Namco Museum DS

Overview

Namco Museum DS is a collection of older Namco games, mostly from arcades, running on the Nintendo DS through emulation. While you play, the top screen shows the game, and the bottom screen gives you control options. You can change how the game looks, choosing between a vertical or horizontal display. If you pick vertical, you have to hold the DS sideways. There are also settings to adjust the difficulty, plus a hardcore mode where you can tweak things manually by flipping DIP switches on a fake arcade motherboard shown on screen.

The collection has seven arcade games: Galaxian from 1979, Pac-Man from 1980, Galaga from 1981, Xevious from 1983, Mappy from 1983, The Tower of Druaga from 1984, and Dig Dug II from 1985. You can also unlock two secret games: Super Xevious from 1984 and an older version of Dig Dug II. Alongside these, the game includes a re-release of Pac-Man Vs., a multiplayer version of Pac-Man that first came out on the GameCube in 2003. This mode supports up to four players, with one person playing as Pac-Man and the others as ghosts trying to catch them. Thanks to the DS's Download Play feature, only one copy of the game is needed; the other players can download it temporarily to their systems. The version here is mostly the same as the original, but it does not have the original's announcer voice lines.

The game starts with an introductory cutscene where characters from the different games meet and interact, each with their own theme music playing. There is also a sound test menu where you can listen to every song and sound effect from all the games in the collection. Additionally, a museum section lets you look at short descriptions, screenshots, and promotional materials about each game's history.

Release and reception

Namco Museum DS was put together by developer M2 and released by Namco Bandai Games. The lead programmer at M2, Akira Saitō, handled the coding, while Manabu Namiki composed the soundtrack. A playable demo appeared at the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. The collection first hit stores in North America on September 18, 2007, followed by a Japanese release on October 11 and a European launch in February 2008. In 2012, a dual-pack combining the collection with Pac-Man World 3, which came out in 2005, was made available.

Critics gave the game a mixed reception. On Metacritic, it earned a score of 67 out of 100 based on 19 reviews. The lineup of included games sparked debate. Kristan Reed of Eurogamer thought it might satisfy a casual player but accused the developers of being cheap compared to Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary, which offered 16 titles. Jeff Gerstmann from GameSpot found little to praise beyond the convenience of playing on a portable device. Mike Cook of Pocket Gamer called it a decent option for anyone wanting to carry a piece of history in their pocket, but felt the games themselves had not aged well and dragged down the experience. The addition of Pac-Man Vs. drew positive comments from several reviewers; Reed noted it boosted the collection’s value for an average buyer, though he doubted it was enough to match earlier Namco Museum releases.

The visual presentation drew sharp criticism. Dan Amrich of GamesRadar+ pointed out that the DS’s smaller screen compared to original arcade cabinets caused some pixels to vanish and introduced color mapping errors. Craig Harris of IGN described the default look as an exaggerated mess. Scott Pelland of Nintendo Power agreed that the graphics hurt the authentic feel of playing the classics, but considered it a small price to pay for an otherwise solid collection.

On the positive side, several reviewers appreciated the customization options available for each game. Cook found it fun to tinker with arcade circuitry and called it a nice touch, though he noted it was essentially no different from entering a cheat code. Amrich, however, saw the feature as a gesture meant to compensate for the poor graphics.