Namco Museum Remix (Wii)
Namco Bandai
ESRB: Everyone
Official siteThere’s an entire generation of gamers who have never played a single game of Pac-Man in an arcade or on a TV. We’ve now reached an era in video games where Super Mario World is considered retro, and shoving quarters into a Donkey Kong machine seems almost quaint. But as long as there are people with cherished memories of Atari games and arcades, there will be compilations of old-school games sold largely on the basis of nostalgia. Namco Museum Remix is an attempt to capitalize on Wii gamers who may not have touched a video game since those halcyon days of Galaga and Space Invaders.
As the "Remix" moniker implies, Namco’s latest compilation includes four updated versions of the old classics Galaga, Rally-X, Motos, and Gator Panic. It also includes a Wii port of Pac 'n' Roll, originally released for the DS. The compilation also includes nine arcade classics in their original form; some have previously been released in other compilations for other consoles. Chances are you’ll recognize a few of the classics -- Super Pac-Man and Galaxian are the obvious ones -- but probably not others. If you’re dying to replay some of the old titles, then you’ve probably already made the decision to buy.
For everyone else, it’s the remixed games that will probably attract the most attention. Pac 'n' Roll is the most successful conversion of the bunch -- not surprising, considering it was developed separately as a standalone DS game. Think Pac-Man meets Katamari Damacy -- you roll Pac-Man through 3D mazes, collecting the ever-familiar dots and avoiding ghosts. While the addition of things like ramps and additional powerups add a little spice to the classic gameplay, Pac-Man himself is a bit harder to control, thanks to the angled isometric view, the pinball-like physics, and the somewhat wishy-washy nunchuk controls.
Problems with sloppy controls plague most of the other remix games as well, especially Gator Panic and Rally-X. Gator Panic’s single-level whack-a-mole gameplay is also incredibly lacking when it comes to staying power; it’s barely a minigame, perhaps on par with some of the side games in Warioware. The other games do have slightly more depth, but none is likely to entertain for hours on end.
Namco did, at least, put more than the bare minimum of effort into Namco Museum Remix, but they almost shouldn’t have bothered. If you’re not already familiar with some of the classic titles included, there’s really no reason for you to spend $30 on this when other, more interesting minigame collections are available. (Don’t Bother: 40/100)