Namco Museum Battle Collection - Playstation Portable (PSP) Reviews


	Platform PSP Genre Classic Games Publisher Namco Developer Namco ESRB E (Everyone) Released August 23, 2005

- Great game selection - Arcade-perfect emulation - Well-designed “re-mixes” of classic games

- We've seen most of these games in other collections

Review: Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection (GC) Review: Activision Anthology (PS2) Review: Midway Arcade Treasures 2 (GC)
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Namco Museum Battle Collection

Score: 8.0 / 10

Namco has done a great job over the years exploiting their tremendous back catalog of arcade hits for fun and profit. Every system from the Saturn through the Xbox has seen a number of Namco collections appear for the platform. Now, it is the PSP's turn. Namco Museum Battle Collection for the PSP is the first major retro release for the system, and it is an excellent first effort.

The list of games on this first collection is impressive, easily the best of all the Namco collections available in North America :

Pac-Man

Ms. Pac-Man

Galaxian

Rally-X

Galaga

Dig Dug

Rolling Thunder

King & Balloon

New Rally-X

Bosconian

Dig Dug II

Xevious

Mappy

The Tower of Druaga

Dragon Buster

Grobda

Motos

The disc also comes with modernized versions of four games: Dig Dug, Pac Man, New Rally X, and Galaga.

These collections are kind of difficult to review because I'm pretty sure all most readers need to know is what games are included on the disc. Well, the above group has broad appeal and includes some of Namco's most famous and best titles. I was happy to see Rolling Thunder which doesn't pop up as much on these collections as other Namco greats. Grobda and Motos are extremely obscure to North American players, but they are both solid games. Overall, it is a great selection that covers a wide variety of genres.

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- Reviews of Games Developed/Published by Namco

The second question with collections such as these is “how well are they emulated?” Well, the answer here is pretty much perfectly. I really had no problems nor experienced any glitches during my time with the games. Every game looks and sounds arcade perfect. I especially liked the option to rotate the screen and hold the PSP vertically to better recreate the arcade visuals. On top of this, the games controlled well with the PSP D-pad.

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All four re-mixes are enjoyable, but Galaga and Dig Dug stood really stood out as they seemed to be the games that Namco put the most time into. I'll probably play a lot of the Galaga Arrangement because it reminds me of one of my favorite Namco arcade games—Cosmo Gang, which was basically Galaga with cartoonish graphics and boss battles. I'm don't think any of the other Arrangements will see more play than their originals, but they are all worth spending time with.

Since Namco has done such a good job over the past decade keeping their arcade titles in print and on the gaming radar, many interested gamers probably have at least one copy of most of these games sitting around. Still, the ability to take this many arcade-perfect ports on the go (legally) makes this a good buy. The new Arrangements don't really push it to a great buy, nor does the full, new game pricing, but, still, it is a game that most old school gamers should have in their collections.

- Danny Webb

(September 22, 2005)


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