Namco Museum 50th Anniversary (PC)

The game's sound seems spotty in places. Some games sound slightly off pitch, and things like explosions occasionally sound a bit off, too. Graphically, this collection is pretty ugly. That's not a statement about how far game graphics have progressed--it means that these aren't very faithful duplications of the original games. You're given one choice graphically. You can either enable screen smoothing, which smoothes out some of the rough edges of the games' graphics and generally makes the whole game look ridiculously blurry, or you can turn that off, and witness the games running in some sort of squashed resolution that makes text look blockier than it should. Neither option is particularly appealing. Support for scanlines and other, more accurate screen modes would have been nice. The games are tied together by a weak-looking row of arcade machines that serve as the collection's menu. Also, it's worth noting that the game uses the Starforce copy-protection scheme and actually drops back to desktop for further checks each time you load up a new game. If your machine has been known to have problems with games employing such protection methods, then you'll probably want to stay away.

While the basic gameplay in these arcade greats is spot-on, the control issues and poor graphic options get in the way of the fun. If you're absolutely desperate for a Namco collection, the budget price makes this one worth considering; but for most people, one of the other versions of this collection would make a much smarter choice.

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