The games in here don't have a lot of lasting appeal, but as a piece of history, this collection is enjoyable. Toy Pop is the highlight for me.
I spent a lot of time just wandering around the museum as a kid.
I spent a lot of time just wandering around the museum as a kid.
Video game museums are beautiful places. I'm just now having this epiphany that I love being in museums in video games. I'm thinking about certain parts of the Radiohead Kid Amnesiac experience, the museum section of Sonic Mega Collection, Animal Crossing museums, the trophy gallery in Melee, Bubsy Visit the James Turrell Retrospective, all these things are very different but are what I would consider to be vital video game museums. And in that list, near the top, is the titular Namco Museum.
So Namco Museum games have been on basically every console since the PS1, and if you've played any entry besides the PS1 games, you wouldn't realize that at some point there was an actual "museum" to this so-called "Namco Museum". It's not just a catchy name for a collection of old games, it was an actual virtual location to walk around and observe exhibits in. You play as Pac-Man, as indicated by the adorable Pac-Man sprite in the bottom left corner that walks when you walk and goes "!" when he notices something you can click on. After giving a nice robot attendant your 3-letter name, you begin to wander the halls of the (relatively small) museum, featuring 6 main exhibits dedicated to the games on this entry in the series and a lounge dedicated to extras. The calm and atmospheric music, the PS1 textured marble tiles and columns, it's perfect video game museum vibes, and, tragically, this feature never made it outside of these initial entries. There's an option for if you want to just get straight to the game, you can just immediately start playing Pac-Man if you'd like, but I'm the kind of person who would much rather walk slowly to Pac-Man after going through the Pac-Man exhibit and observing several pieces of Pac-Man paraphernalia.
As for the game selection itself, obviously, you want to open with Pac-Man and Galaga, that's a no-brainer. But other all-timers like Dig Dug and Ms.Pac-Man are left out, not to be seen until later entries in the PS1 Namco Museum collection, in a move that is absolutely motivated by getting you to buy more than one of these games, but I think Namco makes up for this tactic by having this entry include two games that most people wouldn't recognize: Toypop and Bosconian. These are not only obscure entries but also just plain fun games, so including them in the first volume was a great idea. It sets the ground rules of these games: A little bit of the classics, and a little bit of the deep cuts, all treated with the same amount of historical importance. And Pole Position is there, say hi to Pole Position for me I guess.
Now obviously, this game, and this series on the PS1 in general, is not the ideal way to play any of these games. You can only play them with a d-pad, they don't emulate sound perfectly, and they take a hit lag-wise. And the museum aspect itself has some problems, like every image and piece of an exhibit taking around 5 seconds or so to load, which ends up discouraging you from checking out every piece of the museum if you value your time. But despite these problems, the vibes win out in the end. I haven't even mentioned the fantastical rooms that each game resides in. After going through little bits and details of each game, you go through a door that transports you out of the museum and into another world, much like these games did for the people who played them. Each of these rooms also has an incredible arrangement of their respective game's theme, made even more impressive considering most of them didn't have much music to work off of. No matter their problems, these games might be worth it just for these arrangements alone.
As someone who is very intrigued by Namco's classic arcade line-up and also someone who loves going through a virtual exhibit, I cannot wait to go through the rest of this series. I know this is not the ideal way to experience these games, except they are, because they're in a cool ps1 museum. Who needs accuracy when you have vibes?
So Namco Museum games have been on basically every console since the PS1, and if you've played any entry besides the PS1 games, you wouldn't realize that at some point there was an actual "museum" to this so-called "Namco Museum". It's not just a catchy name for a collection of old games, it was an actual virtual location to walk around and observe exhibits in. You play as Pac-Man, as indicated by the adorable Pac-Man sprite in the bottom left corner that walks when you walk and goes "!" when he notices something you can click on. After giving a nice robot attendant your 3-letter name, you begin to wander the halls of the (relatively small) museum, featuring 6 main exhibits dedicated to the games on this entry in the series and a lounge dedicated to extras. The calm and atmospheric music, the PS1 textured marble tiles and columns, it's perfect video game museum vibes, and, tragically, this feature never made it outside of these initial entries. There's an option for if you want to just get straight to the game, you can just immediately start playing Pac-Man if you'd like, but I'm the kind of person who would much rather walk slowly to Pac-Man after going through the Pac-Man exhibit and observing several pieces of Pac-Man paraphernalia.
