Namco Museum DS (Nintendo DS, 2007)

Maybe it's a result of my getting older but I recently felt a wave of nostalgia for the 80's and one of my fondest memories was playing arcade games. The arcades from my youth have all long since closed but I still have feelings for games like Crystal Castles, Pengo, Marble Madness and so on. A little while back I bought the DS version of Bubble Bobble containing a spot on translation of the classic game. Despite being over 20 years old Bubble Bobble is still loads of fun. After searching for some more classic games on the DS I discovered that two I have particularly warm memories of were being released in the new Namco collection. These included Xevious and Mappy. I wasn't sure why Namco was releasing Galaxian since it's almost exactly the same as Galaga except not nearly as good. So is it worth the investment?

I must say that none of these games compare to Bubble Bobble but in their defense they were all released prior to Bobble. The first thing I noticed is how shallow these games are. The wonderful memories I held for Mappy were soon replaced by the boredom of the games repetitiveness. Xevious has more variety but I found the game bloody hard and difficult to see on the small screen. You can set up the game to play tilted at 90 degrees and it looks far better but then you're holding the DS at an extremely awkward angle. Most arcade games were built with a tall screen but the DS screens are built wide so either you play the games with black bars on either side or tilt the system. Neither is a great solution. Galaga is fun but it just doesn't feel the same without a big chunky joystick controlling your fighter. I only played Dig Dug II briefly because it's junk compared to the original Dig Dug.

I have to give Namco credit for trying its best to recreate the arcade experience on a handheld system. Games have simulated mother boards with dip switches that can be set as if the player were an arcade owner. Players can even play with known bugs on or off. The kicker for me was the inclusion of a faux screen burn on Xevious. Now THAT is the sign of a loving crafted game.

Some people have complained about the selection of games and although I would have swapped out Dig Dug II, Towers of Druaga and Galaxian others have complained about the inclusion of Mappy so for each his own. The main problem with the games is that the DS screen dimensions differ significantly from the original arcade games but there's not much Namco could do about that. Something that Namco COULD have done something about was the inclusion of continues. I mean if you're trying to recreate an arcade experience players should be able to simulate popping in another quarter. Unfortunately every game gives you a quarters worth of play and Xevious is damn hard. At 20 bucks it's a bargain game but I must confess that I lost interest faster than I expected. Still, it's fun to have many of these games available in portable form.

The main menu of this game has four options to choose from: Pac-Man vs; Arcade; Demo; and Library. The arcade selection is where the action is. You can play the following games:

-1979 version of Galaxian
-1980 version of Pac-Man
-1981 version of Galaga
-1982 version of Xevious
-1983 version of Mappy
-1984 version of The Tower of Druaga
-1985 version of Dig Dug II

When you double tap on a game, you have a lot of options. You can give yourself more lives and choose when to receive extra lives based on your score from the game settings menu. When you are done, select confirm and then tap the unpause game button. In most cases, a green pop up screen will appear telling you to press the START button to begin the game. This portion of the menu is a little unusual. You have to mess with each game in the same way. Kids may find this confusing.

Most of the games themselves are just like the atari 7800 games, except smaller. I rated this game as excellent for that reason alone and really enjoyed most of the games. I especially like the fact that you can get five lives on the games, which is a welcome option. Dig Dug II, Mappy, and The Tower of Druaga were my least favorite. Overall, I was very pleased with this game and felt spending up to $25 dollars (not including shipping) was worth it.

This cartridge is basically the only reason why this 46 year old man bought a Nintendo DSi XL. If you're one of those people who frequented arcades to play Galaga, Galaxian, Pacman or Xevious- this cartridge is for you.

The game play seems to have been ported right from the original ROMS. I get a lot of happiness being able to play this little stamp-sized cartridge- it takes me right back to the old days- except now I'm not shelling out all the money I made on minimum wage to play!

This is an older cartridge that you should be able to find at a decent price.

Buy the DSi XL for you and your failing eyes, and enjoy this cartridge to remember what it was like to have fun before you had bi-focals!

I bought this game a week ago and was immediately impressed with the number of features available on it. This game is just like the games one used to play in the arcade back in the day. Love it!! You can have loads of fun playing for hours on all the different games available for your entertainment. Kids and adults of all ages can enjoy. Overall, I'd recommend the game if you're on a budget and hate digging thru games in the local game stores!!

This is the game to get if you love pac-man and classic arcade games like:
"galaga"
"dig dug II"
"galaxian"
"xevious"
"mappy"
"the tower of druaga"
and of course the new "pac-man vs" that I didn't get to play because you need at least 2 players to play.
I had fun on the go with this game specially with pac-man and galaga which are the main reason I bought this game.