Namco Museum DS

• Expert Rating

  3.50 / 5

• User Rating

  Be first to review

• Price

  TBA (AUD)

GamePro staff GamePro (online) 15/11/07 Follow @pcworldau

Pros

• It comes packed with tons of extras including game descriptions, a music/sfx sampler, and gallery shots of original instruction cards, fliers and the list goes on

Cons

• Sometimes the resolution isn't that good so you won't be able to read the Japanese writing that comes up on the screen (if you can read Japanese in the first place is a whole other thing...)

Bottom Line

The collection itself is great, but the way it's been fleshed out is really impressive. The full-fledged treatment of each game makes this edition of Namco Museum really feel like a museum. Sceptics wondering whether it's worth it should be more than satisfied, especially with Pac-Man Vs. in the line-up. Retro gamers, head over to the DS aisle.

Would you buy it?

• Yes 0
• No 0

Own this? Write a review

Pac-Man is the obvious obligatory entry. There are three shooters: Galaxian, its sequel Galaga, and Xevious. Rounding out Arcade mode we have Mappy, The Tower of Druaga, and Dig Dug II. In addition to these (for the most part) heavily anthologised entries, there is one super nifty highlight; Pac-Man Vs.

Is it still retro if it's being rereleased again?

You'll get your kicks reminiscing about days of yore with the old arcade games. Galaga is still cooler than Galaxian since you can shoot faster and capture back your stolen ship for double blasters. Mappy is still opening doors into cats, and Dig Dug II is still a weird departure from the first one, what, with all the sinking islands. Pac-Man Vs., however, has previously only been available on the GameCube as a free bonus with R: Racing Evolution, Pac-Man World 2, or I-Ninja, and even then you could play it only if you had a GameBoy Advance and connector cable.

If you (understandably) don't remember this game, it gangs up three players as ghosts on one Pac-Man. The ghosts have a limited field of vision, while Pac-Man retains full view of the maze. Pac-Man is still eating lots of pellets, but the ghosts score points as well (especially for touching Pac-Man) so it turns into a frenzied multiplayer score attack. Having Vs. come to wireless DS multiplayer is an awesome chance for those who missed the GC iteration to get hooked.

Namco Museum DS is also packed with tons of extras including game descriptions, a music/sfx sampler, and gallery shots of original instruction cards (although, in some cases the resolution makes it hard to read the Japanese -- if you can read Japanese at all), fliers, even the system boards. More impressive still is the crazy array of settings ranging from controlling the number of lives, to "hardcore options" like whether or not to fix certain glitches. You can even -- no joke -- use your stylus to putz with virtual arcade DIP switches.