Namco Museum Archives - Review
I remember the days when I was a kid, it feels like more than 100 years ago at this point though it is probably even longer, back in those days we used to have these things called Coin-Op machines, these machines with all their robotic sounds and flashing lights would drive people into places known as arcades (my personal favourite was in South Yarra, Fun Factory crew represent!) and we would endlessly slot 20 cent coins into said machines and have a grand old time doing it.
Those days all those years ago were what started my seemingly never ending interest in video games and I look back on them rather fondly, so when a retro game package comes out I am always interested in taking a look to see if what is on offer can briefly capture that feeling of nostalgia, a lot of the times though where retro games are concerned I find some things are best left in the past. NAMCO being one of the biggest producers of arcade machines back in those early days though has consistently put out brilliant retro collections of their seemingly bottomless catalogue of classic games from the past, they don't dig too deep into those archives with both of the volumes here in what they have imaginatively entitled The NAMCO Museum Archives (Volume 1 + 2), but that doesn't mean that there are no surprises at all.
Volume 1 in the NAMCO Museum Archives contains 11 titles ; Galaxian, Pac-Man, Xevious, Mappy, Dig Dug, The Tower Of Druaga, Sky Kid, Dragon Buster, Dragon Spirit The New Legend, Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti and Pac-Man Championship edition. This is a fairly hefty list and even though some of these titles have appeared on numerous other NAMCO compilations in the past, there are also some surprises here, not the least of which is the fact that NAMCO aren't actually emulating these titles old arcade versions here they are actually emulating their NES counterparts. Dig Dug and Xevious (even though the games music track will drive you insane and back again) are definitely the favourites for me here, given that in my youth I spent hours playing these titles at the arcade, milk bar and local fish and chip shop, these two titles are just NAMCO at their finest and although simple in nature both of these games still remain playable and addictive to this day.
NAMCO also head off the usual well beaten path here by also including Sky Kid and Tower Of Druaga here, these are games I don't recall seeing in the arcades of my youth and I am not entirely sure whether they were ever released in Australia, but they are worthy inclusions here, Sky Kid is an interesting take on the SHMUP genre that sees you collecting a bomb and trying to carry it to the end of the stage to drop on an enemy. Tower Of Druaga on the other hand is a procedurally generated RPG of sorts, the type of title that I couldn't see working in an arcade setting, but it works well here due to the different style of gameplay it brings to the collection.
Volume 2 also contains 11 titles ; Galaga, Battle City, Pac-Land, Dig Dug 2, Super Xevious, Mappy-Land, Legacy Of The Wizard, Rolling Thunder, Dragon Buster 2, Mendel Palace and Gaplus. Once again all titles here are not emulating the original arcade counterparts and are emulating NES versions of the games (or what they would have looked like if released on the NES in some cases). The more well known games here would be both Galaga (probably my favourite SHMUP of all time) and Pac-Land (which interestingly turns Pac Man into a side scrolling action adventure of sorts) the rest of the list here I have to admit I did not have much of an experience with in my youth but found Gaplus (the sequel to Galaga) to be the most addictive of the bunch here, probably due to the fact that you just can't beat a great classic NAMCO SHMUP, they were the masters of this genre back in the day.
Other titles in volume two were interesting for a quick play due to the fact that I was not familiar with them but I found they got boring quickly due to there not being any nostalgic link to the past as there was with the first collection, that being said I think Volume 2 is value for money alone because of Galaga and Gaplus, especially if you are a fan of shooters.
Both volume 1 and 2 are solid collections and for the price you get a lot of games for your buck making either collection a worthy purchase, I personally prefer collection 1 due to the link it had with my childhood but your opinion may of course differ. The switch is the perfect platform for these type of collections and the simple pick up and have a quick blast games that they usually contain and NAMCO have done a fine job here including the usual options of changing screen ratios and having multiple save states for each titles but I can't help but think they missed opportunity here to include more information about the history of these games. Especially when the collection has "museum" in the title, there is really no historical information about these games provided here for players that may not have had the pleasure of playing these games in their youths.
The Score
7.5
Review code provided by Bandai Namco
The Pros
+Faithful recreations of classic namco titles
+Ability to change screen ratio and save at any point
+Easy to just pick up and play
The Cons
+Missed opportunity not including historical information about these games
+May not appeal to gamers who did not grow up playing these games
