by: John Olin

September 02, 2005

Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary is to say the least a very good mix of classic goodies, classic crap, and classic titles people forgot about. Before the days of Soul Calibur 2, or Xenosaga Namco relied on their innovations in the arcade to make them successful. It rival’s Midway’s Arcade Collection 2 from last year in terms of how many hits are packed on the disc. There are basically three types of games in here—ones where you move a little guy around so that you can destroy enemies, racing, or top down shooters. There are quite a few of these games that will have many of you coming back for more, such as Dig-Dug, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Rally-X and Galaga, Galaxian, Pole Position, Pole Position II. These games are also the most memorable of the bunch but there are still a few quirky ones you might not remember as much.

Bosconian, which is actually pretty cool shooter has you in a space jet blowing up enemy space stations, ships, and you can fire front and back, or a number of other powered-up shooting moves. The only problem with it, like many games at the time is you felt like you are slipping on ice. Xevious is another top down shooter where you are avoiding things on land and ground. Dragon Spirit is another shooting title where you are a dragon and it plays a lot like Galaga. Rolling Thunder has you in a side-scrolling game shooting at silly hooded men, and it isn’t really that great of a game. Sky Kid has you bombing objectives, which is pretty cool, and actually very easy to get into. Mappy has you as a mouse, getting chased by cats and pretty much trying to loot a house. There are also two games to be unlocked after scoring a certain amount of points in their respective originals--Pac-Mania and Galaga ’88. These two games both are enough to keep the fans of the series to keep on coming back but other than that there isn’t much left to them.

The games are also more or less arcade perfect, although that isn’t hard to do with games that have since been showing up on cell phones. The game also has a very similar look, and style to Midway’s Arcade Treasures 2, mostly because the same guys who converted arcade classics on that title did this as well. The controls for the game are simple enough also—X is used to make the difficulty level high or low, A is the action button, and the analog/digital pad is used to move around.

Also the games play in a weird sideways ration, since back then the arcade machines had TV monitors that were flipped on their side. It would have been nice if there were some of their newer hit classics such as Tekken 2, or even Time Crisis for those of us with a light gun. Also, some of these games have been in other Namco packs, but this is still one of the better combinations of classics from Namco I have ever seen. Another thing that would have been nice that I think they actually took out is Xbox Live scoreboards. With Xbox Live scoreboards, at least you would have the competitive edge of someone getting a high score and you trying to beat it like you did in the arcade. Also, I find it amazing how long some of the loading times can be—up to twenty seconds, when these are literally games that could fit on a floppy diskette, or a cell-phone.

All of this is for an amazing price of a cool $20. The only bad thing about the game is it could have stretched out more and maybe had some special features. If this were Namco’s Anniversary package, it would have been nice to see a video about if the “Pac-Man was created by a pizza” myth was true, or how Namco went from what they were doing before when they started fifty years ago, to games. When you actually select the title you are going to play, you select it in a rotating arcade with simple renders of the classic arcade machines. While you are selecting, old 80’s music such as “Come On Aileen”,

In the end Namco Anniversary is a great pack for the price, and nothing more. I still get a smile on my face every time I hear that Pac-Man music chime in at the beginning, and the hectic music that plays as you drill the earth in Dig Dug keeps me going. With Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Rally-X, Pole Position, Pole Position II, Xevious, Dragon Spirit, Bosconian, Rolling Thunder, Mappy, and Sky Kid this will keep you going for hours. This game is also a great time killer if you have to be somewhere soon, but don’t feel like playing a game that you has to get involved in.

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This game is perfect for the older gamer that wants to revisit their past, or younger gamers that need to know how games were back then. I suggest if you are looking for something different, before the Xbox 360 comes out with ultra-realistic graphics step back in time to a time where games were much more simplified but still fun. Also, for $20 you can’t go wrong. Still if you are a Namco fan looking for anything extra other than some sill 80’s songs and the actual bare-bone games, sorry, not this time.

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