Mrs. Pac Man and Galaga and Dig Dug oh my!

When I saw this the day after I got my Game Boy Advance I knew I had to buy it. It was a no brainer. I mean all these great games on one little cartridge?! How can you go wrong? Well I didn't think I could go wrong so that is why I purchased Namco Museum. Now I'm the coolest kid on the block! Let's chat a little about the game.

When you turn the game on you are greeted with the Namco Museum title screen and a nifty little remix song of all the sounds you would hear when playing these 5 games. You then go to the menu where you scroll through the five games and pick which one you want to play.

Mrs. Pac Man

I never really played this one at the arcade all that much, but my aunt got me into it. You can play this a few times and say, "Hey, big deal, you go around and eat dots and much on some stupid fruit all day", but that is what you might say. I say it is a challenge. A challenge to beat your friends high score. A challenge to see if you can actually make it through all the levels using only your 3 original lives. I battle against those darn ghosts!

The Game Boy Advance version of this great game is very close to the arcade. You slow down while eating dots and go faster when you have a clear path. The sounds are pretty close and the ghosts have the intelligence of the original. This one is great to play on any road trip.

Galaga

This is one of my favorite old arcade classics. It is fun to play on the GBA, but it's just not the same. The bugs are very small on the screen and it is hard to see what is going on sometimes because of the black background. They did capture all the sights and sounds of the original, but the GBA doesn't do it justice. This is still fun to play, but the translation is not as good as Mrs. Pac Man, mostly because of the limited screen space and restricted visability while playing.

Dig Dug

This is another great game that is included. The conversion to the GBA is great. The music is the exact same, as well as the sound effects, graphics, gameplay and control. The music starts when you begin to move your man, and stops when he stops, just like the arcade. Dropping rocks on those dragons and popping those orange guys has never been more fun. I don't know how many levels there are in this game, but I have made it up to level 34 using many continues. How far can you get?

Pole Position

My friend TheDon recently purchased the original arcade machine of Pole Position. After playing that for hours, then playing this GBA version I could really notice some differences. First of all, they got the exact starting music and exact title screen, but thats about it. The voice of the lady that says, "Prepare to qualify" sounds different, and when you start going the acceleration of the car sounds different. When you hit the first turn you will notice the car handles a lot different. The crashes are the exact same. The scoring is the same, but this GBA version seems to give you more time or something, it is easier to qualify for the big race. Most of all, there is no stearing wheel or shift knob to make you feel like you are driving a race car. It's still a great addition to this museum of games.

Galaxian

I never really play this one because it is like Galaga on drugs. The gameplay is slow and the levels are boring. It is like the arcade game, but the arcade game was lame so big deal. You probably won't play this one when you have the other four to pick from. But hey it's on there and I say that the other four are worth the $30.00.

Overall I would recommend picking this game up if you have respect for the old arcade classics. This won't eat up your quarters and the cartridge takes up a lot less space then 5 large arcade machines. (It's a lot cheaper too!)