In a word, disappointing. Better yet, how ‘bout two words... really disappointing. When I read that Namco was releasing a 50th anniversary collection that would include 14 games, a much better number than the paltry offering of their first Xbox compendium, I was set and ready for them to remedy the insult that was Namco Museum; 7 games and a few arrangements. In the meantime, I had picked up Atari Anthology and Midway Arcade Treasures to help give an appropriate fix to the nostalgia kick that thirty-something gamers have to endure. Both of these collections include video interviews with some of the game creators, brief histories for most of the more prominent titles included, computer scans of the old arcade cabinets the roms were housed in, scans of sell sheets that were sent out to retailers, promotional material that hasn’t’ been seen in decades....basically, a wealth of odd and ends that any avid gamer from the eighties can casually sift through and enjoy. The people that put these compilations together understood that experiencing these games again, at home on a modern console, was as much about the era they were released in as the games themselves. Playing Defender on your Xbox while sitting on your couch at home is great, but being able to see the actual arcade machine, in all it’s upright glory, and hearing the programmers talk about their creation makes it that much more affective. Looking at a cheesy advertisement for a game that’s twenty years past it’s prime and knowing exactly why the girl in the picture has such big hair is simply awesome. Completely unnecassary facts and figures about the games you remember are cool in the ‘wow I never knew that and will probably forget all about it tomorrow but for right now it works’ sorta way. It’s all these little things that really make these collections worthwhile to own. Namco 50th Anniversary, much like it’s predecessors, sorely misses the point about what it means to make an album of games from long ago yesterday. There isn’t a single thing in this collection, other than the games themselves, to help support the premise this disc is based on; nostalgia and presentation. No interviews, no histories, not a single picture scan of even one of the old games or their advertisements. Nothing. And for a 50th anniversary offering, one billed as the ‘Ultimate Arcade Collection’, this is overwhelmingly sad. It reeks of the ‘slap it together and get it out there’ mentality that undermines so many budget priced titles. Simply put, it should have been exponentially better. You can only judge something by putting it against something else that’s similar. In this case, Namco Anniversary against the other two collections mentioned earlier. While those two contain an impressive 109 games between them, with Atari’s release having the disproportionate number of 85 different games on it’s disc, Namco’s content to release a whopping 14 games, 16 when including two locked games that aren’t on the case’s list; Pac-Mania and Galaga 88. While it’s great to see that Namco has at least doubled the content from their previous collection, they still could have given allot more, and for a 50th anniversary edition, certainly should have. The games, pretty much, play faithfully to how you remember them, although there’s a noticeable difference in increased difficulty for a few, namely Ms. Pac-Man, but this doesn’t really detract from the overall enjoyability of playing some titles you might not have sat down with in years. What does diminish the experience is the unforgivable, bare-bones presentation. Atari and Midway pulled out at least most of the stops to give their games a more encompassing throwback quality. Namco seems to think these extras are completely unnecessary, as though these venerable titles, while fun to pick up and play, can still stand on their own in comparison to today’s games. The bells and whistles that should accompany any collection of classics just aren’t there. The title screen is where it all goes wrong; with a laughably exaggerated interface which is hyped as being a virtual arcade, but amounts to nothing more than 16 poorly drawn cabinets which rotate right or left in a very compact, utterly boring circle. Virtual Arcade...?...What...?...in effect the games move themselves to where you’re standing and from what I remember during my years at the arcades, this ‘aint quite how it worked. To make this blatantly overstated interface even worse, there’s an ever present text box covering the bottom of the screen which simply won’t go away, as if people don’t already know they need to push start to get the game going. Once you’ve selected a game there’s no way to return to the main menu other than starting the game you chose, waiting for play to begin and then hitting pause to get out of it entirely. duh! Sound is also sorta of a problem. Other than the same 5 or 6 eighties tracks that repeatedly play on the title screen, the in game sound is pretty rotten, requiring you to turn up the t.v. to hear what’s going on after already turning down the t.v. ‘cause you’ve heard ‘Come on Eileen’ a thousand times over. In the end, any sort of collection, is going to be weighed equally by what it is and also by what it’s not, and that’s certainly where Namco’s Anniversary suffers. It’s not what is should have been. At all. The 16 games included are great and they all play pretty well, but if you’re looking for something to really bring you back, more so than just the sights and sounds of the games you remember, this definitely ‘aint taking you there.
Other Helpful Reviews for Namco Museum 50th Anniversary
In creating this compilation, Namco surely must have forgot one important thing. Who they were creating it for. I seriously doubt that this game was ment for teenagers or anyone that didn't grow up in the golden age of... Read Full Review
Even though I give the graphics a seven, I mean, come on, they are games from 1979 to 1987, what do you expect? This package is terribly underrated. Think of it this way, classics like Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, Dig Dug ... Read Full Review
