Namco Museum review (Game Boy Advance)

Since every game other than Pole Position was played on a vertical monitor, the games typically don't take up the whole screen. Galaga and Galaxian fill most of the screen, while a bar that takes up the right third of the screen is used to display your score and other info. Dig Dug takes up the whole screen, but it now scrolls a bit instead of fitting the whole level on one screen. Ms. Pac-Man gives you the option of playing with Dig Dug-style scrolling, which makes it difficult to keep track of the ghosts, but you can also opt for a shrunken-down version that gives you the whole maze (while sacrificing arcade-quality graphics in the process). It would have been nice if Namco had included a vertical screen mode that required you to rotate your GBA to see properly. Pole Position was originally played on a horizontal monitor, so no visual sacrifices have been made. All the games play incredibly well, though Pole Position suffers a bit without its original analog steering wheel. The games also sound just like their arcade counterparts.

The Game Boy Advance version of Namco Museum isn't the best translation that these arcade classics have ever seen, but the ability to take them with you wherever you go makes this version of Namco Museum the most compelling version to date. Any fan of classic arcade games should be happy with it.