Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Great memories - great game!
This game is a fantastic port of some of my favorite classic arcade games. I've read a lot of reviews that complain about the obvious i.e. the screen is small (duh!) and sometimes the games are hard to view. I've also read a lot of complaints about how some of the games scroll because they do not fit the shape of the GBA screen. Personally, these complaints are minor because I expected the screen to be small but the graphics are picture perfect compared to the original arcade games. And the scrolling doesn't take away from the perfect gameplay.So, what I can say is that the gameplay is exactly as I remember on all games. I bought this cartridge for Galaga and Ms. PacMan most of all, because to me, they are the most addictive and replayable. The sound and the graphics are dead on these replicas. Changing some of the options is a nice touch. The only two complaints I have are related to some important old arcade standbys. First, you cannot play two-player, which is a particular bummer with Galaga, Ms. PacMan and Dig Dug. And second, the cartridge does not save high score and initials, which was your small token of satisfaction for dumping ten dollars worth of quarters into these machines. It would have been nice to keep track of my scores. But with these minor complaints, I was very satisfied with this cartridge. 5 games at a great price! Now I'm waiting for Midway's Classics (Joust, Defender, Robotron, and Sinistar)...
Rating:  - Buy it for Dig Dug only (3 / 5 stars)
Namco Museum This cart contains recreations of five 1980s Namco arcade games: Pole Position, Ms Pacman, Galaga, Galaxian, and Dig Dug.Once past the title screens, you're presented with a simple menu that lets you pick the game you're interested in playing. While playing any of the games you can pause and change settings (extra lives, difficulty, etc.) or return to the main menu. Both Galaga and Galaxian do a good job of recreating the original versions, but the programmers kept the original screen proportions, squeezing the playfield down to the left 2/3s of the screen. The right third of the screen is only used to track score and ships, resulting in a lot of wasted screen space. I'd have preferred it if they'd 'stretched' the screen proportions 50% horizontally so that the enemy ships were larger - because as it is the spaceships are tiny. Pole Position looks great - almost identical to the arcade - but the steering inputs seem hyper-sensitive. The arcade version used an analog steering wheel (the further you turned the wheel, the sharper your car turned). Unless you steer with very light quick taps your car goes flying off the the shoulder of the road very easily. The developers should have made the steering less sensitive, or even allowed the user to adjust it somehow. Ms Pacman is okay but could have been better done. You can choose either a tiny full-screen mode, or a scrolling mode that shows 2/3s of the playfield on-screen. (You can hit the shoulder buttons to force the playfield to scroll). I am a bit puzzled as to why the developers didn't simply turn the playfield 90 degrees sideways to keep the proper proportions - or simply 'stretch' the playfield to fit the screen. By far the gem of the collection is Dig Dug. This version is almost spot-on accurate to the arcade version. The original Dig Dug was about 320 by 200, but the GBA screen is only 240 by 160. The developers have the playfield centered in the middle of the smaller screen, and as your Dig Dug character approaches the edge of the screen, the playfield scrolls over to the closest edge. Since most of the playfield is onscreen you can usually still keep track of the bad guys. Overall, my impression of this cart is mediocre. I feel that Galaxians is too similar to Galaga to be counted as a separate game, so for your money you're only getting four old-style coin-eater games. I would really liked to have seen a few more games included for my hard-earned money. Unless you're a huge fan of Dig Dug, I can't really recommend the cart. On the plus side, Dig Dug is extremely well-done - and this is one of the cheapest GBA carts available - so for Dig Dug fans this may be a cart worth buying. I rented this game from a local video store, and I don't think I'll be purchasing it.
Rating: - Video Games Reviewer
Namco Museum for the GBA is a really good retro game. Individuals 25 years and older will remember these games well. For those individuals who are younger than 25, Namco Museum provides an opportunity to play some of the classic videogames that started the whole video game frenzy. Namco Museum consists of 5 games. Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Galaga, Dig Dug, and Pole Position. Ms. Pac-Man everyone knows about. Galaxian and Galaga are Space Invader type games, Dig Dug is a unique digging and destroying enemies game, and Pole Position is the classic arcade steering wheel racing game. All games are great fun for a quick pick up and play. The lack of a battery save feature for high scores (reasoning for 4 stars) is sort of a disappointment, but writing scores down is not that tedious of an ordeal. Overall, Namco Museum is a great port of the arcade classics that can be popped into the GBA for a quick 5 minute game between class, meetings, or a lunch break, and is a good addition to everyone's GBA library.
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