Namco ships new retro game comp

Though 50th anniversaries are traditionally known for gold, Namco is celebrating its five decades in the business with games. The company today released a collection of golden oldies in the form of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary.

Namco hasn't been shy about dipping into its library to rerelease hits from its vast collection of arcade classics (Namco Museum Battle Collection was released for the PSP last week), but the latest collection sports one of the biggest lineups of games. There are 14 games in all, including Pac-Man and his pink-bow-wearing wife, the policing antics of rodent cop Mappy, and one of the original racing games, Pole Position.

The nostalgia doesn't stop at just at the games. Namco does the '80s thing right by including some classic songs to bop along to while shooting spaceships, eating power pellets, or blowing up dragons like balloons. The soundtrack features Dexy's Midnight Runners' "Come on Eileen," Fine Young Cannibals' "She Drives Me Crazy," and Loverboy's "Working for the Weekend."

A full list of games follows (* indicates inclusion on Game Boy Advance version):

Pac-Man*
Ms. Pac-Man*
Galaga*
Galaxian
Dig Dug*
Pole Position
Pole Position II
Rolling Thunder
Rally X*
Bosconian
Dragon Spirit
Sky Kid
Xevious
Mappy

The game is now available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Game Boy Advance, and a PC version ships next month. All versions are rated E10+ for Everyone over 10, and each retails for $19.99.