Review NaN of 3
Summary:
The Gameboy Advance is quickly turning into retrogaming heaven with all of its ports of older games and arcade classics collections, of which this fine title from Namco is one. These are the old school games; here's three lives for your 25 cents... go! The games are fun and have that pick-it-up-and-play quality ideally suited for short shots during commercial breaks or to drain those last few drops of juice from your batteries.
Is this cartridge for you? If you weren't prowling the arcades when these games were new and/or if you don't dig retrogames, almost certainly not. Otherwise, read on.
*** Ms. Pac-Man ***
The star of the show, in terms of the cartridge's selling points. The enduring classic is faithfully recreated in two forms, full-screen and scrolling. The arcade game was played on a vertically oriented screen, which means lots of black space on either side of the GBA's screen and everything gets very small. As an alternative, you can play with a scrolling screen, which doesn't let you see where all the ghosts are at all times, but looks much nicer. Pick your poison, but as most people will likely be playing more for fun than high scores, scrolling will probably be the option for most people. The action is spot-on, with the D-pad being the only control, and all the charm of the original is intact.
*** Galaga ***
For longevity in the arcades, this game stands, alongside Ms. Pac-Man, head and shoulders above everything else (how many times have you seen just those two machines in a pizzeria or laundromat?). Galaga suffers a little bit in the translation. First, as most of the action in the game takes place at the top and bottom of the screen, a scrolling screen isn't really practical, so everything is small (and there are a lot of little ships making mayhem in this game). Secondly, there is a strange bug in this game that I never noticed in my many quarters in the arcades where a captured fighter does not return to you after you shoot the boss that captured it. Adding injury to insult, you have to destroy your fighter to complete the level. Otherwise, it's another fine translation, and Galaga on the go is a wonderful thing to have.
*** Galaxian ***
Galaxian was made obsolete in the arcades by its superior-in-every-way sequel Galaga. Same goes here. While the translation is fine, there's not much reason to play Galaxian with Galaga sitting right there. Expect to play it once out of curiosity and forget about it.
*** Dig Dug ***
This is perhaps the best game in the package due mainly to its quirkiness. If you don't remember the game, you have a guy digging around underground blowing up bad guys. He doesn't blow them up with explosives, rather he uses the more literal practice of inflating his enemies with an air pump until they burst. The oddball gameplay holds up well. It is only playable with the scrolling screen, which is fine for this game. It is also the slowest-moving game on this menu, which can be a pretty good thing as well. This is a game that made a lot of fans in its day, and none of them would be disappointed with the GBA version.
*** Pole Position ***
More than any other game here, Pole Position has not stood the test of time. Racing games have gotten much better through the years, and Pole Position just seems flat by current standards. While it may seem unfair to hold a twenty-year-old game to 'current standards', what I mean is this. Someone who was a big fan of Pac-Man, drops a quarter in a machine when they happen by one. Someone who was a big fan of Pole Position, however, has had newer and better racing games offered up to him through the years that will make Pole Position really show its age upon seeing it again. Your mileage may vary, of course, but I found Pole Position to be a throwaway. Report this review >>
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