Namco Museum 64 is an “arcade compilation” simulator developed by a company named Mass Media, whose life started out as a production unit under game developer Cinemaware before hopping around from companies like Phillips to Time Warner before eventually becoming indie developers in their own right, before eventually getting claimed by THQ who apparently closed the studio. Their history up to creating Namco Museum 64 is one of little detail aside from a Wikipedia article and some mentions here and there, and as such I assume the creation of Namco Museum 64 isn’t really super crazy or special as it’s a bunch of arcade games ported to the N64, and as such would later be released in 1999. I don’t remember exactly how I got this game, as I remember picking up the N64 from a buddy of mine in high school for about 20 dollars and for all I know this game could’ve came with it (though I know Wetrix and Tetrisphere certainly did) though I could’ve also bought it as a “play for the memories but keep on the shelf” sort of thing at a flea market or a retro gaming store. My goal is to at least play one game per console per year, and as such after playing the Shadow Man N64 port last year I had decided to forego a long game like Goldeneye and Super Mario 64 just so I could have a breather. The rest of this review will also be pretty free-form as it’s a compilation of simple titles.
The plot for these games are so simple or non-existent that it doesn’t really apply here. Both in Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man revolves around gobbling balls (heh) and eating ghosts, trying to get the high score for both as quickly as humanly possible while trying not to die, each round getting harder as you go further and further. They’re old classics, fun and feature that iconic Pac-Man theme that rings in the ears of old heads everywhere. Galaga and Galaxian are “fixed shooter” arcade games where you control a spaceship shooting other spaceships and trying not to lose three lives while getting the highest arcade points possible. Pole Position (not the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City strip club though that would probably be more fun) is a racing game where you have to go as fast as possible, making tight turns and trying to whizz (heh) past other racers to get to the finish line without crashing as that’ll make you lose time as well as points. My favorite of course is Dig Dug, which has you playing as the titular miner character who digs into the ground and hits them with an air pump before pumping it so hard they explode (heh for the fifth time) or perhaps crushing them with a rock by digging underneath one. It’s a simple game, effective and the one I could lose the most hours out of any of the games in the collection.
Graphics and music wise I have no complaints as everything is old and iconic, delivering a strange feeling of fake nostalgia for an era I don’t have. After all, what is nostalgia except a series of feelings and emotions, wants and needs tied to eras of the past that while you look upon rather fondly might not feel as real as one might believe. I don’t have any personal ties to these games nor did I grow up on them, but historically they’re an important part of the legacy of gaming and as such they’re respected and cherished enough to be ported to everything and their grandmother. They’re paid homage to in modern games through easter eggs or loading screen minigames, trophies or quotes. Old gamers reminisce on youtube about these titles with such passion that it makes me wish that I had this idealized version of my childhood that they have in their heads. Maybe this is all they have, I don’t know. Regardless of my sad sounding depression rants, I respect these games a lot for what they are and what they deliver even if they don’t do anything for me emotionally. The only thing else I could tell you about this game is that according to the Wikipedia page: “The N64 version requires a Controller Pak with eight free pages and one free slot to save high scores and settings”, which maybe true but I’ll be honest I didn’t pay attention to this in the slightest, as these games are pretty chill one and done sessions unless you’re the kid at the arcade wanting to get the highest ranks possible. Also the games work pretty well using just the D-Pad and the A Button which is solid and simple.
Namco Museum N64 is one of those games that I feel you plug in and play when you feel like getting a five minute burst of retro feel on an old console when you’re an individual looking back on the past like me. Perhaps you don’t want to play much of anything and would rather have a game where you can turn off your brain and not do shit, like me and Dig Dug. Maybe you’re an older man who just discovered your old console and after having two divorces and a child you desperately want to bond with who’s a gamer, you break out the Isopropyl and give it a good clean and blow into the cartridge (insert bad rap blowjob joke here) before showing your child how simple the old days were with gaming. All of that is valid, one of many compilations of old games that you can’t really go wrong with and can pick up at any place for ten dollars or so. It’s not bad in the slightest, though I don’t see myself playing this much as I would see myself playing the Xbox version of Namco Museum instead. However, POUND HD Cables have been released unknowingly for the console and now that it has, I might hook it up to a retro setup for the HDMI TV and perhaps if I have friends over, or if some online review buddies need footage of old N64 games then perhaps I could use it for that. It's not a bad game but you could probably get a better experience at a throwback arcade. As for the developers themselves, they would work on a variety of games between strange party games like Shrek Super Party to religious games like “The Bible Game” on Playstation 2, before apparently contributing to games like Saints Row 2 on Windows, the solid remasters of Jak and Daxter for Playstation 3 and most recently maybe porting New Tales from the Borderlands to Nintendo Switch? I don’t know, a lot of these Wikipedia articles could be wrong but if it’s true then they’re jobs are very eclectic if not representative of a game studio trying to get by paying the bills, which in itself isn’t wrong. After all, that’s what we all do at the end of the day, work to pay bills.
