DS gets treasures from the Namco Museum
Pac-Man, Galaga, Xevious and Dig Dug II dug up
For hundreds of years, a museum was basically a building where the British could show off the valuable things they'd stolen from around the world. They were grey and old-fashioned places but good for a nice afternoon snooze.
Then some bright sparks decided what we really needed was a funky cafe and some interactive exhibits. Almost overnight, museums were filled with hordes of screaming kids and funky metrosexuals queuing up to look at Kylie's hotpants. Lord Elgin must think we've lost our marbles.
When it comes to such definitions, Namco Bandai will be hoping that we accept the latest recycling of a selection of twenty-year old games in the spirit of Minogue's I Can't Get You Out Of My Head, rather than the Siege of Khartoum.
As seen in previous revisitings of its arcade classics – such as the PSP's Museum Battle Collection – Namco Museum DS is a mixture of games we all know and love, plus a couple Namco probably didn't even realise it owned the rights to until it went delving into the vaults.
The eight games include stone cold (and old) classics Pac-Man, Galaga, Xevious, Dig Dug II and Galaxian, with Mappy the crime-fighting mouse and top-down dungeon-crawler The Tower of Druaga padding out the collection.
The final game is the more recent Pac-Man VS. This multiplayer wireless game enables one person to control Pac-Man, while up to three others play as the ghosts. It supports download play, so Pac-Man VS can be shared using just one version of the game.
In addition, all of the games will be offered with a choice of screen options, so you can either play them in DS-style modes or in what Namco calls the 'stand-up arcade' style.
Namco Museum DS is due for release sometime in the summer.
