Reconsider your review of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary (Playstation 2)

[kaz3211231]

You rated Namco Museum 50th and Namco Museum the SAME, when actually the emulation of these two titles is NIGHT AND DAY different.

Namco 50th has a flawless pac-man emulation, the code is truly intact.

Namco (not 50th) has horrible emulation reminding me of the same bad emulation of namco museums for playstation 1.

I would IMPLORE you to rate namco 50th an A or even A+ (for its flawless pac-man emulation), and go ahead and downgrade Namco (not 50th) to something like D+ for bad emulation.

I'm a pac-man addict-so I know what I'm talking about here.  I make pac-man compilations for xbox classic so I intimately know all the pac-man versions out there.

Thanks for considering my recommendation!  I love your site, please keep up the great work!

-Andrew

[pacguy191]

Well, I just played both and I can't tell much of a difference. 50th is slightly more accurate in terms of sound and it's definitely sharper but that's not a reason to dock Museum two letter grades. Pretty sure these arcade comps are meant for casual players who don't care that the emulation is off. Besides, 50th has a pitiful soundtrack and less games.

And you make Pac-Man comps for Xbox? I'm not sure what that means and why you wouldn't just use MAME.

[scotland171]

The anniversary edition includes Bosconian, a sweet arcade game overshadowed by the popularity of Galaga. Sinistar owes a debt to Bosconian, so perhaps that inclusion is a point toward a difference in grading.

As to the emulation differences, why would Namco change up? Wouldn't that cost money for no reason?

[pacguy191]

Bosconian feels a bit sloppy, like I can't line up my shots right. (Was Sinistar even that popular?) Xevious was one I didn't see before and would be a plus if I didn't own the PS1 Xevious disc.

Namco uses an in-house emulator and I'm assuming they tightened it up for 50th. Even still, it's mostly unnoticeable.

[Leo1]

[QUOTE=pacguy19]Besides, 50th has a pitiful soundtrack and less games.[/QUOTE]

At least it has an 80's soundtrack. And it actually has 16 arcade games, the earlier release only had 8 classic arcade games plus three arrangement games and a console game. 

50th Anniversary Collection definitely has the edge where the game roster and accuracy are concerned. Unless one likes those arrangement games or Pac Attack, the Digital Eclipse effort has the edge by a mile.

[pacguy191]

Mappy, Sky Kid, Dragon Spirit, Bosconian, Rally-X, Rolling Thunder and Xevious. That's what this has over Museum. Are any besides Rally-X and Xevious worth mentioning?

They're far too similar to bother comparing. I mean they're both decent arcade compilations with no actual museum to them, just one has a bunch of filler games and an annoying soundtrack. If I re-rated them, 50th would get at most a B+.

[Leo1]

[QUOTE=pacguy19]Mappy, Sky Kid, Dragon Spirit, Bosconian, Rally-X, Rolling Thunder and Xevious. That's what this has over Museum. Are any besides Rally-X and Xevious worth mentioning?[/QUOTE]

Just like the Critic did in his review, you forgot about Galaga '88 which was the highlight of it for many.

That said, all are solid games although Sky Kid doesn't get the love it deserves these days for some reason. If we're just sticking to famous content, Mappy certainly qualifies and has been a staple of these collections since the beginning and Rolling Thunder was quite popular back in the day.

There are enough enhancements here where I think the original poster has a valid point (Not to mention it was the first Namco Museum with a substantial game roster). At the very least, a modest jump to a B+ would appear logical to reflect that it indeed is the superior release even if everyone doesn't agree to just what extent.

Everything else equal, I'd say that including Galaga '88 alone is worth bumping it up to a B+. 

[QUOTE=scotland17]As to the emulation differences, why would Namco change up? Wouldn't that cost money for no reason? [/QUOTE]

They weren't done in-house. The early effort was from a developer named Mass Media if I'm remembering correctly. In the tradition of the Namco Museum releases from the 1990's, they were all recreations from scratch which meant they also had a good number of inaccuracies. 

The later 50th Anniversary Collection that was released on the eve of the 360/PS3/Wii generation though was done by the emulation experts at Digital Eclipse and was the first in the franchise to run original code. Thanks to solid emulation, that meant increased accuracy in graphics, sound, and gameplay (Including Pac-Man patterns which worked for the first time).

[scotland171]

[QUOTE=pacguy19]Mappy, Sky Kid, Dragon Spirit, Bosconian, Rally-X, Rolling Thunder and Xevious. That's what this has over Museum. Are any besides Rally-X and Xevious worth mentioning?

They're far too similar to bother comparing. I mean they're both decent arcade compilations with no actual museum to them, just one has a bunch of filler games and an annoying soundtrack.[/QUOTE]

I like you, pacguy.

Are any of those games worth mentioning? Yes, because I already did mention Bosconian. Mappy is also a worthy game based on how many ports it had back in the day, an it has some fans. I will advocate that Bosconian, the arcade game, is a tense open plane shooter in an age of far more restrictive movement and tactics, with a variety of opponents, digitized speech, and tight controls. An awesome game that beat out zaxxon for Electronic Games 1982 for best scifi coin op game of the year. (Ms Pac Man won best overall that year)

Now if you do not like Bosconian thats fine, but like zaxxon, its a worthy shooter. Is the namco emulation good? Well, since its Galaga hardware, I would think its pretty good, but its been abit since I played that version. What is lacking is the tight control, but this is always the issue with arcade ports. By that criteria you need a motorcycle to really emulate hang-on.

So, Bosconian is not filler.

[pacguy191]

I think I did a 180 on the discs. I didn't think they differed all that much but Galaga is far smoother on the 50th disc than I remember. That kills the old one for me. (I only compared Pac-Man, that could've been why)

Galaga 88 is a bit like Galaga Arrangement but the double ships from the outset is pretty cool. Mappy is still a bit on the slow side though and Bosconian's 8-way movement garbage is why I couldn't get on with it. I don't get it though, a lot of good games are locked to 8-way movement (Berzerk, Robotron, etc) and yet Bosconian just feels clumsy.

[Astrosmasher1]

[QUOTE=scotland17]The anniversary edition includes Bosconian, a sweet arcade game overshadowed by the popularity of Galaga. Sinistar owes a debt to Bosconian, so perhaps that inclusion is a point toward a difference in grading. As to the emulation differences, why would Namco change up? Wouldn't that cost money for no reason? [/QUOTE]
I am completely with Scotland 17 on this one.  Bosconian is a FANTASTIC game.  It has long been my favourite arcade game on all the Namco compilations.  With the sweet Japanese speech saying "Blast Off" in its wonderfully garbled way is so endearing.  In fact I am going to have a game in a minute. 

Though I have to laugh at the criticism of this game it is hard to line up the shots.  Errr that is the whole point!  You get to line up the shots and when you get it right and hit the sweet spot the space station explodes.  I always get a kick from that.