Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1

Genre: Compilation / Arcade / Shmup

Players: 1-2 Alternating (Local)

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Review:

(Note: Versions of multiple games in this Compilation are available elsewhere on Nintendo Switch. Arcade versions of Dig Dug, Sky Kid, Pac-Man, and The Tower of Druaga are also in Namco Museum, which is in turn included in Namco Museum Arcade Pac. Arcade versions of Dig Dug, Dragon Buster, Galaxian, Mappy, Pac-Man, Sky Kid, The Tower of Druaga, and Xevious are also all released separately in the Arcade Archives series. Arcade versions of Pac-Man and the original version of Pac-Man: Championship Edition are also in Pac-Man Museum+. And the Nintendo Entertainment System version of Xevious is included in the Nintendo Switch Online Nintendo Entertainment System App. Check out this page for a breakdown of which games can be found in multiple releases on Nintendo Switch.)

Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1, released in 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, is a Compilation containing ten Nintendo Entertainment System/Famicom versions of classic Namco games, plus one “demake”, for a total of eleven games.

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

Game	Genre	# of Players	Score
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.
Dragon Buster	Action-Platformer	1	C
tl;dr This game feels like a really primitive take on the Action-Platformer genre, with bad sound, terrible jumping physics, and poor combat. Skip it.
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend	Shmup	1	B
tl;dr Wow, what a surprisingly great Shmup, with some fun interactions between ground level and air level fighting. The only flaws I can point to here are some nasty slowdown at times and a lack of multiplayer. Otherwise, this is a great entry in the genre.
Galaxian	Arcade / Shmup	1-2 Alternating (Local)	C
tl;dr A decent but dated Space Invaders-style take on the Shmup genre.
Mappy	Arcade / Platformer	1-2 Alternating (Local)	C+
tl;dr This cute retro-style Arcade game with Platformer elements takes some getting used to, but once you do it’s a fairly unique and clever game that’s still enjoyable today. Oddly enough, I prefer this version to the Arcade version of the game – I think it controls better.
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 (8-Bit Version)	Arcade	1	B+
tl;dr This lo-fi take on Pac-Man Championship Edition is pretty much the same game but with “8-Bit”-style graphics and sound. If you already have the original, this is little more than a curio. Otherwise, this is still a fantastic score-chasing take on the original Pac-Man that’s an absolute blast.
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: Wanpaku Graffiti	Arcade	1	C+
tl;dr This parody sequel to Splatterhouse was originally only released in Japan on the Famicom. It’s a decent Action-Platformer, and it even has some nice silly moments sprinkled throughout. However, as a game it’s somewhat simple and repetitive.
The Tower of Druaga	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.
Xevious	Shmup	1-2 Alternating (Local)	D
tl;dr Xevious is an incredibly influential game in the Shmup genre, with a creative air-to-air and air-to-surface combat system. It is also extremely archaic, with slow movement, a terrible lack of power-ups, and gameplay that has overall been far outpaced by countless other entries in the genre. If you want to see a piece of history, this game may be worth checking out. Otherwise, it’s not worth your time.

In short, there’s a mix of good and bad here. Certainly the most noteworthy releases in this collection are going to be Dragon Spirit: The New Legend and Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti, which you’re just not going to find anywhere else, in any version. And I suppose you also won’t find Pac-Man Championship Edition (8-Bit Version) elsewhere, though this is so similar to the standard version of Pac-Man Championship Edition that I don’t think you’re missing much by just playing the standard game instead of this “demake”. Beyond those games, the one other good game in this package is Dig Dug, though of course you can also play this in multiple other places on Nintendo Switch, in an arcade-perfect version, no less.

Do those four games (plus a bunch of mediocre and outright bad games) justify the $20 price tag? Really, the answer to that question is really going to depend on who you ask. Given that these games are mostly around 4 decades old at this point, I personally feel like the price seems a bit steep in my opinion.

At the very least, this package does provide a few extras for players, in the form of display options, save states, and a rewind feature that’s… oddly limited, actually, only allowing you to jump back at set intervals without showing you how far back before you do so. I suppose it’s better than nothing, but it’s odd and frustrating all the same.

Because of the low “wheat to chaff” ratio here, and the price not really justifying such a low amount of truly great games, I feel like Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1 is probably a game only worth getting if you’re a collector or a diehard fan of Pac-Man, Splatterhouse, or Dragon Spirit. For everyone else, you’re probably better off getting your Namco games elsewhere.

tl;dr – Namco Museum Archives Vol. 1 is a Compilation of 11 Namco games, mostly classic Nintendo Entertainment System games. There are a few decent games that you can pretty much only get in this collection, but most of the games here are terrible, and most are available elsewhere on Nintendo Switch in their original Arcade form, making it hard to justify this game’s $20 price. Unless you’re a completionist, skip this.

Grade: C

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