Namco Museum Arcade Pac

Genre: Compilation / Arcade / Various

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local), 2 Co-Op (Local), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

When Namco released Namco Museum on the Nintendo Switch’s eShop in 2017, many (myself included) were underwhelmed. That collection included only 11 games, most of them over 25 years old, for $30, an outrageous price tag especially considering that Namco has offered much more generous game compilations in the past.

However, players looking to buy a physical copy of the game got a somewhat sweeter offer in 2018 with Namco Museum Arcade Pac. For the same price, players got the same collection of games plus Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus, a game that individually sells on the eShop for $20.

Here is what I thought of each of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Dig Dug	Arcade	1	B-
tl;dr Dig Dug has players digging paths through dirt tunnels to take out enemies using an inflating pump gun thing. The game is simple, but the game still plays well, even today.
Galaga	Shmup	1	C
tl;dr Galaga is a classic shmup, although by today’s standards it is frustratingly slow and limited.
Galaga ’88	Shmup	1	C+
tl;dr Galaga ’88 isn’t quite the classic of its predecessor, but it has updated graphics, more forgiving gameplay, and is overall a bit more enjoyable, so long as you don’t miss the nostalgia factor.
Pac-Man	Arcade	1	C+
tl;dr Pac-Man is a classic Arcade maze game, and it still plays great. However, unlike Ms. Pac-Man, you’re stuck with just the one opening level, so the game gets repetitive pretty quickly.
Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus	Arcade	1-2 Co-Op (Local), Online Leaderboards	B
tl;dr Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus is a decent follow-up to the original Pac-Man Championship Edition, itself a re-imagining of the arcade classic Pac-Man. However, this time around things just feel more cluttered and the game loses the elegant simplicity of the first Championship Edition. However, it’s still fun to play, especially in the new Switch-Exclusive 2P mode, which offers some excellent co-op. Overall, players looking for a decent modern evolution of the classic Pac-Man formula should be mostly pleased with this.
Pac-Man Vs.	Arcade / Party Game	2-4 Competitive (Local, requires a second Nintendo Switch to play)	A-
tl;dr If you have access to a second Switch, this game is the highlight of this collection, a port of the GameCube asymmetrical multiplayer party game spin on the original Pac-Man, that has three players taking the role of ghosts to hunt down the one player playing Pac-Man. This game is an absolute blast to play, and a superb party game, though setting it up for the first time is a huge pain, and the fact that even playing this game at all requires you to have a second Nintendo Switch is highly limiting.
Rolling Thunder	Action-Platformer	1	C
tl;dr Rolling Thunder is an unforgiving Action-Platformer that has you jumping between multiple levels and fighting off hordes of masked enemies. It’s a bit frustrating and monotonous by today’s standards, unfortunately.
Rolling Thunder 2	Action-Platformer	1-2 Co-Op (Local)	C
tl;dr Rolling Thunder 2, like the first game, is an unforgiving Action-Platformer that has you jumping between multiple levels and fighting off hordes of masked enemies. This entry in the series has improved graphics and co-op play, but it’s still frustrating and monotonous by today’s standards.
Sky Kid	Shmup	1	C+
tl;dr Sky Kid is a classic shmup that has you aiming by tilting the plane up or down as you move. It’s still a pretty original take on the genre, but it’s marred by slow movement speeds.
Splatterhouse	Action-Platformer	1	C
tl;dr Splatterhouse has you fighting off various grotesque enemies as a Jason Vorhees look-alike. It’s okay, but the action is simple and unforgiving.
Tank Force	Arcade	1-2 Co-Op	B
tl;dr Tank Force is an Arcade-style Action game where you pilot tanks to take out enemy tanks, and defend your home base. The game has a nice environment destruction mechanic and has aged surprisingly well.
The Tower of Druaga	Top-Down Arcade	1	D
tl;dr The Tower of Druaga is an Arcade-style maze game that is absurdly slow-paced. This game is an absolute drag.

The short version: This is a mix of true classics and filler. About half of the games here are good and have aged well enough, and half of them are mediocre by today’s standards. Unfortunately, the best game in this collection, Pac-Man Vs., is also the most cumbersome to play, requiring two Nintendo Switch systems and a lot of frustrating messing around in menus.

This is still an uneven collection of games, and one that’s terribly incomplete, lacking countless games that have been included in other Namco Museums, including key titles like Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Attack, the Pole Position games, and Galaxian. However, it’s not the absolute rip-off that Namco Museum on the eShop is, thanks to the inclusion of Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus. In fact, you might almost view this more as a physical release of Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus with a few other games thrown in for good measure.

One other thing I should mention here, more of a nitpick of an odd quirk than anything. Because this is slapping together two prior releases, Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus is not included in the lineup of other games in this collection, but is instead delegated to its own menu. Players select either Namco Museum or Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus from the main menu screen, which seems a bit sloppy, but I suppose it still works. Also, for the record, all of the games are contained on the cartridge here.

In the end, Namco Museum Arcade Pac provides gamers who buy the physical copy of the game with a much better value than the digital version of Namco Museum does. This is still a highly imperfect collection of games, and one that has a few issues, but it’s hard to deny that some of what’s included here is top-notch, and this package is overall a decent value. If you’re looking for a decent but incomplete smattering of Namco classics in a physical cartridge, this release should satisfy you.

tl;dr – Namco Museum Arcade Pac is a physical release that includes the Nintendo Switch version of Namco Museum as well as Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus. This is still an uneven and incomplete collection, but adding these two releases together makes this package an overall much better value, and fans of Namco’s classic arcade games should be happy with it.

Grade: B-

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