Links:
https://www.mobygames.com/company/1562/mass-media-games-inc/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxYzjjs6d1s&ab_channel=TheCantinaBand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namco_Museum
https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/04/19/namcos-us-launch-title
https://www.amazon.com/Pound-HDMI-Link-Cable-Nintendo-64/dp/B09NHSVKJK (These cables usually work amazingly)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Media_(company)
The plot for these games are so simple or non-existent that it doesn’t really apply here. Both in Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man revolves around gobbling balls (heh) and eating ghosts, trying to get the high score for both as quickly as humanly possible while trying not to die, each round getting harder as you go further and further. They’re old classics, fun and feature that iconic Pac-Man theme that rings in the ears of old heads everywhere. Galaga and Galaxian are “fixed shooter” arcade games where you control a spaceship shooting other spaceships and trying not to lose three lives while getting the highest arcade points possible. Pole Position (not the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City strip club though that would probably be more fun) is a racing game where you have to go as fast as possible, making tight turns and trying to whizz (heh) past other racers to get to the finish line without crashing as that’ll make you lose time as well as points. My favorite of course is Dig Dug, which has you playing as the titular miner character who digs into the ground and hits them with an air pump before pumping it so hard they explode (heh for the fifth time) or perhaps crushing them with a rock by digging underneath one. It’s a simple game, effective and the one I could lose the most hours out of any of the games in the collection.
Graphics and music wise I have no complaints as everything is old and iconic, delivering a strange feeling of fake nostalgia for an era I don’t have. After all, what is nostalgia except a series of feelings and emotions, wants and needs tied to eras of the past that while you look upon rather fondly might not feel as real as one might believe. I don’t have any personal ties to these games nor did I grow up on them, but historically they’re an important part of the legacy of gaming and as such they’re respected and cherished enough to be ported to everything and their grandmother. They’re paid homage to in modern games through easter eggs or loading screen minigames, trophies or quotes. Old gamers reminisce on youtube about these titles with such passion that it makes me wish that I had this idealized version of my childhood that they have in their heads. Maybe this is all they have, I don’t know. Regardless of my sad sounding depression rants, I respect these games a lot for what they are and what they deliver even if they don’t do anything for me emotionally. The only thing else I could tell you about this game is that according to the Wikipedia page: “The N64 version requires a Controller Pak with eight free pages and one free slot to save high scores and settings”, which maybe true but I’ll be honest I didn’t pay attention to this in the slightest, as these games are pretty chill one and done sessions unless you’re the kid at the arcade wanting to get the highest ranks possible. Also the games work pretty well using just the D-Pad and the A Button which is solid and simple.
Namco Museum N64 is one of those games that I feel you plug in and play when you feel like getting a five minute burst of retro feel on an old console when you’re an individual looking back on the past like me. Perhaps you don’t want to play much of anything and would rather have a game where you can turn off your brain and not do shit, like me and Dig Dug. Maybe you’re an older man who just discovered your old console and after having two divorces and a child you desperately want to bond with who’s a gamer, you break out the Isopropyl and give it a good clean and blow into the cartridge (insert bad rap blowjob joke here) before showing your child how simple the old days were with gaming. All of that is valid, one of many compilations of old games that you can’t really go wrong with and can pick up at any place for ten dollars or so. It’s not bad in the slightest, though I don’t see myself playing this much as I would see myself playing the Xbox version of Namco Museum instead. However, POUND HD Cables have been released unknowingly for the console and now that it has, I might hook it up to a retro setup for the HDMI TV and perhaps if I have friends over, or if some online review buddies need footage of old N64 games then perhaps I could use it for that. It's not a bad game but you could probably get a better experience at a throwback arcade. As for the developers themselves, they would work on a variety of games between strange party games like Shrek Super Party to religious games like “The Bible Game” on Playstation 2, before apparently contributing to games like Saints Row 2 on Windows, the solid remasters of Jak and Daxter for Playstation 3 and most recently maybe porting New Tales from the Borderlands to Nintendo Switch? I don’t know, a lot of these Wikipedia articles could be wrong but if it’s true then they’re jobs are very eclectic if not representative of a game studio trying to get by paying the bills, which in itself isn’t wrong. After all, that’s what we all do at the end of the day, work to pay bills.
Links:
https://www.mobygames.com/company/1562/mass-media-games-inc/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxYzjjs6d1s&ab_channel=TheCantinaBand
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namco_Museum
https://www.ign.com/articles/2001/04/19/namcos-us-launch-title
https://www.amazon.com/Pound-HDMI-Link-Cable-Nintendo-64/dp/B09NHSVKJK (These cables usually work amazingly)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_Media_(company)