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It's hard to recreate the past

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: October 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Maybe it's a result of my getting older but I recently felt a wave of nostalgia for the 80's and one of my fondest memories was playing arcade games. The arcades from my youth have all long since closed but I still have feelings for games like Crystal Castles, Pengo, Marble Madness and so on. A little while back I bought the DS version of Bubble Bobble containing a spot on translation of the classic game. Despite being over 20 years old Bubble Bobble is still loads of fun. After searching for some more classic games on the DS I discovered that two I have particularly warm memories of were being released in the new Namco collection. These included Xevious and Mappy. I wasn't sure why Namco was releasing Galaxian since it's almost exactly the same as Galaga except not nearly as good. So is it worth the investment?

I must say that none of these games compare to Bubble Bobble but in their defense they were all released prior to Bobble. The first thing I noticed is how shallow these games are. The wonderful memories I held for Mappy were soon replaced by the boredom of the games repetitiveness. Xevious has more variety but I found the game bloody hard and difficult to see on the small screen. You can set up the game to play tilted at 90 degrees and it looks far better but then you're holding the DS at an extremely awkward angle. Most arcade games were built with a tall screen but the DS screens are built wide so either you play the games with black bars on either side or tilt the system. Neither is a great solution. Galaga is fun but it just doesn't feel the same without a big chunky joystick controlling your fighter. I only played Dig Dug II briefly because it's junk compared to the original Dig Dug.

I have to give Namco credit for trying its best to recreate the arcade experience on a handheld system. Games have simulated mother boards with dip switches that can be set as if the player were an arcade owner. Players can even play with known bugs on or off. The kicker for me was the inclusion of a faux screen burn on Xevious. Now THAT is the sign of a loving crafted game.

Some people have complained about the selection of games and although I would have swapped out Dig Dug II, Towers of Druaga and Galaxian others have complained about the inclusion of Mappy so for each his own. The main problem with the games is that the DS screen dimensions differ significantly from the original arcade games but there's not much Namco could do about that. Something that Namco COULD have done something about was the inclusion of continues. I mean if you're trying to recreate an arcade experience players should be able to simulate popping in another quarter. Unfortunately every game gives you a quarters worth of play and Xevious is damn hard. At 20 bucks it's a bargain game but I must confess that I lost interest faster than I expected. Still, it's fun to have many of these games available in portable form.

Pac Man is Back

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: January 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I am a 50 something woman,not much of a gamer, but got a DS for Christmas, and have become addicted to these games, especially Pacman and Galaxian. Playing them was exactly like back in the good ole days...and even my 10 year old niece enjoyed them, but of course she didn't have to read the instructions like I did.the graphics are good, if you liked it back in the 80's, you'll enjoy this game.

If I play this my vision gets fuzzy!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have quite a few DS games, and this is the only one I have to avoid. If I play it for even five minutes my eyes have trouble focusing. They feel crossed. It doesn't matter what distance or angle I play at, and it happens every time. I've never worn glasses, I have good eyesight, I'm 29 years old. I've never had eye crossing problems with any other game ever and I've played manhy different games on many different systems. If anyone knows why this is please e-mail me.
I did enjoy pac man and mappy before making the definitie connection between fuzzy vision and this game. It's really not the same. I'd like to buy the pac man arcade game and have it in my house, because that's really the only way to play pac man. Also, my friends and I didn't care much for the pac man vs. It looks like fun, but it's oddly executed.
As for the other games on here. Galaga is fine, but not the same as on the big screen. I loathe dig dug 2, what is going on with that game?!? The tower of druaga is weird, pretty boring. I'm not fond of xevious either.

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