Namco Museum Battle Collection

Namco Museum Battle Collection[lower-alpha 1] is a 2005 video game compilation developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation Portable. It includes 21 games - four of these are brand-new "arrangement" remakes of older Namco games, while the rest are emulated ports of Namco arcade games from the 1970s and 1980s. These ports include an options menu that allows the player to modify the in-game settings, such as the screen orientation and number of lives. Players can send one-level demos to a friend's console via the "Game Sharing" option in the main menu.

Namco Museum Battle Collection
North American cover art.
Developer(s)Namco
Publisher(s)Namco Hometek
Director(s)Yasuhiro Nishimoto[1]
Producer(s)Nobutaka Nakajima[1]
SeriesNamco Museum
Platform(s)PlayStation Portable
Release
  • JP: February 24, 2005
  • NA: August 23, 2005
  • EU: December 9, 2005
  • EU: May 6, 2009 (Platinum)
  • EU: April 8, 2011 (PSP Essentials)
Genre(s)Compilation
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Battle Collection was the first PlayStation Portable game to make use of the system's game sharing function. The Japanese version of the game, simply titled Namco Museum, was split into two different volumes - the second volume includes three games not found in international releases, these being Dragon Spirit and two new "arrangement" games based on Pac-Man and Motos. Battle Collection was met with a positive response from critics; reviewers applauded the large library of games, emulation quality and multiplayer features, although would heave criticism towards the Game Sharing option, which many deemed "useless", and for the game requiring a firmware update to boot. In Japan, the game sold 79,572 copies in its first week of release.[2]

Games

Namco Museum Battle Collection includes a total of 21 games; 17 of these are ports of Namco arcade games from the 1970s and 1980s, including Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga. They encompass several different game genres, such as maze, shoot'em up and platform. Each of the arcade game ports allow the player to modify the in-game settings, such as the number of lives and screen orientation, as well as access to a sound test and autosave feature.[3] A "Game Sharing" option can be accessed from the main menu, allowing the player to send one-level demos to a friend's PSP system. Alongside the arcade games, four new "Arrangement" games have been included, which are new to this collection.[4] These games include 3D graphics and incorporate new features, such as power-ups, new stages, world maps and boss fights.[5] Despite their similar name, they share nothing in common with the "Arrangement" games found in both Namco Classic Collection Vol. 1 and Namco Classic Collection Vol. 2.[6]

Games included in Namco Museum Battle Collection
Arrangement games
Title Genre Release date Vol. (Japan)
Pac-Man Arrangement Maze 2005 1
Galaga Arrangement Fixed shooter 2005 1
Dig Dug Arrangement Maze 2005 1
New Rally-X Arrangement Maze 2005 1
Motos Arrangement[lower-roman 1] Platform 2006 2
Pac-Man Arrangement Plus[lower-roman 1] Maze 2006 2
Arcade games
Title Genre Original release Vol. (Japan)
Galaxian Fixed shooter 1979 1
Pac-Man Maze 1980 1
Rally-X Maze 1980 1
King & Balloon Fixed shooter 1980 2
Galaga Fixed shooter 1981 1
Bosconian Multi-directional shooter 1981 2
New Rally-X Maze 1981 1
Ms. Pac-Man Maze 1982 1
Dig Dug Maze 1982 1
Xevious Vertical-scrolling shooter 1983 2
Mappy Platform 1983 2
The Tower of Druaga Role-playing 1984 2
Grobda Multi-directional shooter 1984 2
Dragon Buster Action role-playing 1985 2
Dig Dug II Platform 1985 2
Motos Platform 1985 2
Rolling Thunder Run'n gun 1987 2
Dragon Spirit[lower-roman 1] Vertical-scrolling shooter 1987 2
  1. Only available in the Japanese release.

Development

Namco Museum Battle Collection was developed and published by Namco for the PlayStation Portable.

Reception
Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings72.02%[7]
Metacritic73/100[8]
Review scores
PublicationScore
1Up.comB+[9]
GameSpot7.5/10[10]
GameSpy[6]
IGN7.5/10[11]

Namco Museum Battle Collection was met with a mostly positive critical reception. Many would praise the compilation's multiplayer features, emulation quality and large library of games. It has an average critic score of 74.02% on GameRankings and 73/100 on Metacritic.

IGN gave the game a 7.5 out of 10, praising the game for its multiplayer features, sound, and graphics. However, they criticized the Game Sharing feature for its limited usage and lack of Arrangement games.[11] GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann gave the game a 7.5, praising the game's 21 game titles, various display options, controls, and good emulation. However, he criticized the game sharing demo for its bare-bones presentation, and requiring the PSP to be at the latest firmware before use.[10]

See also

Notes
  1. Known in Japan as Namco Museum (ナムコミュージアム, lit. Namuko Myūjiamu)

References
  1. Namco Museum Battle Collection instruction booklet. Namco Ltd. Retrieved August 23, 2005.
  2. "GID 416 - Namco Museum - PSP". Garaph. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  3. Nix. "Namco Museum Battle Collection (Page 1)". IGN. Retrieved 25 August 2005.
  4. Gibson, Ellie (2005-08-18). "Namco classics for PSP". Eurogamer. Retrieved 18 August 2005.
  5. Nix. "Namco Museum Battle Collection (Page 2)". IGN. Retrieved 25 August 2005.
  6. Theobald, Phil. "Namco Museum Battle Collection - Page 2". GameSpy. Retrieved 29 August 2005.
  7. "Namco Museum Battle Collection". GameRankings. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  8. "Namco Museum Battle Collection". Metacritic. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
  9. Parish, Jeremy. "Namco Museum Battle Collection". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 30 August 2005.
  10. Gerstmann, Jeff (24 August 2005). "Namco Museum Battle Collection Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
  11. "Namco Museum Battle Collection". IGN. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
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