game.” The company has produced more great arcade titles than just about anyone. From

Galaga to Pac-man, Xevious and Dig Dug, Namco dominated the arcade age with some of the

best games ever made. Now recently, Namco’s best success has been as a publisher, with

titles like Dark Souls under the Namco Bandai label. That’s not to say that they haven’t

developed some great titles like Tekken or the too-harshly critiqued Star Fox Assault,

but Namco’s best games were released many years ago, and they aren’t afraid to point

it out with their Namco Museum games. This is Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary for the

GameCube. Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary is a really

simple title. When you start it up, you’re immediately greeted with your choice of Namco

arcade game. Pretty much anything you could think of is available. Both Pac-man and Ms.

Pac-man, Dig Dug, Galaga, Galaxian, Xevious, Pole Position 1 and 2, Rally-X, Mappy and

several others. Now, I just reviewed an Atari arcade collection the other day, and although

that was on a handheld console and this isn’t, the amount of content is just stunning. I

was trying to think of any games they missed, and I just couldn’t. In fact, the only thing

about the collection that I didn’t care for was that Galaxian was included. Galaga

is a game that bested its predecessor in every way, and it’s always curious to me why Namco

always chooses to include both of them on these collections.

While the amount of content on the disk is incredible, the GameCube’s controls do not

do the games any favors. Pac-man and Pole Position are especially tricky, as neither

the analog stick or d-pad seem to want to cooperate. It really depends on the game,

though. While titles like Rolling Thunder and Bosconian feel a little sloppy with the

GameCube’s controls, Dig-Dug, Rally-X and Xevius all play excellently. It’s strange

to see, as the issue doesn’t even seem connected to particular genres.

At museums, some people like to sit back and enjoy how well art has stood up over time.

That’s what makes things classic, and why the items are in the museum in the first place.

For the most part, these games do just that. With a few, personal exceptions that I won’t

mention, as they are just my own tastes, every game on this disk is just as much fun as when

it first came out. My favorite Namco game is Dig-Dug, and blowing guys up with that

pump is still a blast. The visuals of the original arcade games also

remain unchanged in this collection. Every game looks exactly as you’d remember it,

and the game audio also stays the same. It’s kind of charming to hear how Namco used some

similar sound effects in different games to accomplish different things, and just because

your brain sees something different happening, it doesn’t sound the same.

Namco was the king of arcade games back in the day, and Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary

is a terrific collection of the best Namco had to offer. Maybe even get your older siblings

or parents to give it a try and see which games they remember.