role-playing

I think only old people would like this game, composed of five games actually, since the games are from one of the oldest videogame making industries that date back before Nintendo, which by may say is unfortunate for the Gameboy Advance. Namco consists of very repetive, old gameplay in five different games that are very well known to the old folk. It consists of Mrs. Pacman, DigDug, Pole Position, Galaxian, and Galaga. Mrs. Pacman is identical to the original Pacman except that you're a girl, the ghosts have different personalities and actions, and there is a small story made of cut screens in-between levels that show how Pacman and Mrs. Pacman fell in love. However, you can have side-scrolling view or full view by your choice. (What stinks is the power dots don't last long)
For Digdud, you are a digger seeking to defeat the little creatures that are messing up your flower garden. As you walk in the controlled directions Dug will dig a tunnel in the dirt that makes it easier to travel. You are also included an air pump, where you shove a wire into the critters and pump in air until they explode. Defeat all the enemies to go to the next stage.
Pole Position is a simple 3-D racing game, where you have High and Low gear shifs that change you acceleration ate and maximum speed. You have to qualify first before racing the tournament, and you have time. Every lap you gain a few more seconds. The hardest of the five games.
Galaxian is remotely similar to Space Invaders, where a group of aliens hover above, lowering slowly toward your ship, shooting you at times while you try to do the same to them. Be careful...some dive at you.
Galaga is similar to Galazian too except they are space bugs and swirl in big patterns before stopping to hover above, just like Galaxian.

The graphics are still the old kind including the exact same sound effects they used in the 80's. Unless you really like arcade games, don't buy this. The only time you'd play this would be in a long car ride.

I think that most of the people that have been saying that this is a hard game, just have been used to the large screen. They need to think about what a cartrisge game can do. they aren't going to be perfect, and I have grown up with them unperfect. Don't look too hard to find a game that doesn't have any flaws. The game play is good knowing that the games were originally made a while back, and don't expect to see any high grafics, since they were made around the early 90's and older. If you want the feel of the old Atari, this is a perfect selection of games from the classic line of Atari. Good grafics no, but the same great games, yes.

Namco Museum lets you play old Atari classics on your GameBoy Advance. These include Galaga, Galactica, Dig Dug, Pole Position, and Ms. Pac-Man!

This is of course a great idea in theory - I *love* some of these games. But while the games might be really fun to play on a big-screen console, they are REALLY tough on the tiny screen. For example, Ms. Pac-Man comes in two modes - a full screen mode and one that scrolls up and down showing you a partial screen at a time. The full screen mode has REALLY really tiny ghosts and characters, you can barely time your movements and often get stuck on walls. The scrolling mode is better in the sense that the characters are larger, but now you can easily scroll down into an enemy and the same character control issues occur.

On Pole Position, it's all about sliding left and right as your racecar goes around curves. With the arrow-control of the GBA, it's one light tap to make a hard turn. If you accidentially press too hard on the arrow, you smash into the side signs or nearby cars. It makes driving very difficult.

Dig Dug is a great game, where you burrow in the ground and try to drop rocks on the heads of dragons. Is this Revenge of Smaug? Again, I love the game but the controls make it difficult. You can be planning a careful tunnel to a rock and end up off by a bit, making the tunnel useless.

Galaga and Galaxian are both classic space-shooting games. Galaxian is a "secret bonus" in that it's not mentioned on the box but is provided on the cartridge. I really love both of them, but the controls are just as sluggish and imprecise here. With Galaxian having the penalty of "only one shot on the screen at a time", those missed shots make a huge difference in playability.

If you have a regular console, I'd recommend these games on a differnet system. I love the games themselves! But the GBA version is rather awkward. Everyone I had try this out got frustrated very quickly.