- The collection of classic arcade
games is missing selections from the Xbox 360
release
- The remixes are all pretty banal
- This is just a slightly upgraded version of an already
released package
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Namco
Museum Megamix
Score: 5.0 / 10
Namco sure loves these Museum compilation
discs, don't they? It's hard to tell
what's different about this one, because they probably don't want you to
know
that it's actually just a slightly upgraded re-release of the Namco
Museum Remix
release from back in 2007. That one included 5 "remixed" versions of
various
Namco games - Motos, Galaga, Pac n' Roll, Rally-X and Gator Panic - plus
9
emulated classic games. This Megamix version adds one new arranged game
- Grobda - plus 9 more arcade classics, for a total of 24 games.
The remixed versions are not particularly good. They are all given
bright 3D
makeovers, and in most of them, the player controls Pac-Man rather than
whatever
the original game starred. Rally-X really isn't a racing game so much as
a
variation on Pac-Man, as you drive through
mini-mazes to pick up flags, while Grobda puts you in control of a tank
and just lets you shoot lasers at stuff. The remixed versions of these
are relatively similar to the games that inspired
them. While neither game was terribly involving to begin with, at least
they were somewhat fun - here, the awkward camera angles and sloppy
controls turn them incredibly annoying.
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In Motos, you control a small bumper car-esque ship on a board floating
over
outer space. You have no weapons, but the goal is to bump all of the
orbs off
the field without getting knocked off yourself. The remixed version of
this is
probably the least offensive, just because it doesn't screw up anything
major,
but again, it's hardly that interesting of a game to begin with, so that
doesn't
mean much. Gator Panic wasn't even a proper arcade game, but actually a
redemption game much like Whack-a-Mole. The remixed version does not
anything to this formula.
Galaga is perhaps the most perplexing, because it has very little to do
with the
game it's apparently remixing. Here, you watch Pac-Man roll on a track
through a
colorful version of outer space, which looks suspiciously reminiscent of
Super
Mario Galaxy. You need to protect him from various bugs by shooting at
them with
the Wii remote. That's the entire game. The only thing remotely related
to
Galaga is that the enemy patterns are somewhat familiar.
Pac n' Roll is an upgraded version of an
early DS title, where Pac-Man rolls
around various environments like a marble. Compared to something like
Super
Monkey Ball or Kororinpa, it's definitely more geared to the casual
crowd, as
it's a pretty easy game. It also completely misses some of the core
tenements of
a Pac-Man game - you can technically get power pellets to chomp on
ghosts, but
it lacks the same crunchy satisfaction. It's technically the most
playable of
any of the remixed versions on here, but it's still kind of boring.
The arcade game selection is typical of these discs - various Pac-Man
iterations, including Super Pac-Man, Pac & Pal and Pac-Mania, various
Galaxian
remixes including Galaga and Gaplus, Dig Dug, Mappy, Xevious, and the
obscure
Cutie Q. The Megamix version adds Pac-Man (which was inexplicably
missing from
the first release, although Ms. Pac-Man is still absent), Grobda, New
Rally-X,
King & Balloon, Bosconian and Dig Dug II. It's still missing tons of
games from
the Xbox 360 Virtual Arcade Collection, like Dragon Buster, Dragon
Spirit, Tower
of Druaga, Rolling Thunder and others. And it's frustrating to have to
dig up
crusty old PSOne compilations if you want to legitimately play classics
like The
Legend of Valkyrie or Dragon Saber, but so it goes. These arcade games,
while
overdone, are still the best reason to own this collection - it's hard
to
completely hate any product that includes the relatively unsung Dig Dug
II and
Gaplus - but otherwise this whole package is little more than a quickie
cash-in.
