NamcoMuseum
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DS releases for the week of September 17th
No rest for weary wallets this week -- but is that really a bad thing? Our sources say no, though it can certainly be hard to find fundage for all the DS games that catch our eye. Good thing they're cheap! 7 Wonders of the Ancient World AniMates Backyard Basketball Digimon World: Dawn Digimon World: Dusk Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights Master Jin Jin's IQ Challenge MySims Namco Museum DS Nancy Drew: Deadly Secret of Olde World Park Sonic Rush Adventure Anything catch your eye this week, or are you saving up for later releases, or still hurting from previous weeks?
A video reminder of Namco Museum DS
This trailer for Namco Museum DS highlights exactly what Bandai Namco should be highlighting: Pac-Man Vs. After a quick run-through of all the titles on the card, the trailer gets into the business of extolling the new version of Vs.Even gamers who are all Galaga'd out or tired of Druaga can see the interest in a DS version of Toru Iwatani and Shigeru Miyamoto's multiplayer Pac-Man, especially since it makes so much more sense without a home console involved.With only one demo station set up at PAX, we didn't get to play Pac-Man Vs. We hope we get the chance when the game comes out on the 18th.
PAX 07: Namco Museum DS has more options than games
Poor Namco Museum DS was sitting there in the Bandai Namco booth all alone, while people ignored it in favor of new games. It needed just the right person to come along and play some Dig Dug II. Dig Dug II is, of course, unchanged, as are all of the games in the collection-- that's kind of the point of Namco Museum (with the exception of the oddball Wii version). However, players have the option to change the method of presentation significantly. You can view the game in the normal DS orientation or turned sideways, with the screen rotated in either direction, depending on how you want to access the controller. You have the option for full-screen or the original aspect ratio in all of these configurations. There's also a softening filter that can be applied to the graphics. With so many options for displaying the games, it's slightly frustrating that there are only eight games in the collection. We want definitive DS versions of Bosconian and Metro Cross and The Legend of Valkyrie!
News concerning Namco Museum
Word came down the tubes today that Namco Bandai's upcoming compilation title Namco Museum DS has just struck gold. Or, wait ... is that gone gold? Either way, there's some kind of gold involved.Those who've been waiting for the game, ever since the first list of its included titles was revealed, can rest assured that they'll have their fix of nostalgia on the go come September 10th.%Gallery-4650%[Via press release]
The real games in Namco Museum Remix
Sure, there are some new screens of the new versions of Pac 'n Roll and Pac-Motos, and maybe they do look fun, in a budget party game sort of way, but we glossed right over them for screens of 20+year-old arcade games, because that's how we (Pac'n) roll.We're strange people, we suppose. But when we saw those screenshots of Gaplus, Pac and Pal, and especially our beloved Pac-Mania and its brilliant background image (CRAZYMAN!!), we knew. We got a terrible feeling that we will buy Namco Museum Remix. There. We said it. We only hope we can get the message out to Bandai Namco that we want more real classics and fewer wacky remakes. And please, some games that haven't been released in previous Namco Museums.
E307: Namco Museum Remix is still weird
CONFIRMED: Namco Museum Remix continues to be insane. Not that we expected them to, but Namco did not go back and change Galaga back to regular Galaga. We are still living in a world where a description of Galaga can include the phrase "Pac-Man rolls on a tube in outer space." This is the "new" Galaga in which, instead of shooting from a ship at the bottom of the screen, you shoot the alien ships by pointing and shooting at them with the Wiimote, shooting-gallery style, and you can also use the analog stick to make Pac-Man jump.Rally-X was still Rally-X, but with speed boosting, which seems like an okay addition. These were still the only two playable games, so we'll have to wait to see how Namco is ruining updating the rest of their classics.
