Namco Museum

by Mass Media

Product Features

• This collection features all the biggest arcade hits, done for the Playstation 2
• Go back to the games that started it all, with Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man
• Space action awaits you in Galaga and Galaxian
• The original racing and puzzle hits, Dig Dug and Pole Position, are here too
• Plus there's all-new Arrangement Modes to alter the games for your tastes, and a whole bunch of hidden games you can unlock!

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B00005RCQY
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.2 x 0.5 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: December 4, 2001
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,681 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Platform: PlayStation2

Amazon.com Product Description

This title includes six classic arcade hits: Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig-Dug, and Pole Position. Also included are all-new arrangement modes plus other hidden games.

Product Description

Namco Museum is your ticket back to the glory days of arcade gaming!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best Namco Museum package on the market, February 3, 2002

By 

Baron Williams (Milpitas, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Namco Museum (Video Game)

What sets this Namco Museum aside from the rest of the Namco Museum compilations out there is the inclusion of Pac-Man Arrangement, Galaga Arrangement, and Dig Dug Arrangement. These three games alone are worth the low price of this CD-ROM.

There are 12 classic games on this CD-ROM. They include:

1. Pac-Man.
2. Pac-Man Arrangement.
3. Pac-Mania (locked).
4. Pac-Attack (locked).
5. Galaga.
6. Galaga Arrangement.
7. Dig Dug.
8. Dig Dug Arrangement.
9. Pole Position.
10. Pole Position II.
11. Ms. Pac-Man.
12. Galaxian.

Pac-Man Arrangement is one of the coolest Pac-Man games there is. If you like Pac-Man you will love this newer version of it. Its very faithful to the original non-scrolling one-screen 2-D version, with all the game-play features of the original including the 4 normal ghosts, Power Pellets, Fruit, Warp Tunnels, but with souped-up graphics, and the following enhancements:

1. Pac-Dash Arrows catapult you across the screen really fast without being killed.
2. Warp Gates transport you from one Warp Gate to another.
3. Large Ghosts each with different magic powers.
4. Blue ghost you can eat anytime, who can eat other ghosts to become a Large Ghost.
5. Magic Wand that turns all the ghosts into presents.
6. Pink Power Up that traps ghosts for a while.
7. Blue Power Up that splits Pac-Man into two Pac-Man's.
8. Red Power Up that makes Pac-Man go faster.
9. Orange Power Up that gives you extra points.
10. Like Ms. Pac-Man, The maze and the graphics change as you progress.
11. There is nice background music.
12. Two players can play at the same time!

Galaga Arrangement is really nice too. Its game-play is the same as Galaga, but with much better graphics, nice background music, and really eye dazzling alien formations. At times the alien formations move like fireworks exploding and spinning around creating all sorts of eye dazzling movements. There are parts where the whole background spins around while the aliens dance in formation. Its quit beautiful. Also, two players can play at the same time!

Dig Dug Arrangement is another really fun game. Its game-play is the same as Dig Dug, but again with much better graphics, nicer background music, and the following enhancements:

1. Exploding enemy.
2. Spiked enemy.
3. Enemy with a pump who can pump you up and pop you!
4. Enemy that can shoot fireballs across the screen.
5. Sleeping alien enemy.
6. Boss levels where you fight a giant enemy.
7. Giant boulders that wipe out everything in their path.
8. Two players can play at the same time!

The other games in the compilation are identical to the original arcade versions. Most games allow you to save high scores. In fact before you can play Pac-Attack and Pac-Mania you must first score 25,000 points in Pac-Man to unlock Pac-Attack and 20,000 points in Ms. Pac-Man to unlock Pac-Mania.

