|
 |
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection
Namco\'s done quite nicely for themselves the past few decades. One of the original major companies to strike their fortune in video games during the heydey of the seventies and eighties, it\'s pretty remarkable to think that a substantial part of their fortune is entirely owed to a funny little game that came out of game creator Tohru Iwatani taking a slice out of a pizza and then suddenly coining the idea for Pac Man from the image of his dinner.
And Pac Man\'s what we all came out for, isn\'t it? Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Collection follows the same general formula as the perennial Namco Museum releases we\'ve seen arrive regularly on every platform going back to the Playstation.
What you get for your buck will depend entirely on whether or not perfect recreations of arcade games from twenty five years ago are the kind of thing that make your toes curl and your pulse race. This time around the lineup of titles is padded out a bit - Pac Man, Ms. Pac Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Pole Position, Pole Position II have already graced the Xbox on the prior Namco Museum release, but Rally X, Xevious, Dragon Spirit, Bosconian, Rolling Thunder, Mappy, and Sky Kid round out the whole roster along with a few unlockable variants.
Disappointingly, despite the title of Namco Museum the disc only offers the games themselves, exactly as they looked, sounded, and played two decades ago. Some video vignettes on the creation of some of the games, the personalities behind them, or even just on the general phenomenon (craze) of arcade gaming in the eighties would have been really welcome. Unfortunately, all you get is the games, and fortunately they still speak for themselves pretty well despite their age. These games were meant to be learned in fifteen seconds watching over the shoulder of the guy playing in front of you while you waited your turn, and they were meant to be played with a slice of pizza in your hand in a room full of jostling gamers.
A nifty 3D interface showing the arcade cabinets themselves is a nice touch, giving you an impression of browsing the arcade looking for the best spot to dump your quarters, and the soundtrack (licensed eighties rock) is a nice touch, but I still want more. Most of the gamers who are interested enough in these games to actually play them are probably netsavvy enough to know about emulation, and so if they\'re paying $20 for the game it\'s the extras they\'re coming out for. Lack of any XBox Live support whatsoever (online scoreboards would have been nice) and the lack of custom soundtrack support are sore points, too, as these are a natch for the Xbox platform and the subject material. In short, this is a good one to pick up if you don\'t already own one of the prior Namco Museum releases, but at a mere $20 it\'s hard to call it a rental option only. These games are worth revisiting and they\'re still fun. And thankfully, they hold up on their own.
Overall: 7.0 / 10
Gameplay: 8.0 / 10
Visuals: 4.0 / 10
Sound: 4.0 / 10
|
|
|
|
| Write your own review of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection. Click Here. |
|
Xbox 360 Titles: 520
Xbox 360 Arcade Titles: 274
Xbox Titles: 832
Registered Members: 40,163
Forum Posts: 715,749
Staff Reviews: 857
Member Reviews: 10,335
News Articles: 9,600
Screenshots: 20,281
Xbox 360 Achievements: 20,341
Xbox 360 Faceplates: 1,527
Cheat Codes: 1,706
|
1. Repo Man 360 - 115,030
2. ThomasGermany69 - 110,340
3. Unreal - 106,960
4. OBL infad3ll - 104,020
5. SkillfulMmd - 82,431
6. moltenluv - 60,755
7. hellonearth159 - 58,412
8. El Grave - 54,944
9. Nato King-XBA - 53,224
10. Variation-XBA - 36,881
11. Omen28 - 36,135
12. Dan 140 - 34,680
13. Jimpanse - 32,607
14. Enamelized420-XBA - 30,871
15. Silent-XBA - 30,120
16. wicked_d365 - 29,295
17. Steeps5 - 27,719
18. ez054098 - 26,513
19. Ry - 25,320
20. Kamshaft-XBA - 21,819
21. angeto - 20,553
22. Whoopage - 19,275
23. oddjob428 - 19,092
24. Rouge Prototype - 17,211
25. mrpunchy - 16,460
|
| (Top 150) |
|
|
 |
Final Fantasy XIII...
Post by SpaceGhost2K-XBA
3 Replies, 81 Views
|
Mass Effect 2: No One...
