Namco Museum Battle Collection - Longplay

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SuperViperT302

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Published on March 10, 2022 9:16:27 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCWb49yCNx8

Game:

Namco Museum Battle Collection (2005)

Duration: 3:11:21

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15

(PLEASE READ THE PINNED COMMENT FOR MORE INFO REGARDING VIDEO QUALITY)
0:00:00 - Bootup
0:01:35 - Pac-Man (1980)
0:14:41 - Ms. Pac-Man (1981)
0:20:51 - Galaxian (1979)
0:29:31 - King & Balloon (1980)*
0:38:32 - Galaga (1981)
0:50:52 - Rally-X (1980)
0:57:58 - New Rally-X (1981)
1:06:59 - Bosconian (1981)*
1:24:04 - Dig Dug (1982)
1:37:29 - Dig Dug II (1985)*
1:49:38 - Xevious (1982)*
2:06:21 - Mappy (1983)*
2:21:09 - The Tower of Druaga (1984)*
2:37:47 - Dragon Buster (1985)*
2:42:53 - Grobda (1984)*
2:46:45 - Motos (1985)*
2:54:08 - Rolling Thunder (1986)*
It's worth noting that in the PAL version of this compilation, Ms. Pac-Man isn't included, likely due to the insane licensing issues that arose around this time.

The history behind this particular compilation is more interesting than most. In 2005, Namco made a Namco Museum for the Playstation Portable, exclusively in Japan. The main hits on it were four "Arrangement" versions of Pac-Man, Galaga, New Rally-X (I guess they thought the Pole Position games wouldn't do well with the PSP's control scheme, which they probably wouldn't), and Dig Dug, which differed from their counterparts on Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. The original versions of those games were also included, along with Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, and Rally-X.

Now, I don't know what the executives at Namco were thinking when they brought this game over to the US, but they must've realized that there wasn't enough variety in the game list, or enough games in general, so they decided, "Fuck it, let's just add some more games." And that's what Namco Museum Battle Collection is. (Games with an asterisk in the list above were what got added into Battle Collection.) The next year, Namco would release a "Vol. 2" compilation for the PSP exclusively in Japan, containing the games that were added to this one along with Dragon Spirit, a half-assed remake of Pac-Man Arrangement called Pac-Man Arrangement Plus, and a Motos Arrangement. I may or may not do videos on that one.

For the first time since the Playstation series, you have a wide variety of game genres and styles to choose from here. Not only that, but Namco finally decided to ditch the old emulation quality from the first generation of Namco Museums in favor of more direct ROM emulation, and the result is a collection of games with near-perfect video and audio. Two separate teams apparently worked on two different halves of the game list, with one team doing the games from 1979-1982 and another doing the games from 1983-1986. You can sorta tell the difference; the games in the first group have different menu spacing and generally higher audio quality than the games in the second group. Most of those games have slightly muffled audio, Dig Dug II has lag issues, Dragon Buster and Motos don't handle overlapping sound effects and music the same way the arcade versions do, Grobda sounds kinda weird, and Rolling Thunder is straight-up ported from Namco Museum Encore. It's still good emulation overall, though.

Battle Collection adds a new take on settings menus. After inserting a "coin", instead of the usual "Press Start Button" screen, the intermediate screen is where you can change settings, and most games even allow you to continue up to the furthest stage you've reached. There's a wide variety of screen configurations and sizes you can use; you can play the games horizontally or vertically, you can use modified aspect ratios, or you can fill the entire screen with the game (which is what I prefer to do even though it makes some games look funky). You can even unlock "Maniac Options" with even more niche settings to play around with and a Score Attack mode for every game. Hell, you can configure the control stick to act as a button for some games. For some reason, The Tower of Druaga and Grobda don't have 2-player mode.

One last thing to touch on is the Game Sharing feature. Using the PSP's wireless Ad-Hoc mode, it is possible to transfer demos of some of the games to another PSP that doesn't have the Battle Collection disc. Here's a demonstration of that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2S6uwKTE5M

All in all, this is a wonderful collection of Namco games that you can take on the go with you, and a step in the right direction in terms of compilations for Namco. Would highly recommend.

The Arrangement titles weren't included in this video, as they are completable games and deserve videos of their own. These games also have wireless multiplayer functions and are generally much more approachable than the arcade versions.
Pac-Man Arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAmj_EOOcSE
Galaga Arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvXv-1Gevgs
New Rally-X Arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxioYKjV6vs
Dig Dug Arrangement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJBO3dw-tM8

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