Namco Musuem Vol. 1 and Sacred 3

On 03/29/2016 at 12:28 AM by KnightDriver

Played through this PS1 collection of Namco games. Here's the list:

Pac-Man
Rally-X
New Rally-X
Galaga
Bosconian
Pole Position
Toy Pop

New to me was Toy Pop. This is a game with a design similar to Gauntlet except you can break open presents to reveal toys (used as weapons against the toys trying to stop you), candy and sometimes a blob of water that imobilizes you for a moment. You have to break these flasks that release a heart which floats to the exit door and opens it a little bit for each heart. Break open all the flasks and you open the exit door and move on to the next level. Here's some footage:

I liked this game, but I hate using the PS2 controller's d-pad to control the four-way movement. It's totally sloppy and not quick which is a total game breaker for me. I wish they'd used the analog sticks, but perhaps those weren't a thing when this game came out, because you can't use them at all.

I would say this complaint of mine holds true for every other game in this collection. I want a joystick for most and a steering wheel for the driving games. Then I can enjoy myself. I did play through all the games, as much as I could stand. I liked the virtual 3D rooms you can move through and look at memorabilia and the arcade cabinets. For some reason, most of them were table-top versions, which I find kind of weird. I played most of these on upright cabinets back in the day.

Then I returned to 360 and started up Sacred 3 again hunting for achievements. I played on Legend difficulty and left it open to randoms. I got a four player game pretty quickly and all of us in the level 30s (50 is the cap). So I switched to Diety difficulty (hardest) and we cleared a few levels doing that. Boy does the screen get busy with all that high level magic casting and explosive fighting moves going on. It was a lot of fun.

Once the randoms left, Mark and I played a bunch chasing down special achievements like getting a kill on a big enemy with a smart bomb and killing 8 mid level elite creatures all at once. Eventually I switched off my bow weilding character and played the Sarafin one. This is a female with angel wings. Her abilites seem perfect for stunning enemies so you can get execution kills. I needed five at once for an achievement but only got four over several levels. This is a tough achievement but I'll keep working at it.

I played the Orc campaign DLC level as well. It was pretty short but fun. There's one other DLC level and two DLC characters to play. I'll try those out next week. I didn't think I'd have much more play time in this game, but there's a few more achievements I think I can get before I'm done.

Toodles.

Cary Woodham

03/29/2016 at 02:05 PM

You know how when you're a kid and you use your imagination a lot to come up with some crazy things? You might imagine a really cool treehouse to live in, or what kind of superhero you'd be, you know, things like that. Well when I was a kid, I imagined my own 'dream arcade.' It would be like an arcade mixed with a museum. Each room would have arcade machines based around a theme, like every Pac-Man game in the series, space games, racing games, etc. Each room where these arcade machines would be, they would be decorated in that theme. So the room with all the Pac-Man machines would be decorated like Pac-Man, for instance. Each arcade room would also have memorabilia, toys, and products based on that arcade franchise in that room.

So how cool do you think it was years later when I popped in the Namco Museums on my PSOne, and saw what I had imagined in my childhood come to life almost exactly how I thought it would on the TV screen! It was truly magical. These Namco Museums also helped kickstart me learning all I could about Namco games, because I realized that most of my favorite arcade games back in the day came from them! Keep in mind that when these games first came out, the Internet was still just kind of getting started and it wasn't as informative as it is today, and 'multimedia' was still a buzz-word. Because of how much the Namco Museums on PSOne shaped who I am as a gamer, they are one of my top five favorite games of all time. OK I know they are technically five games, but I'm combining them all into one for my list. I know that's cheating, but it's my list so I'll do what i want. :)

I could write whole blogs on the Namco Museums, and I think I did back in the 1up.com days. I hope you get to play the other volumes, too. They have some of the best presentation of any arcade collections out there, even to this day. The only collection that I think rivals the Namco Museums on PSOne is Activision Anthology, a collection of Atari 2600 games from Activision. It had a lot of games and cool extras, like commercials of the games and such. I had it on PS2. I would suggest tracking it down when you can.

One more thing, there was one thing in my childhood 'dream arcade' that wasn't in the Namco Museums. I imagined my arcade would have rides based on arcade games, too. Like a Centipede roller coaster or a Pole Position race track. At the end of this week, make sure to check out my blog as I'll have a 'museum' related announcement to make! --Cary

KnightDriver

03/29/2016 at 04:35 PM

I liked that museum presentation too. You can just get a menu screen if you want, but it's more fun to roam the halls. I wish it was on rails. You could ride in a themed car like in Pokemon Snap and stop and look at things like the PC boards for each game. My main complaint with it is just technical, and not fair, since it's a game from the 90s. I wish the resolution was better. There were these magazine covers in there with very fuzzy text. I also wish you didn't have to get a loading screen every time you wanted to look at something. Also, I tried to look at the history of Namco kiosk in the lounge and it wouldn't load, or was taking way too long to load. I exited out without reading it. It'd be nice for Namco to do this exact presentation again with updated tech.

I have Volume 4 on PSN to check out. I also have that Activision Anthology on Xbox and it's pretty great too: commercials, music, booklets and tips.

Oh yea, I noticed you can listen to all the sounds from each game in the lounge, both the music and sound effects. That was cool. I think there's some secrets in the rooms too but I didn't research that. Is New Rally X an unlockable? I didn't see it this time.

03/29/2016 at 08:17 PM

Yeah it would be cool if Namco would remaster those museums. Not gonna happen, but it would be cool.

Namco Musuem vol. 4 is great! It has more obscure games that you may not remember, but it also has more secrets and hidden games and the rooms are more interactive. Can you find the hidden Assault room, secret Return of Ishtar room, and help Pac in the Pac-Land room? Also, be sure to play Ordyne. It's awesome! Let me know if you have any other questions about it. I'm sure I can help you.

New Rally-X is in the same room as the Rally-X machine. I think one is a tabletop and one is a cabinet, and they are on opposite sides of the room. New Rally-X is the one you want to play.

03/30/2016 at 02:03 AM

I'll be playing NM4 pretty soon.

Oh ok. I didn't notice the other machine in there. Or I did, but thought it was the same game.

goaztecs

03/29/2016 at 04:59 PM

I always loved how the Namco collection's first run spelled out NAMCO. Pole Position and Galaga are my go to favorites in the arcades.

03/30/2016 at 02:23 AM

Galaga was always there in the arcades I went to.

PixlBit