Unlike the other Namco Museum's for the PlayStation 1, there is no "museum" section with photos and other useless stuff. In order for the "museum" section to have had good enough graphics and 3-D movement to be worth having on the PlayStation 2 the game would have had to be on DVD-ROM instead of CD-ROM and would have cost much more. I never liked the "museum" section anyway so I don't miss it. Also, the games load much faster and the menu is easier to use. And none of the games require the screen to scroll up or down, even Dig Dug fits on the screen.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS CD-ROM for anyone who likes Pac-Man, Dig-Dig or Galaga, because of the inclusion of the newer, hard to find Arrangement versions of each of these games, which were never before available for the PS1 or PS2. Super fun classic style 2-D non-scrolling games like these don't appear in the modern video game market very often. Most modern games are 3-D. While that's nice for racing games, and other games requiring 3-D, there is still a need for 2-D games like these. Let's face it, you can't get the same gameplay feeling from the 3-D Pac-Man World that you can get from Pac-Man Arrangement.

THIS GAME IS SELLING VERY QUICKLY. MANY STORES ARE SOLD OUT. GET IT BEFORE ITS GONE!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Family Fun for All, August 22, 2002

By 

Don from SF "coach41" (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Namco Museum (Video Game)

Good Morning All,

Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, Pole Position, Pole Position II....who did not play any of one of these guys when they were younger in the 80's? The Namco Museum presents all these classics in all their glory plus some special "new" versions (some that are locked) for your PS2.

Realistically, I only bought this game so my mom can occupy herself sometime with some recreation (she gets so stressed out sometime). She played many of these games back in the day when we still had the Atari 5200 around and these days most games are simpl beyond her. But these old school games are right up her alley.

My favorites of this package are Galaga, Galaga Arrangement, Dig Dug and the Pac Man games (haven't unlocked the Pac Man arrangement games yet). Pole Position/Pole Position II were great games in their time but they are very difficult to play with your standard PS2 controller. You may be better off sticking with Gran Turismo in this case or playing with the steering wheel if you have one.

If you love old school games, this package is for you. The games play very well even with the PS2 controller (except Pole Position).

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Welcome to Gaming Nostalgia!!! Leave the Coins at Home!!!, February 11, 2002

By 

James M. Stafford III (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Namco Museum (Video Game)

NAMCO Museum is a great nostalgic trip to the video game arcades of the 1980s, especially for those like myself who first began gaming with such titles as Pac-Man and Pole Position. The games themselves are not new; the fact that they have finally been brought to the PlayStation2 IS new.

The old favorites such as Pac-Man, Galaga, DigDug, Pole Position, Pole Position II, Ms. Pac-Man, and Galaxian are all here as almost pristine replicas of their original arcade forms and sounds; all that is missing is the stand-up arcade box. Recent years have seen some of these games updated and modernized in "Arrangement" formats: Pac-Man Arrangement, DigDug Arrangement, and Galaga Arrangement.

However, there ARE a few unlockables, specifically a Tetris-like Pac-Attack! and the three-dimensional Pac-Mania. Pac-Attack! is unlocked by scoring a minimum of 25,000 points in the original Pac-Man; Pac-Mania is unlocked by scoring at least 20,000 points in Ms. Pac-Man. As a Tetris-like game, Pac-Attack! is fairly straightforward. However, Pac-Mania can be frustrating, as the entire maze is never in view (only about one-sixth of the maze is ever seen at once), thus requiring good memory and anticipation skills to determine which dots have been eaten and where the ghosts are likely to appear as Pac-Man is maneuvered around the maze.

Those who spent a lot of time in video game arcades during the heyday of these games likely encountered the same game with differing rules on different machines; for example, Ms. Pac-Man probably had three lives on machines in one arcade, while she had five lives and a higher bonus threshold in another arcade. NAMCO Museum allows for players to customize each game at will, usually altering the number of lives, levels of difficulty, and thresholds for bonuses. For Pole Position and Pole Position II, times and qualifying levels can be customized.

Globally, high scores and game options can be saved to a memory card. However, game data is not automatically saved or loaded. During the start-up process, the player is prompted to choose whether to load saved data or start anew. Should a player's progress change data, this must specifically be saved in the Options screen from the Game Selection menu. This is most important concerning the unlockables (Pac-Mania and Pac-Attack!), as the player must consciously save the data to keep the unlockables actually unlocked.

In the end, this is certainly not a ground-breaking game, especially for a console as powerful as the PlayStation2. However, it is definitely worth owning for the wonderful trip down memory lane. Perhaps the best part, however, is that there is no need for coins!!!

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