Namco Museum Remix Review for the Nintendo Wii

The golden age of gaming condensed

The age of retro gaming is fully upon us. As a fully realized and recognized hobby, gaming is still relatively new, but has just recently become old enough to have an old school movement wherein everyone is seeking out classic titles. The Wii has especially capitalized on this with the Virtual Console, and various companies are compiling their older games into new compilations to give everyone access to the classics. Namco Museum Remix is one of the latest of these compilations, and although Namco did attempt to infuse the game with a little freshness, the remix really comes across as more of a rehash.

Namco is a company with a long, decorated history, and few companies can compete with them for classic, old school games. Namco Museum Remix has organized some of Namco’s most beloved games with a few of the lesser known ones and combined them into one game, creating a potential paradise for the old school gamer. They even took a few of their classic titles and “remixed” them by throwing Pac-Man in and updating the visuals and gameplay. The opening section is a theme park where you control Pac-Man and steer him towards whatever area you wish to explore. There are areas set aside for each of the remixed titles and there is an arcade that includes the original, untouched arcade classics.

The remixed titles for Namco Museum Remix are Pac’n Roll, Galaga, Pac-Moto, Rally-X, and Gator Panic. For this compilation, all of these games feature Pac-Man in some way, even if the original didn’t. For example, classic shooter Galaga now has you protecting Pac-Man from enemies as you shoot them, light gun style, while Pac-Man rolls on a path to the end of the stage. You can make Pac-Man jump to dodge the occasional bullet, but other than that, you’re relegated to protecting the Pac from afar. In Rally-X, you control Pac-Man’s car as he attempts to collect flags and avoid the other driver. Pac n’ Roll is sort of a platformer, where you control Pac-Man and roll him around each stage collecting power pellets and getting through obstacles. In Pac-Moto, you have to stay on a platform while other creatures attempt to knock you off. Gator Panic, last but not least, is sort of like Whack a Mole and using the Wii’s motion sensing the most of any game on the compilation, swinging the Wii-mote to bop approaching alligators based on their position.

The games that haven’t been changed include shooters Galaxian, Xevious, and Gaplus, arcade favorites Dig Dug and Mappy, pinball game Cutie Q, and Pac-Man games Pac & Pal, Super Pac-Man, and Pac-Mania. Each of these games plays like the arcade original and playing through some of these are more fun than the remixed titles. Each game is accessible through an in game arcade where your onscreen Pac-Man rolls over to the arcade machine, which then tells you the game name, controls, and a brief synopsis of the game.

The older arcade titles can definitely be a lot of fun, especially Dig Dug and Mappy. Super Pac-Man and Pac n Pals are so similar in execution that there is little to be gained from alternating between them, while Pac-Mania takes Pac-Man into a 3-D perspective that allows him to jump over approaching ghosts. Xevious, Galaxian, and Gaplus might be fun for fans of classic shooters, while Cutie Q is a pinball game with a high difficulty curve.

It is probably difficult to accurately translate the game controls to a compilation where each game plays differently, and especially to the Wii where everyone expects the Wii’s motion sensing to come into play. In the game hub, you roll Pac-Man using the analog stick and move him over to whatever location you wish to frequent at that moment. In the remixed games, the efficiency of the controls varies from game to game. The analog controls feel a little loose when directing Pac-Man during the Pac’n Roll game, which makes the precise and unforgiving platforming in the game unnecessarily difficult at times. The controls in the other titles feels decent for the most part, while the motion sensing in Gator Panic, which forces you to move your Wii-mote as if you were actually bopping the attacking alligators, works pretty well. On the other hand, the game offers options for playing the arcade classics, including the ability to play with the classic controller, the analog stick, or the Wii-mote on its side. Most of these games work well with either configuration, depending on the player’s preference. However, it is a little taxing to have to switch back and forth, as you can play a game using the Wii-mote, but switching between arcade games requires Pac-Man to actually roll over to the virtual machine, meaning you have to switch your control method back to the analog stick. A simple fix is to not detach the nunchuk when using the Wii-mote configuration, but it still seems like an oversight on the part of the developers.

The game’s graphics are simple and bright, without anything particularly noteworthy. The classic games, of course, remain untouched, with a frame around the game screen reminiscent of the old arcade machines. The visuals in the remixed titles aren’t particularly impressive, but are functional considering the game’s old school theme. The sounds from all of the games have made it through intact, although there isn’t much in the sound department that is notable beyond each of the game’s initial soundtracks.

Overall, Namco Museum Remix is an enjoyable trip down memory lane for older gamers and a decent introduction to some classic titles for younger ones. There isn’t much new here, and the remixed games get boring pretty quickly, but the old school games are more than enough to keep the attention of retro gaming aficionados.

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