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   PlanetDreamcast | Games | Reviews | Namco Museum
    Namco Museum
A 1984 pizza parlor on a shiny silver disc - Review By Mr. Domino

Namco Museum Logo I played Pac-Man to death on my Atari 2600, despite the fact that it was a horrid, horrid arcade port. It "featured" a single, terrible maze layout, complete with extremely poor control, graphics, and sound. It almost seemed like anything but the arcade game, but the gameplay was similar enough for me to look past all the problems. Thankfully, the later port of Ms. Pac-Man fixed most of the original's problems, but it was still clear that it would not be possible to have a completely faithful Pac-Man conversion for a home system.

Thankfully, we no longer have to put up with late 1970's technology (although, unfortunately, the fashions linger on). Thanks to the power of your 128-bit Dreamcast, you can relive all of your happy childhood memories of playing Dig-Dug in dank, scary bars, surrounded by bikers, hookers, and freelance gaming journalists. Although the disc itself doesn't smell of liquor and smoke (out of the box, anyway), this small silver platter contains the games we played long ago in their full arcade glory. It goes without saying that all six titles are classic arcade hits, but do they stand the test of time in today's polygon-driven world? Should the non-nostalgic among us even care who or what a Fygar is? Let's find out.

  • The Good

    If you've never played a Pac-Man game, you're at the wrong website.
    While the other arcade classics package on Dreamcast, Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 1, features nothing but shooters, Namco Museum offers a comparitively nice variety of games. It also helps that half the games on the disc don't really have equivalent Dreamcast titles. Sure, there are tons of racing games for Sega's little white box, and a couple of shooters, but can you find something that plays like Pac-Man? Ms. Pac-Man? How about Dig-Dug? (No, Mr. Driller is not Dig-Dug.)

    Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are easily the most recognizable games on the disc. The goal is to guide a yellow puck around a maze while eating dots and avoiding ghosts. Eat one of four power pills and Pac-Man goes on a temporary drug-induced rage, which scares all of the ghosts blue and makes them edible. That's all there is to it. It's the simplistic nature of these games that has let them live on as long as they have, and they still prove to be as enjoyable as when they were released. You can pick up and play Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man and be happy as long as you don't mind that they are basically endless games.

    Dig-Dug reversed the maze concept in Pac-Man by having the player dig his or her own maze through the playfield. Long before Deer Hunter, Dig-Dug was busting up creatures in arcades the world over. Instead of just eating dots like some mamby-pamby pacifist, Dig-Dug seeks out and destroys all who oppose him by inflating them until they explode. If that's not enough, he can also crush enemies under heavy rocks by removing the dirt underneath a rock and letting it drop onto an unsuspecting victim. As was the case with the Pac-Man games, Dig-Dug is still as playable and enjoyable a game as it was when it first came out.


    Dig-Dug, one of the all-time greats.
    Galaxian, on the other hand, seems a bit stiff. Galaxian plays like a very slow Space Invaders but without the rocks to hide behind. Luckily, Galaga improves on the lackluster Galaxian in just about every way. Galaga is faster, the enemy attacks and waves are more interesting and varied, and the graphics are noticably better (although, of course, that's not saying much). In my opinion, every shooter fan should play Galaga. Although it would have been nice if Namco had included the excellent Galaga '88 in the collection (perhaps as a hidden secret?), Galaga is still a good, fun game which emphasizes aiming accuracy more than most modern shooters, making it a worthwhile experience.

    The sixth offering is the classic racing game Pole Position. Pole Position fans are sure to love this near-perfect port which features both analog and digital support, but I can't think why anyone would want to go back to Pole Position after playing games like Sega Rally 2 or Tokyo Xtreme Racer. Pole Position is still fun in its own way, though, and I did enjoy playing it again even if I won't go back to it much. Pseudo-scaling billboards just don't impress me the way they used to, I suppose. It makes for a nice trip down memory lane, but it'll be a short trip.

    Lastly, we come to PACit, which is a new VMU game downloadable from the disc. While it may sound like a portable Pac-Man, PACit features no mazes or ghosts. All you do is move Pac-Man up and down to catch pellets as they fly across the screen. It makes a nice, small time killer, but it doesn't feature the addictive nature and good gameplay of the other titles on the disc. Still, considering it's a "free" game, it makes for a nice, if unremarkable addition to the collection.

    The collection is presented with a nice, clean looking menu which is reasonably well done. You can also see the dip switch settings for all the adjustments you make in the various option screens, which I thought was a nice touch that added to the "arcade feel."

    Next: The Bad and The Final Word


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