{"id":16795,"date":"2017-08-25T00:01:31","date_gmt":"2017-08-25T00:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=16795"},"modified":"2017-08-11T15:11:32","modified_gmt":"2017-08-11T15:11:32","slug":"namco-museum-switch-virtual-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2017\/08\/25\/namco-museum-switch-virtual-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Namco Museum Switch Virtual Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Recently I reviewed Namco Museum on Nintendo Switch.\u00a0 So now I thought I\u2019d go over each of the games in this arcade classics collection in more detail.\u00a0 So welcome to the Namco Museum!\u00a0 My name is Cary and I\u2019ll be your tour guide today on this virtual tour!\u00a0 There is no smoking and please stay with the group!<\/p>\n

Pac-Man<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s not much to say about Pac-Man that hasn\u2019t already been said.\u00a0 You can\u2019t have a Namco Museum without it!\u00a0 Most of you probably know it\u2019s my most favorite game of all time.\u00a0 It\u2019s also the first arcade game I ever played.\u00a0 When I was very little, my dad and I were watching the news on TV.\u00a0 They showed these guys building these big yellow things that I thought were soda vending machines, since they were about the same size, had a lighted marquee, and a coin slot.\u00a0 Well a few months later, my mom and I were shopping at a Kroger grocery store, and I saw that same machine I saw on TV right past the checkout lanes.\u00a0 I asked my mom if I could go look at it while she was checking out, and she said yes.\u00a0 She came over afterwards and gave me a quarter.\u00a0 Oh if she only knew what she was about to start!\u00a0 Turns out that big yellow thing was a Pac-Man arcade machine, and all the way home from the grocery store I was talking nonstop on how cool it was.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve been enthusiastic about it ever since.<\/p>\n

One thing about the games on this Namco Museum is they feature HD Rumble that Nintendo likes to brag about the Switch having.\u00a0 Well I think it\u2019s totally unnecessary for this game.\u00a0 The controller will shake violently every time you eat a power pellet or ghost, which gets annoying.\u00a0 I recommend turning it off in the options screen.<\/p>\n

Galaga<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though Galaga never got bedsheets or a breakfast cereal or a Saturday morning cartoon, it\u2019s probably almost, if not just as, popular as Pac-Man in the arcades.\u00a0 You saw it in pretty much every arcade back then, and even now.\u00a0 Namco still pumps out new Galaga games every so often, most recently are ones like Galaga Legions on Xbox 360, ticket redemption game Galaga Assault in arcades, and Galaga Wars on mobile.\u00a0 But did you know that Galaga is actually a sequel to an older arcade game called Galaxian?\u00a0 And did you know that Galaxian was the first game to feature RGB color graphics on the screen?<\/p>\n

Dig Dug<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another popular early 80\u2019s arcade game.\u00a0 I like this one a lot, too.\u00a0 You dig through the ground and defeat enemies with an air pump.\u00a0 Here\u2019s some interesting Dig Dug facts.\u00a0 Dig Dug\u2019s actual name is Taizo Hori, and he has a son named Susumu Hori.\u00a0 Susumu has his own game, too, and you may have heard of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s called Mr. Driller.\u00a0 So yeah, Dig Dug is Mr. Driller\u2019s dad.\u00a0 What\u2019s even weirder is that there is a popular theory going around, and I think Namco has even confirmed it, that a lot of their games happen in the same universe across a vast time line.\u00a0 So games like Dig Dug, Mr. Driller, and Baraduke are in the same universe as titles like Galaxian, Galaga, StarBlade, and even Ace Combat!\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that crazy?<\/p>\n

The Tower of Druaga<\/strong><\/p>\n

This game was never released in the US, but Namco insists on putting it in nearly all of their Namco Museums.\u00a0 In fact I never heard of it until it was on Namco Museum vol. 3 on the PSOne.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 2-D maze game that was heavily influenced by Dungeons and Dragons themes.\u00a0 It was insanely popular in Japan, though.\u00a0 They had a Druaga board game, sequels in the arcade and on home consoles, and even an anime a few years ago (although I hear the anime wasn\u2019t very good and didn\u2019t have much to do with the source material).\u00a0 The original arcade game isn\u2019t very good because it\u2019s so secretive.\u00a0 In order to complete the game, you have to find a treasure chest on every floor that contains important items like boots that make you go faster, or a more powerful sword and shield.\u00a0 But in order to make the treasure chests appear, you have to do weird things like defeat certain enemies or break certain walls, and the game doesn\u2019t give you any clue as to what you need to do on each floor.\u00a0 But even though the game isn\u2019t very good, I\u2019ve enjoyed learning about the game ever since I first heard of it.\u00a0 Like for instance, did you know the story is very loosely based on one of the oldest pieces of literature called The Epic of Gilgamesh.\u00a0 And Namco puts a lot of Druaga cameos into their games.\u00a0 Even the newest Smash Bros. had Druaga cameos in the form of a Mii outfit!<\/p>\n

