Game Boy Advance

Namco Museum

Never mind a deserted island Namco Museum is the GBA cartridge you'd most want when you're stuck in an airport. The timeless gameplay of Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, and Pole Position shines through on the small screen with robust colors and surprisingly clear sounds. Being able to play Ms. Pac-Man with either a full-screen maze or a scrolling playfield is a nice perk, and making Dig Dug a scrolling-only game was a wise choice.

The only sad part of this cart is that there aren't more games. I've heard people dissing because there aren't more titles represented here, but Namco's gotta make money like everybody else. While I find myself coming back to Galaga again and again, I never knew how much fun Dig Dug was or had much tolerance for Pole Position when my precious quarters were on the line. Having and holding means a lot for these old games, and I couldn't imagine a better platform for my retro gaming. Somehow, buying them for PlayStation seemed a bit of overkill, but having these babies in a portable (and a high-end portable at that) is a great deal.

Arcade fans, especially those who used to line up (or line their quarters on the machine) to play these will be very pleased with this one. Those unimpressed with retro gaming probably won't be converted here. Here's hoping we see more arcade classics in the future, because I can't think of a better platform for them than the GBA.

Okay, so I’m an anal retentive classic gaming purist and I’m probably finding way more wrong with this game than the average gamer would. The general gameplay for each of the games is really quite good and very similar to its coin-op version overall. The addition of the hints and options screens adds a lot also. Still, I felt the smaller graphics modes truly detracted as they do make playing the games harder and the squirrelly control in Pole Position doesn’t help much either. I also felt that Namco could’ve added a few more games to this collection or at least replaced Galaxian or Galaga with something a bit different. All gripes aside though, this is a great little cartridge that should appeal to classic gaming enthusiasts as well as people who would want to play a quick or simple game, which is why I give this game collection a score of 85.

Namco Museum is a real treat for folks who still love the cut-and-dry gameplay of the classics -- with the exception of Galaxian, each of these games are fantastic pick-up-and-play titles that offer a quick gaming fix. The package could have been a lot more than it ended up being, but the final product is a great cartridge package that begs for a sequel -- there are plenty of other classic Namco games in the company's line-up just itching to be shrunk down for play on the Game Boy Advance.

Given that these four (five) games are perfectly recreated and that they're (almost) all the most popular of the earlier era in gaming, NAMCO Museum is a place you'll spend a lot of time. There are drawbacks, most notably the lack of a battery save to preserve high scores, which takes a lot of the fun out of replaying the game, and the fact that there's precious little of the documentation and interesting facts found on other platform versions of the game. But despite those minor problems, the "pick up and play" for a short while nature of this kind of gaming makes it all but perfect for portable pocket gaming system like the GBA.

Namco Museum brings several arcade classics to life on the portable screen of the GBA. The best of the classes of 1979, '80, '81, and '82 are represented here by the likes of Galaxian, Ms. Pac-man, Galaga, Pole Position and Dig-Dug. A motley crew, but a team of heavy hitters nonetheless. For those of you that don't remember the arcades of the early 1980s, these are the titles that helped set the groundwork for what you are playing today. If you don't know these games, go look them up. It'll do you good.

The Game Boy Advance version of Namco Museum isn't the best translation that these arcade classics have ever seen, but the ability to take them with you wherever you go makes this version of Namco Museum the most compelling version to date. Any fan of classic arcade games should be happy with it.

While some of the games in the Namco Museum are a bit frustrating to play because of the screen size limitation, they are all faithful to the original arcade games. Personally, the game is worth it for Ms.Pac-Man, Galaga and Dig Dug alone. Those who can't live with a less than perfect Galaxian and Pole Position, may need to try before they buy.

In the end this cart isn’t for your average gamer and it obviously won’t be a best-seller… but that’s fine. For people who like to wax nostalgic for these classics from the good old days though if you can get over the fact that nothing has changed and not all of the ports are perfection there’s nothing that makes it difficult to recommend the purchase. For the most part these are arcade-authentic (except for people like me who are very picky) conversions of some great arcade originals that you’ll now be able to pick up and play anywhere. Considering it is also cheaper than typical third-party carts on the shelves I’d say old schoolers could certainly do worse. That is, critically, if you can overlook the lack of saved High Scores. For me personally this omission is devastating but for some people you may be over to overlook this fact for the sake of nostalgia.

The fact remains that all these games are, as Namco implies, ‘Museum’ pieces; pleasant memories, but ones that with the benefit of years and numerous advances in the industry, aren’t as good as memory serves. To conclude then, the simple pleasures of these games, have suffered with age and as such lack severely in the longevity department. For purists, and retro-freaks? Quite possibly…

If you have a yearning for all things retro, you'll know about and most likely own these games already. Everyone else shouldn't even think about it as there's practically zero depth to any of them and they look dreadful too. The 'retro' label should never be used to mask limited value for money. Very poor.

Un jeu à éviter absolument sauf pour les puristes qui se sentiraient investis d'une mission de sauvegarde du patrimoine vidéoludique ! Mais bon, pour cela, un bon émulateur branché sur une télé, vous donnera de vrais bons résultats. Et pas une caricature de jeux vidéo comme l'est Namco Museum. Bientôt, au train où vont les choses, vous allez voir qu'on va nous proposer Pong sur GBA !