other?" I recommend renting both games first and compare the features and selection of games and go with the one you like better, but this one still warrants a good look for the selection and value.