Namco Museum Virtual Arcade is a compilation of Namco games, released for the Xbox 360 in 2008 by Namco Bandai Games.
Overview[]
Namco Museum Virtual Arcade includes nine games originating from the Xbox Live Arcade line (featuring all of Namco's XBLA titles published by that point), alongside an additional 25 games that were not previously released on the service. The Xbox Live Arcade titles still required an Xbox Live subscription to access the games (despite that Microsoft's own compilation discs did not require a subscription). The additional games are mainly comprised of emulated ports of Namco's arcade titles, in addition to three of the 2005 "Arrangement" games from Namco Museum Battle Collection.
Games[]
Xbox Live Arcade Menu[]
The Xbox Live Arcade menu features the following games:
- Pac-Man (1980, 2006)
- Ms. Pac-Man (1982, 2007)
- Pac-Man Championship Edition (2007)
- Galaga (1981, 2006)
- New Rally-X (1981, 2006)
- Dig Dug (1982, 2006)
- Xevious (1982, 2007)
- Mr. Driller Online (2008)
- Galaga Legions (2008)
Museum Menu[]
The Museum menu features the following games:
- Super Pac-Man (1982)
- Pac & Pal (1983)
- Pac-Mania (1987)
- Pac-Man Arrangement (2005)
- Galaxian (1979)
- Rally-X (1980)
- King & Balloon (1980)
- Bosconian (1981)
- Pole Position (1982)
- Pole Position II (1983)
- Mappy (1983)
- The Tower of Druaga (1984)
- Grobda (1984)
- Dragon Buster (1984)
- Metro-Cross (1985)
- Dig Dug II (1985)
- Baraduke (1985)
- Motos (1985)
- Sky Kid (1985)
- Sky Kid Deluxe (1986)
- Rolling Thunder (1986)
- Dragon Spirit (1987)
- Galaga '88 (1987)
- Dig Dug Arrangement (2005)
- Galaga Arrangement (2005)
Super Pac-Man is based on the Japanese version, as evident by it featuring faster "Super Speed". Pac-Mania is based on the North American Atari Games version, though the round select screen is not present; the high score table is retained, though oddly, the sprites of Pac-Man and the Ghosts running across the screen are removed.
Pac-Man Arrangement, for unclear reasons, runs at approximately double the speed of the original PSP version; making the game considerably more difficult to play. Furthermore, a number of features are removed entirely: including all multiplayer functionality, the map screen, the Dash Boots and Jump Feather power-ups, the ability to continue a game, the Free Play mode, the high-score initials screen, and the end credits sequence. Some of the sound effects are also different (including the noise when the ghosts' eyes retreat back to the ghost box); the game uses a different logo on the title screen.
Trivia[]
- Most of the Pac-Man-based games in Namco Museum Virtual Arcade feature border artwork resembling the original Tadashi Yamashita Pac-Man illustrations, but are redrawn to resemble the 1998 Pac-Man character design by Hideki Tanaami. This is likely due to the strict requirements of the 1999 Pac-Man Character Manual, which is further evidenced by all instances of the Ghosts remaining unaltered (as the Ghosts do not appear in the 1999 character manual at all).
- This modification also applies to Namco Museum Remix, which uses similar assets to this release.
- The Virtual Arcade disc has partial compatibility with the Xbox One and "Xbox Series" platforms (for console models that feature a disc drive). Upon inserting the disc, eight of the nine Xbox Live Arcade titles will be installed to the user's dashboard (with Xevious reportedly not being transferred over); the non-XBLA games are inaccessible.
- Pole Position I and II feature a redesigned set of billboards, using logos and sprites from other Namco games (including several notably obscure titles, such as Warp & Warp and Shoot Away). The English voice samples appear to be re-recorded by a different actress than the original game.
- For unknown reasons, Metro-Cross is renamed to Retro-Cross in the European release.