As for the game selection itself, obviously, you want to open with Pac-Man and Galaga, that's a no-brainer. But other all-timers like Dig Dug and Ms.Pac-Man are left out, not to be seen until later entries in the PS1 Namco Museum collection, in a move that is absolutely motivated by getting you to buy more than one of these games, but I think Namco makes up for this tactic by having this entry include two games that most people wouldn't recognize: Toypop and Bosconian. These are not only obscure entries but also just plain fun games, so including them in the first volume was a great idea. It sets the ground rules of these games: A little bit of the classics, and a little bit of the deep cuts, all treated with the same amount of historical importance. And Pole Position is there, say hi to Pole Position for me I guess.
Now obviously, this game, and this series on the PS1 in general, is not the ideal way to play any of these games. You can only play them with a d-pad, they don't emulate sound perfectly, and they take a hit lag-wise. And the museum aspect itself has some problems, like every image and piece of an exhibit taking around 5 seconds or so to load, which ends up discouraging you from checking out every piece of the museum if you value your time. But despite these problems, the vibes win out in the end. I haven't even mentioned the fantastical rooms that each game resides in. After going through little bits and details of each game, you go through a door that transports you out of the museum and into another world, much like these games did for the people who played them. Each of these rooms also has an incredible arrangement of their respective game's theme, made even more impressive considering most of them didn't have much music to work off of. No matter their problems, these games might be worth it just for these arrangements alone.
As someone who is very intrigued by Namco's classic arcade line-up and also someone who loves going through a virtual exhibit, I cannot wait to go through the rest of this series. I know this is not the ideal way to experience these games, except they are, because they're in a cool ps1 museum. Who needs accuracy when you have vibes?
games were excellent but museum itself felt... lacking and... odd. like i accidentally stumbled somewhere i wasn't supposed to be
7/10
7/10
Neat collection. Actually really feels like a museum. All the little extras and the presentation on the games is really cool.
Vibes.
big fan of the museum itself. very nice early 3d first person stuff nice atmosphere. games include rally x and new rally x though so it's not that good
While the emulation of these old arcade games have been vastly improved over the years, I can't help but love the old PS1 Namco Museums just because of their presentation. There's just a certain charm with walking through a virtual museum filled with tons of images of Namco's past and neat 3D rooms that is not really there with the relatively generic menus of the later Namco Museums.
the museums in these are such a vibe
exploring the museum changed my child brain i think
the museum made me.. actually sick. why is the music making me feel so lonely & afraid. it feels like backrooms. i had nightmares of it.
For some reason I've always found myself victim to needing every single Namco Museum I can get my hands on, but the original series for the PSX continues to be my favorite versions. Cute cinematics, great documentation of media related to each game, convenient tutorials, and the first Namco Museum has a fairly solid selection of games as well. Pac-Man is always a classic and there's no need to comment, same with Galaga. Pole Position is fun if you turn the volume all the way down and don't get motion sickness. Bosconian is pretty fun although not that engaging to me personally. Including both version of Rally-X is awesome, even if New Rally-X completely negates the need for the original IMO. Toy Pop is the only game I'm not entirely a fan of, simply for the fact that controlling the game feels too slippery. A very fun time and very relaxing as well.
Few things are as joyful and magic in games as walking through the museum with that gorgeous, relaxing music, and playing these wonderful classics. The amazing presentation makes this more than just a mere collection of games.
All video game compilations should have something like this, instead of just boring menus.
All video game compilations should have something like this, instead of just boring menus.
The presentation goes through the roof. It's so enjoyable exploring the museum and learning about some of the history the games had. It's so charming. Speaking of the games, however, they are not emulated and are recreated instead, leading to some inaccuracies. And the game selection is rather bland though, consisting only of Namco's biggest hits (and Toy Pop). It's still a decent pickup today, and the museums get better and better as you go through each volume.
Pretty good selection of Namco games along with historical context, although held back by poor emulation accuracy and clunky navigation. The only reason I'd say to get it now is because of Toypop, which as of this writing, still doesn't have an easily available modern port. If you don't care about that game? Skip this entirely. There's more readily available and way better versions of the other games on here.