[h2]GBAtemp book game club #77[/h2]
Namco Museum DS (NDS)
Perhaps an odd selection today but it does fit in line with the retro reviews desk mission of making sure people have played classic titles. Ports of arcade games and collections of classic games have long been something home consoles have been lauded for and when the ports are weak then blasted for and for about as long collections of "classic" titles have graced systems (classic in is quotes because at the time several games had not been out long enough to really be considered classics). This collection is not all about the handhelds though as an optional extra a multiplayer only version of pac man it includes called Pac-Man Vs was once a gamecube exclusive and, prior to the release of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, it was often considered the best version of the game, but more on that in a little bit. Back on handhelds although the original gameboy and handhelds of the time featured versions of classic arcade games the GBA saw many near perfect ports made and the DS only continued the legacy (along with a few updated versions in things like ). The titles are by and large luminaries of the gaming world in Xevious, Galaga, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Dig Dug 2, The Tower of Druaga, and Mappy with the "original"/hard version of Dig Dug 2 and Super Xevious also being available. Unlike many collections they even went a bit further and provided original versions, bugfixed versions, user selectable tweaks and hint versions for most titles.
Back on pac man the E3 show this year had a big buzzword in "asymmetric gaming" with the multiplayer option of the pac man featured here being a shining example of an earlier implementation of the idea. Better yet owing to not needing the cumbersome GBA-GC linkup and using wifi instead in many ways it is the superior version. Indeed although the other titles are fantastic versions this optional extra alone could have stood as the focus for a single edition of this feature.
[prebreak]Rest of the article[/prebreak]
So then a cash grab, a great homage to a selection of a classic titles or a stain upon their memory? As mentioned there are many nice collections of classic games (although they are by no means all good) and one that often gets overlooked owing to it appearing as a cash in type game (all unlicensed clones a handful of which are not quite up to par and an annoying unlock mechanism) is an effort from one of the GBAtempbook game club's favourite developer/publishers Telegames in the GBA title "ultimate arcade games". The namco museum series itself is quite long running and so there are versions featuring some of the games mentioned above and others also feature on pretty much every console in the post 16 bit era.
We are working on getting a new searching mechanism working with the new forum software now our tag system has been changed. In the meantime all the editions are in this section and hopefully GBAGOTW should get you the other entries in the series. gbagotw.
GBAtempbook game club/GBAtemp game of the week is a feature on GBAtemp that we aim to use to foster some discussion on some of more interesting titles as well as the best and brightest games out there. However unlike many of our other features these are more about the discussion than any one reviewer breaking a title down.
Furthermore it bears stating that this is very much not intended to be a drip fed version of a best ? titles list, we certainly do not exclude great titles but titles where developers tried something new or if they were otherwise important for a reason they could just as easily find themselves the subject of a selection here.
ROM hacks, commercial releases, homebrew code and leaked/beta code for the GBA, DS and Wii are where we tend to draw from though the occasional dip into titles emulatable by the DS is not out of the realms of possibility.
Namco Museum DS (NDS)
Perhaps an odd selection today but it does fit in line with the retro reviews desk mission of making sure people have played classic titles. Ports of arcade games and collections of classic games have long been something home consoles have been lauded for and when the ports are weak then blasted for and for about as long collections of "classic" titles have graced systems (classic in is quotes because at the time several games had not been out long enough to really be considered classics). This collection is not all about the handhelds though as an optional extra a multiplayer only version of pac man it includes called Pac-Man Vs was once a gamecube exclusive and, prior to the release of Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, it was often considered the best version of the game, but more on that in a little bit. Back on handhelds although the original gameboy and handhelds of the time featured versions of classic arcade games the GBA saw many near perfect ports made and the DS only continued the legacy (along with a few updated versions in things like ). The titles are by and large luminaries of the gaming world in Xevious, Galaga, Galaxian, Pac-Man, Dig Dug 2, The Tower of Druaga, and Mappy with the "original"/hard version of Dig Dug 2 and Super Xevious also being available. Unlike many collections they even went a bit further and provided original versions, bugfixed versions, user selectable tweaks and hint versions for most titles.
Back on pac man the E3 show this year had a big buzzword in "asymmetric gaming" with the multiplayer option of the pac man featured here being a shining example of an earlier implementation of the idea. Better yet owing to not needing the cumbersome GBA-GC linkup and using wifi instead in many ways it is the superior version. Indeed although the other titles are fantastic versions this optional extra alone could have stood as the focus for a single edition of this feature.
[prebreak]Rest of the article[/prebreak]
Some sample gameplay
So then a cash grab, a great homage to a selection of a classic titles or a stain upon their memory? As mentioned there are many nice collections of classic games (although they are by no means all good) and one that often gets overlooked owing to it appearing as a cash in type game (all unlicensed clones a handful of which are not quite up to par and an annoying unlock mechanism) is an effort from one of the GBAtemp
We are working on getting a new searching mechanism working with the new forum software now our tag system has been changed. In the meantime all the editions are in this section and hopefully GBAGOTW should get you the other entries in the series. gbagotw.
GBAtemp
Furthermore it bears stating that this is very much not intended to be a drip fed version of a best ? titles list, we certainly do not exclude great titles but titles where developers tried something new or if they were otherwise important for a reason they could just as easily find themselves the subject of a selection here.
ROM hacks, commercial releases, homebrew code and leaked/beta code for the GBA, DS and Wii are where we tend to draw from though the occasional dip into titles emulatable by the DS is not out of the realms of possibility.