Post by Fargoth
0 Replies, 62 Views
|
Fallout: New Vegas
Post by vampero
0 Replies, 66 Views
|
Aliens vs Predator...
Post by vampero
3 Replies, 142 Views
|
Astro A40's
Post by xEX3CUT1ON3Rx
2 Replies, 208 Views
|
Video Games Recently
Post by Fargoth
2 Replies, 221 Views
|
Gaming Clan
Post by Rouge Prototype
1 Replies, 180 Views
|
Looking for new people...
Post by oj the juice
4 Replies, 238 Views
|
Battlefield: Bad...
Post by wicked_d365
19 Replies, 494 Views
|
Mass Effect 2 Freebies...
Post by vampero
5 Replies, 362 Views
|
|
 |
1. l Maximus l - 15,244
2. mattgame - 12,597
3. laughs - 12,013
4. Variation-XBA - 11,384
5. Conchord - 5,789
6. JJaX - 5,753
7. Soda Jones - 4,271
8. Shadow20002 - 4,210
9. Ninjermy - 4,176
10. Nato King-XBA - 3,978
11. Sam-XBA - 3,930
12. SPARTAN VI - 3,162
13. Fargoth - 3,043
14. Silent-XBA - 2,921
15. Snake Eyez - 2,801
16. Ainokeatoo-XBA - 2,772
17. SpaceGhost2K-XBA - 2,642
18. shrew king - 2,350
19. thAshAdyOne - 2,236
20. LINKINPARK8591 - 2,081
21. ScorpionX - 1,918
22. PapaSKooT - 1,905
23. Bakeman - 1,842
24. wicked_d365 - 1,750
25. Kamshaft-XBA - 1,459
26. Ry - 1,301
27. Not Yellow - 1,299
28. BlindSniper - 1,276
29. WynnFire - 1,257
30. Unreal - 1,247
31. lllSmokelll - 1,235
32. J Dub - 1,224
33. HaZarD SFD-XBA - 1,131
34. Professor Kaos - 1,130
35. Enamelized420-XBA - 994
36. BigJosh359 - 967
37. Willy-XBA - 942
38. Motoko - 902
39. Wolf - 843
40. Whoopage - 755
41. MXracer721 - 690
42. EMX - 664
43. moltenluv - 574
44. skoot182 - 457
45. hellonearth159 - 437
46. Omen28 - 389
47. Steeps5 - 347
48. OBL infad3ll - 307
49. gh0st_r1der - 206
50. vampero - 177
|
 |
1. Yellowlab - 121
2. mattgame - 95
3. Highlite23-XBA - 89
4. Young_Fledgling - 82
5. Sam-XBA - 80
6. The Jackal - 74
7. Megaherz *RAGE* - 74
8. xj74 - 73
9. Shadow20002 - 67
10. CrazyCougar - 66
11. mrmp3 - 65
12. xdragon - 62
13. oddworld20-3000 - 59
14. Silent-XBA - 59
15. BlindSniper - 56
16. natewebb - 56
17. (ScArab) - 56
18. Kamshaft-XBA - 53
19. Marc - 53
20. Whisper - 47
21. Variation-XBA - 45
22. Xbox Masta 4 - 43
23. Sharky53 - 42
24. Y2D - 42
25. Lord Vivic - 41
26. JediMasterChief - 40
27. thunder0810 - 39
28. adzmullz1 - 39
29. Ninjermy - 38
30. Blind-RazoR - 38
31. MixMasta - 38
32. kenji - 37
33. JayMan36 - 36
34. DaGameBoy - 36
35. Liquid Gears - 35
36. murken - 33
37. mentat - 33
38. RichVGS - 32
39. wweomaniac - 31
40. asammw - 31
41. BillyDKid - 30
42. George89 - 30
43. pvsurfer03 - 29
44. super_ryu - 28
45. CrazyKane - 28
46. colosso - 28
47. BIGHARV - 28
48. BunnyRabbit - 28
49. DocHoliday78 - 27
50. wbio - 27
|
|