Digital Chumps: "Namco Museum Virtual Arcade features a library of 34 classic and rearranged games-the largest collection of any Namco Museum to date. The classics all function as advertised, and the arrangements are simply ports of games released in the 90s along with previous collections. But what truly differentiates this from previous entries in the series is the inclusion of nine Xbox Live Arcade games (normally purchasable separately) which can be installed directly from the game disc for permanent ownership. At a price point of $30, it's hard to deny the appeal of such a package."
Pac-Man is a fun game, yet that is just the beginning of why it is so fondly remembered by many, even 30 years later.
I love Pac man because I actually experienced the pac man craze as a kid. TV shows, cereal, T-shirts, all before Mario. it was the first mainstream merchandised game I think, and for that alone, Pac-man will always have a solid place in gaming history.
Happy 30th Pac-Man!
nice article btw.
Thanks for the compliment! I also grew up with Pac-Man back in the day and remember watching the cartoon and seeing all the merchandise, it was pretty crazy back then.
For a company like Namco, which has the morals of any alley cat, this compilation offers surprisingly good value. Unfortunately, that's the only surprise on offer as what we have here is what must be Namco's fifteenth anthology piece. Yep, stock up on ProPlus and energy drinks and get ready to play Pole Position yet again.
Be prepared for a shock in Namco Museum, though. The load times between the main menu and your chosen game is usually about 30 seconds long. The classics on display here, as well as the Xbox Live Arcade treasures, are generally of a high standard – it's great that non-Live gamers can play the awesome Pac-Man: Championship Edition – but a wait of that length will spoil the emulation. Any thieves that dabble in PC emulators will know any game they want from the past 20 years is just a click away and, especially for paying customers, waiting that long for a game of the dire Pac & Pal seems unjust.
