I was saving this title for a movie review that I will be doing in the future, but, oh well, it fit here too.

It seems that I’m too young to fully appreciate Namco Museum because well, I only date as far back as the NES ages. Anyway, I’ll try to be fair to you old timers, because I know how much these games mean to you. (I mean, you grew up with ‘em!)

But that’s my main problem with Namco Museum. I mean, they didn’t even try to liven up the classics in any way. I grew up with SNES and N64. I don’t want graphics from Atari!

Namco Museum is basically a couple classics put together on one disc. Since they are all separate games, I think I should rate each of them one through five and then average to get the overall rating for Museum.

Pac-man
You know him. You love him. You haven’t played him for a decade or two. So now he’s back. Okay, for those of you that are completely out there, Pac-man is a game where you control this little yellow dude and guide him through a maze of dots while ghosts try to eat you. Pac-man is so fun. I have spend countless hours playing (and still can’t get past level 3!) It seems to have lost something in the transition, though. The screen is so much smaller – I mean, there’s this stupid border that takes up most of the space. The game is slower, also. Pac-man goes about ¾ of the speed that he used to, and so do the ghosts. But heck, it is still fun. 4 stars

If you get a certain score on Pac-man, you will unlock Pac-man Arrangement, a beefed-up version.

Galaga
Think of Space Invaders. That’s what this one is like. You control a space ship. There are enemies in a formation above you. They swoop down on you in patterns. You take them out. Sounds easy? Not really. But it is fun. I’m a little better at this one than at Pac-man, however, it isn’t quite as addicting. 3 stars

If you get a certain score on Galaga, you will unlock Galagan, a beefed-up version.

Dig-Dug
Dig-dug is my least favorite of the games in Namco Museum. Your objective is to guide this guy around underground and take out any enemies lurking there. It may sound fun, but the controls are awful and its actually not fun at all. I don’t play this one much. 2 stars

Oh yeah, I think there’s a Dig-Dug beefed-up version too.

Pole Position
Never mind what I said about Dig-dug, Pole Position is the worst. It would be um, average if the controls didn’t suck so bad. It is a racing game, of course, and the object is the get the fastest lap time. However, you might as well play Gran Turismo or something like that because of the boring graphics, boring gameplay, and bor—I mean horrible controls. On the track, you go straight most of the time (just hold “X” to accelerate), but it is impossible to judge those turns. Annoying. 1 star

Pole Position 2 is just as bad, if not worse.

Okay, so if you round them, you get 2 ½ stars. However, I think I’ll be nice to Namco Museum since this is such a rare blast from the past and round it up to 3. So here’s the tricky part. Whether or not to recommend it. I’d say yes, if you are into seeing some of the games you grew up with. But I’d also say no if you can’t play a game that doesn’t have today’s graphics. With the price of $10-$15, you can’t go wrong.

Recommended: No