If Namco was just going to release 1 cartridge of it's Namco Museum series for the Nintendo 64 (5 volumes were released for PC & Playstation), you'd think they'd have crammed a little more in. Theres the simple fact that you could fit an entire vintage arcade TWICE into a single N64 cartridge (these games are tiny and comprised of very little code). But this cart includes just 6 games. Oh well - but if your just going to have 6 games, why be so repetitive? 2 of them are Pac-Man games (Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man, which offer only slight variations), and 2 are extremely similar space-shooters, Galaxian and Galaga. Galaga is actually the sequel to Galaxian and is pretty much just a far more popular, enhanced version of the same game. So you don't need both, especially in such a small collection.
Anyway, that's my opinion rant ... here is the full list of games you get on this catridge:
- Pac Man
- Ms. Pac Man
- Galaxian
- Galaga
- Dig Dug
- Pole Position
The real winners which pretty much make this package worthwhile are Dig Dug and Galaga. Both are hands-down the most playable and addictive even today, with all the advancements that have been made in video game technology.
In Dig Dug, you lead a little guy decked out in a digging suit with a shovel & air pump. He digs through the ground hunting out Pookas and Fygars (who are also looking for him). You either blow them up with the pump - which produces a satisfying pop - or trick them to their deaths by leading them under a rock and dislodging it to fall on them, which gives you more points. This game is innovative and endless fun, definitely my favorite.
Galaga is a top-notch title in a genre that got quite a bit of action in the old days. Every other arcade game was a shooter set in space - Astroids, Space Invaders, Defender, Solar Fox, etc. - but Galaga was one of the best. It's also pretty damn basic, with you guiding a little space around and shooting a bunch of bad guys. Lots of fun though.
Now, I see Galaxian and Pole Position as fairly nostalgic, but not really necessary.
Pole Position is pretty fun, for a while, but it's really just a prototype of the 3D racing action we get a lot of in modern games. Unlike Dig Dug, it doesn't offer a lost piece of video game innocence - it's basically a format that has not been forgotten, only expanded on. Nostalgic if you spent a lot of time with it in the 80s, but most people won't spend too much time with it today.
Galaxian, as I said earlier, is just an inferior Galaga - it's fun, but outdone by it's sequel which is on the same cartridge!
And of course, here's the headliners of this meseum tour, the Pac couple. Pac-Man and Ms Pac-Man. They are slightly different games, but very similar. I can, however, understand including them both - Pac-Man is the one that started it all and the title you must have on any single arcade retrospective, but Ms. Pac-Man was just as popular a little more fun & varied. So here they both are - run around the mazes, avoid or eat the ghosts, gobble up all the dots.
This is definitely a pleasent gathering. Each game is arcade-perfect, having come directly off their original machine ROMs, so these are the actual games, not clones or 'enhanced' versions.
I just wish that Namco had included a couple more star offerings that appeared in the Windows & Playstation versions, and are just as fun & important as what's included - Mappy, Xevious, & Rally X definitely belong here.
Despite it's shortcomings, whats here is as good as it ever was and since it's the only classic Arcade compilation available for the N64, it's worth getting for retrogamers who don't have a Playstation and don't think the price-tag is too steep.
(I know, why don't I suggest that you download MAME and some ROM files off the internet and play hundreds of great arcade games from the 70s through to the 90s on your computer for FREE - because that's illegal silly.)
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