Namco Museum screens are as new as Namco Museum screens can be
We've seen countless releases of the Namco Museum collections over the years. We remember feeling quite special about the Playstation versions-- they were the real versions of real arcade games! At home! But now the Namco Museum series is, itself, old. How old?Valkyrie no Densetsu (1989) was eight years old when it was released on Namco Museum Vol. 5. The original Namco Museum Playstation game is eleven years old. In other words, Namco Museum is now older, in relative terms, than a game that was old enough for Namco Museum.Speaking of the Playstation editions, the new Namco Museum DS has something not seen since those days: an actual museum mode, in the form of a trophy collection and music player, as well as scanned instructions and flyers. Relatively newer features include bottom-screen maps and hints for Galaga (?), Xevious, and The Tower of Druaga. Of course, the most exciting relatively-new thing is Pac-Man Vs., which, now that it won't require so much of a financial outlay, we may actually try with another person.%Gallery-4650%
Namco Museum Remix: Galaga, Rally-X details
Game|Life's Chris Kohler played the wacky reinterpretation of Galaga found on the new Namco Museum Remix, and somehow came out of it cogent enough to describe the surreal experience. Basically, Pac-Man is rolling down a slide in space, for some reason, and players have to protect him by shooting the Galaga ships that come down to attack him for some reason. You aim at the little ships with the Wiimote pointer. If Galaga '88 was Galactic Dancing, this is Galactic-- okay, we don't know what it is. We're still pretty confused about the whole idea. Kohler also played Rally-X, which was basically a 3D remake of the original arcade game (which itself is basically Pac-Man). While Galaga is rife with Wiimote integration, Rally-X is more staid and relies on the analog stick and shoulder buttons.
Namco goes insane after too many Namco Museum releases
The major complaint about Namco's Museum series of retro compilations is that they're just too faithful to their arcade counterparts. People don't want exact arcade translations anymore, they want games remade unrecognizably in 3D! They want Pac-Man randomly inserted into every game!At least, that seems to be Namco Bandai's thinking. Either that or they weren't sure how else to rerelease games they're already selling on the Virtual Console. The result is Namco Museum Remix, a set of Namco classics, now with more waggle, depth, and Pac! The remixed games include Galaga, Pac-Motos, Rally-X, Gator Panic, and Pac 'n Roll, which is apparently a classic now despite not even being two years old. For that matter, Gator Panic seems to be based on a cell phone game which is itself based on the Whack-a-Mole like redemption game, and we have no idea what Pac-Motos was originally. Interesting what passes for "classics" these days!In addition to the remixes, the collection includes Cutie Q, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Gaplus, Mappy, Pac & Pal, Pac-Mania, Super Pac-Man, and Xevious. We poke fun at Namco for selling the same games over and over again, but this is an okay selection of somewhat less common stuff! Sorry to everyone who bought NES Xevious on the Virtual Console.Check out our gallery of screens from the remixed games. Some are faithful, like Rally-X, and others are completely incomprehensible, like the image at the top of this post, which is supposed to be Galaga.%Gallery-3280%
Pac-Man VS coming to DS via Namco Museum
The GBA connector, one of Nintendo's experiments with integrating its portable and home consoles, spawned only a handful of games: Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Four Swords Adventures and Pac-Man VS. The latter title had one character play as Pac-Man viewing the classic screen (via the Game Boy) while the other three played as the ghosts in an isometric view on the TV.Namco is revisiting Pac-Man VS in its Namco Museum collection for the DS. The game sports single pack multiplayer and is priced at $20. Other games in the collection include Dig Dug II, Xevious, Pac-Man, Mappy, Galaxian, Galaga, and Tower of Druaga. We're happy paying $20 just for the multiplayer Pac-Man VS action.[Via Evil Avatar; thanks, Sam!]
Namco bringing compilation title to the DS this Summer
Namco Bandai has announced today that they plan on bringing a new title to the DS this Summer. With a title like Namco Museum DS, we wonder what it could include? Lucky for us, we have a press release that spells it all out. This game is to feature 8 different titles from Namco's past. These titles, which are their best-sellers (natch), include: Pac-Man Pac-Man Vs. Galaga Xevious Dig Dug II Galaxian Mappy Tower of Druaga Namco Museum DS will retail for $19.99 when it hits retail shelves this Summer.[Via press release]