SkyKid<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a 2-D side scrolling shooter featuring cute characters in biplanes.\u00a0 If you get hit, you\u2019ll spin dive, but you can hit the loop button a bunch to try and pull out of it before you hit the ground.\u00a0 The main theme song is also pretty catchy, and I also like it because I\u2019ve always been fascinated with biplanes.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve never seen it in arcades very much.\u00a0 In fact, the only place I saw it as a kid was at the local Wal-Mart near the entrance.\u00a0 Back then, a lot of stores would put a couple of arcade games near the door.\u00a0 And at this Wal-Mart near my house, they had a SkyKid cabinet for a while.\u00a0 But I rarely played it because when we went to Wal-Mart, my mom would usually always give me one quarter to play a game.\u00a0 And right beside SkyKid was Super Pac-Man, so you can guess which one I usually picked.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s how I got so good at Super Pac-Man was from playing it at that Wal-Mart so much!\u00a0 Oh yeah, one more thing.\u00a0 I always thought it would be funny to put the SkyKid biplane in an Ace Combat game.\u00a0 Well I heard that in the last game, they did that!<\/p>\n

Rolling Thunder<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a 2-D platformer shooter with a spy theme.\u00a0 It was really popular in arcades, and I saw it a lot back then, and it had quite a few home ports as well.\u00a0 And it had a lot of imitators, like Code Name Viper on the NES and even the first Shinobi game played a lot like Rolling Thunder.\u00a0 I never liked it much, though, because it was kind of clunky and hard.\u00a0 It certainly had its own style, though.\u00a0 One interesting theory I read about recently was that Time Crisis is related to Rolling Thunder in a way. I\u2019ll have to look into that more.<\/p>\n

Galaga 88<\/strong><\/p>\n

Told ya that Galaga was popular, as this is one of its many sequels.\u00a0 The graphics are improved and they made a few gameplay tweaks to make it more challenging and add replay value, but it pretty much plays the same as the original.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit cutesy-er, too, which I like.\u00a0 One weird thing is I think the emulation on this version of Namco Museum is the Japanese game.\u00a0 Most of it is in English anyway, so it doesn\u2019t matter, but the high score ranking screen has some Japanese characters at the top.\u00a0 I don\u2019t remember them being in other Namco Museums that had Galaga \u201988 on it.\u00a0 Unless I just didn\u2019t notice it.\u00a0 But I think this Namco Museum on Switch caters to more of the Japanese crowd anyway, which we\u2019ll see in a bit.<\/p>\n

Splatterhouse<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a little surprised this game is on this collection, as it was pretty controversial back then, almost as much as Mortal Kombat.\u00a0 It\u2019s a hyper violent (well, for the late 80s) side scrolling beat \u2018em up that\u2019s also like a tribute to horror slasher movies.\u00a0 Your guy even wears a hockey mask as he pummels all manner of gross monsters who splat against the wall in explosions of pixelated goo.\u00a0 Back then, I don\u2019t remember seeing it in arcades, but I do remember it on home consoles like the TG-16 and its sequels.\u00a0 And the game\u2019s a bit hard and clunky and not really my cup of tea anyway.\u00a0 I do have the 3-D Splatterhouse remake on Xbox 360, though. WHY in the world would I have that, you might ask.\u00a0 Well it has all three of the old Splatterhouse games on it, I got the game for only 20 bucks, and it also came with a replica of the \u201cTerror Mask.\u201d Plus the Terror Mask in that game was voiced by Jim Cummings, so I had to see that.\u00a0\u00a0 I knew going in the game was going to be violent, but it was also very difficult and juvenile, so I stopped playing after a while.\u00a0 I mean, one of the collectables you pick up are near-naked pictures of your girlfriend.<\/p>\n

