Nintendo Wii Fanboy

I checked out Namco Museum Remix at PAX (there was not a line at any point for this game), hoping to play the weirdo Galaga interpretation and all the other new games on the disc. I expected to be either put off or unimpressed by everything but the real classic arcade games, but ... well, I have a confession to make, and I'm not sure how you guys are going to take it.

I really enjoyed Gator Panic Remix, for reasons I can't fully explain. I shouldn't have enjoyed it as much as I did. It's a simple Whack-a-Mole style game, which is an obvious fit for the Wiimote. However, instead of just whacking in the appropriate direction, you first highlight the appropriate gator with the Nunchuk's analog stick, and then whack. It never occurred to me that this was an imperfect setup until I got home. I was actually too busy having a good time. Again, I don't have an excuse. Gator Panic may not be worth $50 on its own, but it's one of those things that seems like it would be hard not to enjoy at least a little. Maybe that's some unconscious desperation to promote retrogaming at work, or maybe it's a reaction against the new, flashy FPS games I could see from where I was playing Namco Museum, but it just made me happy.

The major complaint about Namco's Museum series of retro compilations is that they're just too faithful to their arcade counterparts. People don't want exact arcade translations anymore, they want games remade unrecognizably in 3D! They want Pac-Man randomly inserted into every game!

At least, that seems to be Namco Bandai's thinking. Either that or they weren't sure how else to rerelease games they're already selling on the Virtual Console. The result is Namco Museum Remix, a set of Namco classics, now with more waggle, depth, and Pac! The remixed games include Galaga, Pac-Motos, Rally-X, Gator Panic, and Pac 'n Roll, which is apparently a classic now despite not even being two years old. For that matter, Gator Panic seems to be based on a cell phone game which is itself based on the Whack-a-Mole like redemption game, and we have no idea what Pac-Motos was originally. Interesting what passes for "classics" these days!

In addition to the remixes, the collection includes Cutie Q, Dig Dug, Galaxian, Gaplus, Mappy, Pac & Pal, Pac-Mania, Super Pac-Man, and Xevious. We poke fun at Namco for selling the same games over and over again, but this is an okay selection of somewhat less common stuff! Sorry to everyone who bought NES Xevious on the Virtual Console.

Check out our gallery of screens from the remixed games. Some are faithful, like Rally-X, and others are completely incomprehensible, like the image at the top of this post, which is supposed to be Galaga.

Gallery: Namco Museum Remix