Namco Museum (Switch)
Posted: July 31st, 2017, 8:53 pm
This Switch-exclusive collection is...a mixed bag. First off, here are the games included, in order of release:
-Pac-Man
-Galaga
-Dig Dug
-Tower of Druaga
-Sky Kid
-Rolling Thunder
-Galaga '88
-Splatterhouse
-Tank Force (a game I never even heard of prior to playing this collection)
-Rolling Thunder 2
-Pac-Man Vs.
As you can see, there's a mixture of legitimate classics with some...fairly subpar titles. The most surprising inclusion is Pac-Man Vs., a game originally released on GameCube that required at least two players and a Game Boy Advance to link up to. Ironically, this game would have been perfect on the Wii U, but I'll give a major kudos to Namco for adding in not only a 1-player option, but a free app on the eShop that serves as this game's equivalent to the Download Play feature on the DS and 3DS.
Sadly, not all of the rest of the games are this stellar. What irritates me about the Namco Museum series is that there's never been a definitive edition with all or nearly all of the games released in their past collections. The 11 titles here pale in comparison to several previous Namco Museum collections, even with the addition of HD Rumble (which arguably makes Splatterhouse a better game) and the option to flip the screen sideways. It's great to be able to play Galaga '88 and Pac-Man Vs. on the go, but how many people are going to play Sky Kid or Druaga for very long?
The $30 price tag is also hard to swallow especially considering not all of these games are worth playing. Granted, it's not quite as bad as the $40 highway robbery known as Ultra Street Fighter II, but it's still fairly ridiculous. Rare Replay included 30 games for as many dollars, many of which were much more advanced and more difficult to emulate than the ones included here, so why couldn't Namco Museum do the same?
Seriously, they passed up Ms. Pac-Man for Sky Kid.
-Pac-Man
-Galaga
-Dig Dug
-Tower of Druaga
-Sky Kid
-Rolling Thunder
-Galaga '88
-Splatterhouse
-Tank Force (a game I never even heard of prior to playing this collection)
-Rolling Thunder 2
-Pac-Man Vs.
As you can see, there's a mixture of legitimate classics with some...fairly subpar titles. The most surprising inclusion is Pac-Man Vs., a game originally released on GameCube that required at least two players and a Game Boy Advance to link up to. Ironically, this game would have been perfect on the Wii U, but I'll give a major kudos to Namco for adding in not only a 1-player option, but a free app on the eShop that serves as this game's equivalent to the Download Play feature on the DS and 3DS.
Sadly, not all of the rest of the games are this stellar. What irritates me about the Namco Museum series is that there's never been a definitive edition with all or nearly all of the games released in their past collections. The 11 titles here pale in comparison to several previous Namco Museum collections, even with the addition of HD Rumble (which arguably makes Splatterhouse a better game) and the option to flip the screen sideways. It's great to be able to play Galaga '88 and Pac-Man Vs. on the go, but how many people are going to play Sky Kid or Druaga for very long?
The $30 price tag is also hard to swallow especially considering not all of these games are worth playing. Granted, it's not quite as bad as the $40 highway robbery known as Ultra Street Fighter II, but it's still fairly ridiculous. Rare Replay included 30 games for as many dollars, many of which were much more advanced and more difficult to emulate than the ones included here, so why couldn't Namco Museum do the same?
Seriously, they passed up Ms. Pac-Man for Sky Kid.