Namco Museum Essentials

I downloaded Namco Museum Essentials from PSN yesterday. I was initially dubious about it, because there's only six games in the collection, but I played the demo first and I got totally addicted.

The six games are: Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, Dragon Spirit, Xevious, and Xevious Resurrection ( a hi-def remake of Xevious ).

I spent an hour or so yesterday playing Pac-Man and Galaga, and managed to get the bronze trophies for both. The Collection does a good job of dishing out rewards gradually. You get "Stamps" for each game for achieving certain criteria, like collecting fruit in Pac-Man, or getting a double ship in Galaga. These stamps give you points, and get enough points and you go up a gamer level which gives you rewards like new wallpaper to have as a background for the games, and also Playstation Home rewards like clothing for your avatar and arcade cabs to put in your apartment. Your high score for each game also gets saved, and you can see how you compare against everyone else who has played the game.

Although the games are obviously pretty ancient by this point ( excluding Xevious: Resurrection ), they are all classics for a reason. Even without the rewards the games offer, they'd still be fun to play on their own. They can be very addictive, and high score chasing always gives you an incentive to keep playing.

This morning, my fiance and I played Dig Dug for a couple of hours straight chasing high scores. We just couldn't stop, we always had to have one more go. I'm currently in the lead with about 36,000 points.

I highly recommed this collection if you feel like taking a trip down memory lane, or if you just want some games that you can dip in to for a quick bash now and then. That's the great thing about these old games, you can play them for five minutes or so and have a great time, or you can sit down for hours and get even more out of them.