The Past is a Blast

If you were happily blasting aliens and burning quarters at the arcade just past the Age of Pong, Namco Museum for GBA is for you. If you don’t have the time or patience to find the key that unlocks the door that frees the princess in an involved quest while waiting in a fast-food drive-thru line, Namco Museum is the perfect spot-of-time filler. If you want to know how your forty-something father REALLY spent his time when he should have been studying for spring finals, check out Namco Museum. Namco Museum combines five classic, quarter-eating arcade games in a single play-‘em-til-you-drop port.

The line-up looks like this:

GALAGA, a classic get-the-aliens-before-they-get-you challenge, is probably the strongest of the five games. The sound, look and feel of the small-screen version all accurately reproduce the experience of the big machine. If you were a Galaga fan or if you enjoy fast-paced arcade blasting, this game makes the entire Museum worth the purchase price.

GALAXIAN, the older brother of Galaga,is also a faithful port of the original. The game itself doesn’t offer the quick excitement of its younger sibling, but I remember pouring many tokens down the Galaxian spout back when, and it’s still not a bad game.

DIG DUG takes the player from outer space to inner space. The goal of this one is to tunnel through layers of rock and eliminate the enemy by inflating and exploding them or by dropping rocks on them. This game also comes across well on the GBA screen. There is a bit of scrolling to accommodate the GBA display, but the scroll is smooth and doesn’t detract from dropping rocks or inflating dragons.

The dot-munching MS. PAC MAN, which probably needs no descriptive blurb, offers two versions: a small, all-on-one-screen view and a larger, scrolling view. Of the two, the one-screen view is my favorite. The scrolling makes for frustrating play.

POLE POSITION, a race car challenge, is the weakest game in the set. Control of the car using the buttons on the GBA console is awkward and more trouble than the effort is worth.

Namco Museum is an excellent choice for anyone who remembers and loves the old games or who uses the GBA to fill odd moments with quick games. Although the backgrounds of most games are black, the graphics are bright and I don’t have the usual GBA display problems when I play the games with reasonable light. On some of the games there are on-screen tips and optional settings (but don’t count on getting an unlimited number of Ms. Pac Mans). I do wish that the game included a battery back-up to hold high scores—after all, didn’t we all try harder when we thought there was a chance of getting our initials on the screen?