Namco Museum (for Nintendo Switch) - Review 2022

If yous're a Neo Geo fan, the Nintendo Switch is an amazing system. Hamster has been porting classic Neo Geo arcade games to the Switch since launch, and there are some gems out there for $vii.99 a pop. If you want sometime-school gaming on the Switch likewise Neo-Geo games, your options are much more limited. Nintendo has not announced a Virtual Panel to bring classic game libraries to Switch owners, so yous must make practice with third-political party releases. Namco comes to the rescue with the Switch version of Namco Museum. This $29.99 compilation includes eleven older games, including 10 arcade ports and a unique multiplayer Pac-Man feel previously only released on the Nintendo GameCube. This isn't the well-nigh consummate or characteristic-filled retro game compilation on the marketplace, but there are enough solid titles and downright interesting choices to make it worth a wait.

Game Choices

Namco Museum includes xi games in all, spanning from 1980 to 1991 (with the exception of 2003's Pac-Homo Vs.). In that location's Pac-Human being, Galaga, Dig Dug, The Tower of Druaga, SkyKid, Rolling Thunder, Galaga '88, Splatterhouse, Tank Force, Rolling Thunder ii, and finally Pac-Human being Vs. Information technology'south a well-rounded, but incomplete, look at Namco'southward early years, covering many of the company's notable franchises and genres from the fourth dimension. Dig Dug, Galaga, Pac-Man, Rolling Thunder, and Splatterhouse are all classics (equally is The Tower of Druaga from a historical standpoint, even if it never got big in North America).

However, it's strange to see Sky Kid and Tank Force in the collection, while Xevious and Pole Position are missing. Information technology also seems like a missed opportunity to leave out 1993's Ridge Racer. As a 3D game, it would be by far the almost advanced title on the list besides Pac-Homo Vs., and it's an unmistakable arcade archetype. I personally would have besides liked to meet the fantasy shoot-em-ups Dragon Spirit or Dragon Saber in the collection. Why Namco left these games out, but included ii Rolling Thunder games, is perplexing.

Control and Graphics

By default, each game loads as a adequately small window in the middle of an elaborate background based on the game'southward original cabinet art (though you can select other backgrounds as well). This keeps each game in the proper aspect ratio, but the screen is very pocket-size when using the Switch as a handheld game system.

Fortunately, at that place are several useful display adjustments you can make. Yous tin can tweak the game's horizontal and vertical positioning, conform the zoom, use a fixed pixel ratio with 1x, 2x, and 3x magnification, remove or intensify scan lines, and even rotate the screen at 90 degree increments if you want to play in a portrait layout. I found that expanding most games to 1.25 zoom, while keeping the other default settings, fills the screen without clipping it past the edges.

As older arcade games with simple control schemes, Namco Museum'southward titles are highly playable using a single Joy-Con. This means you lot tin can set upwards your Switch on a desk or dock information technology to a Television and take ii-player gaming out of the box, with a Joy-Con for each participant. None of the games use more than the half-dozen buttons on each Joy-Con, including the L and R buttons reserved for calculation coins and pausing the game to enter the settings menu.

Each game includes all-encompassing instructions, which is helpful for the more esoteric experiences, such as Sky Kid or The Tower of Druaga. In fact, The Tower of Druaga includes a separate hint menu to help yous find the underground treasure on each level. Most instructions tin be accessed through the intermission bill of fare, accessed through the R button, though The Belfry of Druaga'south separate hints can be found by pressing the Ten button.

How They Play

Some Namco Museum games accept aged well; others not then much. Timeless classics, such as Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, and Galaga (and Galaga '88), are however incredibly fun to play. They hold up thanks to their simplicity and responsiveness, giving brisk and tense single-screen experiences.

Others, such equally Rolling Thunder and Splatterhouse, experience extremely bad-mannered despite their superior graphics, and only serve to remind the player of far improve non-Namco arcade beat-em-ups of the same era. Rolling Thunder and Rolling Thunder 2 are serviceable side-scrolling jaunts through hallways filled with gun-wielding terrorists, but they feel stiff and lifeless against Sega's Shinobi and The Revenge of Shinobi. Splatterhouse is a gorgeous horror game filled with big, gruesome sprites, but the unforgiving and stilted fighting on a 2d plane makes playing it feel like a job when compared with far more fluid brawlers similar Sega'south Streets of Rage and Capcom's Final Fight.

