Released: 20010611 Publisher: Namco Developer: Mass Media Genre: Compilation

Review by: Shin Egg Robo

They're old. They're simple. They're 8 bit. What are they? They’re retro games. Retro gaming is a cult following that is becoming more mainstream than ever. It is thanks to relived classics like the five part Namco Museum games for PlayStation to the Hasbro Frogger remake. Retro gaming is a favorite by many for its simplistic yet addicting gameplay, as well as the fact that many retro gamers grew up with these games. While I personally grew up with the NES, millions of gamers today grew up with the Atari 2600.

Namco's Namco Museum series for PlayStation has always sold millions of copies for each installment. It is so successful that it was later released on the Nintendo 64 and the Dreamcast. Now its time for Namco Museum to land on the GBA. Namco Museum is fun but we've played this game three times already; we don't really a need to play them a fourth time around.

Namco Museum isn't done by Namco themselves but by Mass Media for the American GBA launch. Namco Arcade Museum has five retro classics in one package. The interface of selecting the game is simple. There is the logo and then below that is the button to access it. Sometimes like Ms. Pac Man, you can choose whether you want the full screen at once (meaning it'll be smaller to see) or you can have it scroll so its easier to see but you can't see all the action that is going on around you.

The five games are: Ms. Pac Man, Pole Position, Dig Dug, Galaga, and Galaxian. Ms. Pac Man is self explanatory (who doesn't know what Pac Man is like?), Pole Position is the first major racing game of all time, Dig Dug a game where you drill through the ground and blow up enemies before they attack you, Galaga is a typical up to down shoot 'em up, and Galaxian is a Space Invaders clone.

The graphics aren't the primary focus of retro gaming as they are very basic, something the NES could do with little to no trouble. They run very well under the GBA, as they should because it’s not pushing the GBA to any kind of limits whatsoever. Same goes for the sound. It’s not optimized for the GBA, it just replicates what the arcade version is like.

Namco Museum has a few little extras to help you along. In each game, you can pause while playing and mess around with the options. There are also tips. Namco offers 5-6 tips per game that could easily help you out to become a better player. Some are more common sense ideas that you figure out on your own but others really help and will improve your skills if you are ever in need of improving them.

Some of the games in Namco Museum are not tough. A lot of them are simple and easy to master but as you progress through, they will get tricky. Some games require a lot of brainpower and strategy (Ms. Pac Man) and others are more mindless (Galaxian) but they are all fun and quite addicting.

Namco Museum for GBA is all nice and good but it’s old news. The console versions hold more games when the GBA could have easily done it. There could have been many more extras like an option for modern graphics, a trivia section, etc. Its just a no frills version. I don't know if Namco would have done much better as the Nintendo 64 and Sega Dreamcast versions of Namco Museum weren't that great; the PlayStation versions still remain supreme.

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