Tank Force<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the start of the 80s, along with games like Pac-Man and Rally-X, Namco made another maze game, this time featuring tanks.\u00a0 It was called Tank Battalion and I\u2019m not really sure if it came to the US, but it\u2019s like an expanded version of Atari\u2019s older Tank game, and it also reminds me of the tank maze mini-game from the TRON arcade title.\u00a0 It was also ported to the Famicom under the name Battle City.\u00a0 Your task is to shoot down the base of the enemy tanks at the top of the maze, while defending your own at the bottom.\u00a0 It\u2019s Game Over if you lose all your lives or if the enemy tanks shoot your base.\u00a0 Most of the walls were breakable, too, so you had to use strategy when you shoot.\u00a0 Fast forward to 1991.\u00a0 Tank Force is pretty much the same game, except with 16-bit style graphics, obstacles like water, two player support, and power-ups.\u00a0 It kind of reminds me of the \u201cArrangement\u201d updates of classic Namco arcade games that would come out a few years later.\u00a0 Also, I\u2019m pretty sure this game never came to the US.\u00a0 In fact, all the text in the game is Japanese.\u00a0 What they did for the US version of Namco Museum was put an overlay of English text over the Japanese characters, but you can still see them underneath since the text box is slightly translucent.\u00a0 I\u2019m always happy when Namco puts obscure Japanese games on their collections, because I had never heard of this game until now.<\/p>\n

Rolling Thunder 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aside from better graphics and the ability to play as either a male or female spy, this game is pretty much the same as the first, gameplay wise.\u00a0 I think this game must\u2019ve only come out in Japan as well, because like Tank Force, all the text is Japanese with an English text box superimposed over it.\u00a0 And like I said before, I was never into the Rolling Thunder games much, so I don\u2019t have anything else to say about it.<\/p>\n

Pac-Man Vs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is one of the big draws of Namco Museum on the Switch.\u00a0 Pac-Man Vs. is a very fun multiplayer Pac-Man game, but very few people have played it.\u00a0 It was originally on the GameCube, but you needed four GBAs and four link cables to play it, so that\u2019s why so many people missed out on it.\u00a0 Plus it was a pack-in game with some other less popular Namco GameCube titles like R: Racing Evolution or I-Ninja.\u00a0 There is also a version of Pac-Man Vs. on the Namco Museum game on the DS, which I like MUCH better.\u00a0 In the game, three players are ghosts and one player is Pac-Man.\u00a0 Pac-Man gets points the usual way, and the ghosts get points by catching Pac-Man.\u00a0 Whoever catches Pac-Man gets to be him next, and whoever reaches a certain score first, wins.\u00a0 The trick is that the three ghosts have a limited view of the maze on one screen, but Pac-Man can see the whole maze on a separate screen.<\/p>\n

If this sounds kind of like some of the mini-games in Nintendo Land, you\u2019re right, as both games were designed by the same person.\u00a0 Yup, Pac-Man Vs. was actually made by Shigeru Miyamoto, who is a pretty big Pac-Man fan, believe it or not (the man\u2019s got taste).\u00a0 In fact, the GameCube version had Mario as the announcer!\u00a0 Unfortunately, the Switch version of Pac-Man Vs. is based on the GameCube one, so Mario\u2019s back here, too.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t like Mario\u2019s high squeaky voice that much, and I never felt Pac-Man Vs. needed an announcer anyway.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the reasons why I prefer the DS version, as it had no announcer.\u00a0 Plus, even though the mazes are the same in both versions, one of the mazes on the DS one was reworked to be called Lib Rab Woods, and it was based on a Japan only Namco arcade game called Libble Rabble.\u00a0 Cool thing about Libble Rabble is it was made by the same guy who created Pac-Man: Toru Iwatani.<\/p>\n

The other reason why I like the DS version best is because you only needed one cartridge to play the game, and everyone can just use their own DS.\u00a0 For the Switch version you need two Switches and the second one needs to have a separate (yet free) app to play Pac-Man Vs. on it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a bit convoluted, but not as bad as what you had to do on the GameCube!\u00a0 Even so, Pac-Man Vs. is still a lot of fun.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s way better than the multiplayer arcade game Pac-Man Battle Royale.\u00a0 Actually even though it\u2019s an inferior game, I would\u2019ve liked to have seen Battle Royale on the Switch Namco Museum, too, since it is a multiplayer-centric console.<\/p>\n

Thanks for Visiting!<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that concludes our tour of Namco Museum on the Switch.\u00a0 Like I said in my main review, I liked that it had a mix of popular and obscure games on it.\u00a0 But at less than a dozen games, 30 bucks is a bit steep of a price of admission to this museum.\u00a0 I mean, Namco Museum Virtual Arcade on 360 had nearly three times as many games and cost about as much.\u00a0 Anyway, that\u2019s all for now, later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I reviewed Namco Museum on Nintendo Switch.\u00a0 So now I thought I\u2019d go over each of the games in this arcade classics collection in more detail.\u00a0 So welcome to the Namco Museum!\u00a0 My name is Cary and I\u2019ll be your tour guide today on this virtual tour!\u00a0 There is no smoking and please stay […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16795"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16797,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16795\/revisions\/16797"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}