Having released Namco Museum about nine thousand times in various guises, surely Namco has to be thorough and comprehensive to get away with it again in 2008. After all, even a cursory examination of the company's arcade heritage reveals dozens of games that have never made it onto any of Museum compilations that it has put out since 1994.
Admittedly, a fair proportion of these are rubbish, but there's still an inherent curiosity value attached to documenting the company's evolution. Personally, I'd far sooner wade through the company's more obscure late '80s and early '90s output than have to play Galaxian, Dig Dug and Xevious again. What exactly is stopping Namco including the awesome Pac-Land, Galaga '88, Blast Off, or other long-lost stuff like Solvalou, Rolling Thunder 2, Star Blade, or, hell, the original Ridge Racer or Tekken for that matter? While we're in full Victor Meldrew mode, why does Namco stick doggedly to its arcade titles for these compilations when there are a ton of home console efforts that would provide a great deal of quality retro material?
Pac-Man is a fun game, yet that is just the beginning of why it is so fondly remembered by many, even 30 years later.
I love Pac man because I actually experienced the pac man craze as a kid. TV shows, cereal, T-shirts, all before Mario. it was the first mainstream merchandised game I think, and for that alone, Pac-man will always have a solid place in gaming history.
Happy 30th Pac-Man!
nice article btw.
Thanks for the compliment! I also grew up with Pac-Man back in the day and remember watching the cartoon and seeing all the merchandise, it was pretty crazy back then.
Nintendo Life writes: "The remix titles show a good amount of work and aren't just tarted-up versions of the originals, but add to the classic gameplay. Compared to buying them all separately on the Virtual Console (what few of the line-up are currently available) the classic arcade games alone make this collection worthwhile for fans of the oldies".
In this entry:
Super Smash Bros Brawl for $43 shipped.
Nights: Journey of Dreams $29.
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption $29.
Pinball Hall of Fame $19.
For $30 you can pick up, tax free and with free shipping:
Bomberman Land
Endless Ocean
Ghost Squad
Godfather: Blackhand Edition
House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return
My Word Coach
Namco Museum Remix
Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
Sega Bass Fishing
Sonic and the Secet Rings
SSX Blur
Super Monkeyball Banana Blitz
Zack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure
For only $20, copies of these games can be found just about anywhere:
Alien Syndrome
Dewy's Adventure
Elebits
Escape From Bug Island
Furu Furu Park
Mercury Meltdown Revolution
Octomania
Red Steel
Wii Zapper with Link's Crossbow Training
