Namco Museum

Genre: Compilation / Arcade / Various

Players: 1-4 Competitive (Local)

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Review:

(Note: The entirety of this collection, plus Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus, is included in the physical release Namco Museum Arcade Pac.)

Namco Museum is a compilation game that includes 11 games that are mostly from the early Arcade days of the company, with a few others included as well. They are as follows:

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 Vs.	Arcade / Party Game	2-4 Competitive (Local Wireless, 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.

Okay, now for the elephant in the room – this game is selling for $30. Given that some of these games date back to the birth of videogames, and the only one to be released in the last 25 years was Pac-Man Vs., that is an insane price for only ten games. This isn’t even the full catalog of games that have been included in other Namco Museums, and it’s missing some key titles like Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Attack, the Pole Position games, Galaxian… and given that Namco releases a Namco Museum on every new platform, you’d think they could have at least included the same number of games previous releases had. This is just embarrassing, really.

It’s a pity that Namco’s Switch release of the Namco Museum seems designed to rip off players, because some of the games here truly are classics. However, when held up next to other game compilations or even versions of the Namco Museum released in the past, this version of the Namco Museum is not just stingy with the games it offers, it’s outright insulting.

tl;dr – Namco Museum features a collection of games that includes some true classics. Unfortunately, when you compare this to other game compilations, even prior Namco Museum releases, the $30 price tag is a huge rip-off for only 11 games, 10 of which were released over 25 years ago. For shame.

Grade: C

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