Namco Museum Review: Adequasivity

Namco Museum brings a selection of arcade classics to Nintendo Switch, but is it a strong enough selection with enough to be worth your time and money?

Developer: Namco Bandai
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: July 28, 2017

Fitting that I use a twenty-year-old reference for a collection series that’s been around just as long. Nowadays Bandai Namco might be best known as the people who bring at least one annual entry in the Tales Of series and numerous games based on the anime series Naruto and Dragonball. But long before that, they were an arcade powerhouse back when arcades were still a regular thing.  Bandai Namco has constantly reminded of us this since basically 1995 when the first game in the collection series known as Namco Museum came out in 1995 on the very first PlayStation console. Bandai Namco has been trying to get cash out of retro gamers wallets ever since with repeated releases on numerous consoles. Usually, each release would have one or two games or versions of games you couldn’t get on another collection, making it a nightmare for any Namco completists.

With that in mind, we come to the latest release, simply titled Namco Museum for the Nintendo Switch. Namco Museum offers classic arcade play of ten fairly well-known arcade releases perfectly emulated, and one super popular GameCube release on the go along with some minor bells and whistles. And while that may be an appealing package for somebody who wants retro games on their Nintendo Switch, I feel like there could’ve been a lot more done here.

As I stated, Namco Museum offers ten “classics” for you to play on the go on the Nintendo Switch. The titles are as follows: Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, Galaga ‘88, The Tower of Druaga, Rolling Thunder, Rolling Thunder 2, Sky Kid, Splatterhouse, Tank Force and Pac-Man vs. There are some undeniable icons of arcade gaming in there, but there are also Tower of Druaga and Sky Kid. And with the exception of Splatterhouse, which is not terrible but isn’t very good, all of these have been available, many of them numerous times, in other volumes. Hell, you might have half of these available for free on your phone or tablet. It would be nice if they threw more updated versions like Pac-Man Championship Edition as an option or a much wider array of games, but I would not be surprised if they intend to release more volumes in the future.

Namco Museum is adequate for what it does, but it could have been so much more.

The extra gameplay features in Namco Museum are satisfactory in that there are save states so you can take a break from long sessions if you are having a good run, online leaderboards, and the ability to give yourself as many credits as you like to keep playing. However, no online play is offered, and since pretty much every game has multiplayer that seems like a missed opportunity, especially with Pac-Man vs.

Pac-Man vs. is arguably the main reason to get Namco Museum for the Nintendo Switch. It was previously available in a collection on the Nintendo DS as well, but it’s a great multiplayer title that was way ahead of its time when it originally came out on the GameCube. Basically, one player is Pac-Man, the other three players are ghosts trying to catch him. Back on the Gamecube, you needed the rather complicated setup of the Gamecube, several Game Boy Advances, and link cables in order to play.  In Namco Museum you can play up to three players on one Switch (and that way isn’t very good), and you need two in order to have the full experience. Luckily, you only need one copy of the game as fellow Switch owners can download a free app to make this work. And while that’s cool, it’s kind of ridiculous that this app only works for Pac-Man vs. and no other titles in the collection.

And while other more recent collections of classics gamers loved years ago usually have some exploration of the past, Namco Museum has none. There are no interviews, concept art, articles, or anything to give an idea that any of these games were historic or impactful at all. I’m sure most people still have a sense of Pac-Man, but not any other titles in this collection.

More app trigger: Best Nintendo Switch games out right now

Ultimately, whether Namco Museum is worth your time and money is a question of if you feel the need to have a decent collection of arcade classics on the go with you. If so, I think there’s just enough here to warrant a pickup, and these types of games are pretty ideal if you only have a few minutes to play and just want to get something quick in. Namco Museum is adequate for what it does, but it could have been so much more.

A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.