On the brilliant side, Skykid is a refreshingly engaging and simple proto-shoot-em-up that might have otherwise been lost to history against the more advanced and sci-fi-themed side-scrolling shmups of the era, such as Gradius and R-Type. Konami and Irem's shooters are much more than complex and fast-paced, but Skykid's uniquely cartoonish design and quirky mechanics (like right-to-left scrolling and angling your shots upward or down past turning) are still enjoyable.

Meanwhile, Tank Strength and The Tower of Druaga are ii very different evolutions of Pac-Man. Both feature overhead perspectives and navigating through mazes to fight enemies, but otherwise they're worlds apart. Tank Force is a military-themed overhead shooter where y'all bulldoze your tank through bases and cities, diggings abroad at enemy tanks and even blowing upwards walls to brand shortcuts. The Tower of Druaga is a dull dungeon-itch run a risk in which y'all're armed with only a tiny sword. You mission is to avoid or kill monsters, while looking for the key to the side by side floor.

They're interesting variations on a very bones premise; Tank Force is much more cohesive and fun cheers to a gun that lets you fight back against enemy tanks on an nearly level playing field, while The Tower of Druaga is a very interesting, tense, and unforgiving example of the activity-RPG genre that would evolve into games similar Hydlide, The Legend of Zelda, and Secret of Mana. I wouldn't call The Tower of Druaga fun, but information technology'southward historically fascinating.

The Pac-Man Curveball

Pac-Man Vs. is the most modern game in Namco Museum, originally released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003. It's a multiplayer game in which one to three players control ghosts on 1 screen, while a separate actor plays every bit Pac-Man on a different screen. Giving a unmarried histrion a vastly different role in a game is known as asymmetrical gameplay, achieved past Namco a solid decade before the Wii U and Nintendo Land offered a similar experience.

Pac-Man gets a full view of the maze, while the ghosts can only see a express radius effectually their position (which is rendered in a cartoonish 3D fashion rather than archetype Pac-Man sprites). This was accomplished fourteen years ago by letting the Pac-Homo player utilize a Game Male child Advance connected to the GameCube, while the ghost players watch the Boob tube. On the Switch, the same effect is achieved past using 2 consoles, with ane presumably docked and connected to a Tv set (though y'all tin can use the Switch's ain screen by setting it on a table with the kickstand, if y'all don't mind huddling effectually information technology). The other Switch is used equally a handheld system, and is passed around players as the Pac-Man thespian rotates.

You need two Switches if you want to play equally Pac-Human, but y'all can notwithstanding play Pac-Homo Vs. with just ane system. With only one Switch, yous can only play as ghosts against a computer-controlled Pac-Homo. Fortunately, you don't demand multiple copies of Namco Museum to become the full Pac-Man Vs. experience. A free Pac-Man Vs. client for the Switch lets you connect a Switch without Namco Museum to 1 with the full software on it, and so you tin enjoy the two-system Pac-Human being-versus-ghosts setup as intended.

Pac-Man Vs. is a fun, unique accept on Pac-Man and the most party-friendly game in Namco Museum, thanks to its four-player back up and asymmetrical gameplay. Well-nigh of the other, older arcade games don't actually let multiple players play at once, instead having them switch off performing the same tasks to come across who can get a college score. The two notable exceptions in Namco Museum are Tank Force and Rolling Thunder ii, both of which allow for multiple simultaneous players.

Not Much Else

There are no Mega Human being Legacy Collection-esque extras to be institute in Namco Museum. Soundtracks and game art aren't found outside of where you would unremarkably hear them in each game or see them equally the small handful of backgrounds.

Each game has a Challenge manner that prompts y'all to complete a task quickly, while taking as little impairment as possible. They're generally footling more quick bursts of normal gameplay, like running through a specific level in Splatterhouse or Rolling Thunder. They're proficient for jumping straight into the challenging parts of games, but you won't detect anything new here. Your performance in the Challenge modes tin can be compared with others through online leaderboards, but that's the most online multiplayer you'll get.

Namco Museum is a fun, if uneven, collection of some of Namco'due south best pre-90s arcade games. It's missing a few big names while including some really disruptive choices, merely it provides a good await at only what ate and so many quarters in the years earlier Nintendo became synonymous with video games. While it feels slightly disjointed and lite on content thanks to its game picks, the scattering that still concur upward as classics and the unique multiplayer experience of Pac-Man Vs. make it somewhat compelling as a $30 bundle. It's worth a expect for anyone who pines for the days of classic arcade games, and who wants some different choices than the piecemeal Neo Geo games currently bachelor on the Switch (and who are waiting for the nonetheless-unannounced Switch Virtual Panel to actually open up the floodgates for older games on the system).

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/review/16966/namco-museum-for-nintendo-switch

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