Namco Museum Essentials

Namco Museum Essentials
Promotional artwork.
Developer	Namco, Cattle Call, Gotch Technology (arcade ports), Best Score (music)
Publisher	Namco Bandai Games
Series	Namco Museum series
Game system(s)	PlayStation 3
Genres	Compilation
Release date(s)	JP: July 31, 2008 (closed beta) JP: January 29, 2009 (full release) US: July 16, 2009 EU: April 1, 2010
Delisting date(s)	WW: March 15, 2018
Number of players	1-2 players

Namco Museum Essentials, known in Japan as Namco Museum.comm (ナムコミュージアム.comm Namuko Myūjiamu.comm), is a compilation of Namco games released by Namco Bandai Games for the PlayStation 3.

Namco Museum Essentials was initially launched as a closed beta on July 31st, 2008, aptly titled "Namco Museum BETA". The compilation was officially released in 2009 as a download-only title, being released in connection with the PlayStation Home online service. A free demo of the game was also released. It was delisted from the PlayStation Store in 2018, following the PlayStation Home service itself being taken offline in 2015.

Overview

Namco Museum Essentials includes five emulated arcade titles, alongside the newly-created game Xevious Resurrection. The menu interface is based around online connectivity, with player(s) able to communicate and challenge each others' leaderboard rankings. While playing the games, the player could earn "NM Points" that would increase their ranking on the leaderboard, alongside "Stamps" that would unlock different screen boarders and items for PlayStation Home.

The arcade ports are similar to the variants seen in the PlayStation Portable Namco Museum installments. All of the games start in "High Score Attack" mode by default (which was originally an optional setting in the PSP releases), with scores obtained in this mode being uploaded to the online leaderboards. Additionally, the player can alter game settings, including the option to start from a later level; though doing so would result in the player's score not being ranked. For unknown reasons, the multiplayer mode is removed in every arcade port (despite Xevious Resurrection having a two-player mode).

Games

Namco Museum Essentials includes the following titles:

• Pac-Man (1980)
• Galaga (1981)
• Dig Dug (1982)
• Xevious (1982)
• Dragon Spirit (1987)
• Xevious Resurrection (2009)

When originally launched in its closed beta, the compilation did not include Dragon Spirit or Xevious Resurrection.

PlayStation Home connectivity

Arcade machine models in PlayStation Home, obtainable through Namco Museum Essentials.

When the player achieved certain objectives in Namco Museum Essentials, they would unlock items for use in PlayStation Home; a now-defunct online game where players could decorate and explore virtual buildings. These included cosmetic items for the player's avatar (e.g. t-shirts and hats), in addition to arcade machine models of the six included games. If the player clicked on one of the machines, it would effectively hotlink the PlayStation Home app to load the respective game through Namco Museum Essentials (either via the full version or the free demo).

Additionally, Namco had a designated hub world in PlayStation Home titled the "Namco Arcade Center", featuring set-up rows of the arcade machine models. The arcade center also featured a "love tester" minigame (using the music from Mappy) and vending machines based on The Idolmaster, which played a roulette minigame when interacted with.

Trivia

Pac-Man title screen when launched through PlayStation Home.

• When loaded through PlayStation Home, the Namco Museum Essentials games are presented with additional title screens that are not used in the compilation otherwise.
• In addition to the Namco Arcade Center, a few other (non-user-created) hub worlds in PlayStation Home also featured the Namco arcade machines on display (including the Japanese version of the bowling alley).
• The central Pac-Man artwork from this compilation would later be reused as the title screen for Pac-Man Remix (an iOS port of Pac-Man Arrangement), as well as in the Wii compilation Namco Museum Megamix. The artwork would be reused again in Pac-Man Party; though in that release, the otherwise-original illustration of Pac-Man was changed to resemble the general 2010s Pac-Man merchandising artwork.
• The later-released Oculus Arcade compilation uses similar (if not identical) arcade machine textures to the PlayStation Home Pac-Man and Galaga machine models.