Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary for GameCube Reviews & Ratings by IGN

If Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary is how Namco commemorates company milestones, I don't want to show up to any of its parties. This "celebratory" compilation is so tame and unenthusiastic that there's barely any pride inserted in its backlog of arcade games from more than two decades ago. Many of the games included in this package are still as pick-up-and-play friendly and as fun as they have always been, but that's all you're getting. No history, no cool development anecdotes, no creator notes. Nothing but the games. And for a commemorative package, that just doesn't cut it.

Namco has always been big on re-releasing its classic games on current consoles. In fact, one of the most sought after discs in the original PlayStation library was a collection of arcade games that spanned more than five discs covering nearly all the gems in the company's backlog. The company already offered a Namco Museum for the Xbox, GameCube, and PlayStation 2 back in 2001, so for its anniversary we were expecting a huge bang. First of all, Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary is a collection that spans 25 years of history. Guh? What'd they do before Galaxian and Pac-Man? This package doesn't answer this question. Nor does it break down the history of Namco, its games and its properties, or even explain the success or failures of the titles in this package. What could have been the Director's Cut DVD of videogames ends up as what could be considered one of those quickly-produced bargain discs you can find in the bin at Walgreens.

The package says 14 classic arcade hits, but in reality there are 16 since two games in the package are unlockable. For 20 bucks you get conversions of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Rally-X, Pole Position, Pole Position II, Xevious, Dragon Spirit, Bosconian, Rolling Thunder, Mappy, and Sky Kid. Both Pac-Mania and Galaga '88 are also in the collection, but are tucked away as unlockables, only becoming available after players set specific high scores in some of the available games. Many of these games are simply repeats from a Namco Museum package that's still available as a Greatest Hits/Platinum Hits/Player's Choice for the consoles, so their reappearance definitely deadens the impact of the new package.

At the very least, the conversions from arcade to console have been pulled off almost perfectly, much better than the ports handled in the original Namco Museum. That's most likely attributed to the fact that these versions were handled by Digital Eclipse, who have built a business around commercial emulation; the studio's handled classic compilations for Atari, Midway, and Capcom with varying levels of success, but at least the game conversions have gone swimmingly every time they've worked on them. Every game in the package behaves as close to the original arcade version, right down to the recognizable patterns in the action. Every game works well with the standard controller, with the exception of Pole Position and Pole Position II, both which originally used a free-spinning wheel. The analog stick does an okay job of simulating this, but it can't replace the original's feel.

Unfortunately, many of Namco's games were vertically oriented, meaning that a standard 4:3 monitor had been tipped 90 degrees to give a taller aspect ratio. To accurately mirror the look of these games, letterboxing has been implemented; black bars on either side of the playfield have been added. Previous versions of the Namco Museum implement the original arcade cabinet's artwork to fill in these voids, but Namco Museum: 50th Anniversary offers a pure, sterile, black look instead. Surprisingly and disappointingly, no version of this collection offers 480p support for a crisper appearance for these vertically oriented games.

Outside of spot-on accurate emulations of 20-plus year old games, you're not getting much else. The interface is cool enough: a turntable of 3D arcade machines that represents the original game's look and makes selecting games a intuitive snap. But beyond this, no effort was made to show the history of Namco or its games. Past collections were minimal in this material, too, but they did way more than what Namco did for this new addition.

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