If you're not already familiar with Namco's classic games then... Well shit son, what's wrong with you? This is Namco's biggest single classic compilation to date, with eleven titles on the disc - seven original classics and four 'arrangements'. The classics are just what you'd expect on hardware this powerful: near perfect ports of the games that defined the arcade sound for an entire generation. The arranged versions are remakes of the originals with new graphics, animations, sounds, tweaks, frills and levels. It's not those you'll be buying this for, so consider it a seven game collection.

Most of the classics were created for a monitor in a vertical orientation. That is, on its side. Happily those games - Mr. and Ms. Pac Man, Gala* and Dig Dug - allow you to tip the PSP ninety degrees and play them in their original aspect ratio. This works surprisingly well, and in fact the d-pad is easier to use in this orientation since there's more distance between it and your hand there's less cramping when you use it. Since the PSP screen has a widescreen aspect ratio Namco Museum happily asks if you want to stretch the screen to fit (You don't have to), with two different stretch modes available. It's somewhat disappointing that these stretch modes blur the graphics, negating the glorious clarity the PSP screen offers. I guess it was too much to ask Namco to redraw a few 1982-era sprites to fit the screen. But hey, they offered the rotation option, so bravo Namco!

Ooops, almost a bravo... The keys can't be remapped, so when tilted you have to reach for the farther circle button instead of the unused, closer X button. Not a problem for anyone with large thumbs, but it'd have been nice to have this little nod towards usability. Oh, and the game changes back to a horizontal orientation when asking about memory card saving or overwriting. I guess Namco just couldn't be bothered to change that simple static screen while rotating the rest of the game.

The games on offer are all ported or emulated as well as you'd hope, and they're often as irritating as you'd expect. The PSP pad is well stiff, and it's extremely frustrating trying to navigate the tight turns in Pac Man or Rally X. It's even worse in the arranged Pac Man mode, 'cause there's a bunch of new, half-corners and open spaces.

The sounds are great and the graphics super sharp and clear on the PSP screen. Except for the blurry stretch modes in the classic games. And, well, there's a fair amount of blur on the LCD screen. Galaga offers an enhancement mode that makes the moving, nigh-invisible stars clear again, which is nice but i have to wonder - who'd want invisible stars in the first place? Why not leave the enhanced mode on all the time?

The blur isn't at all bad when playing, but when you look for it it's easy to find. In Galaga, for example, it's easy to see and shoot the enemy bugs but when you look at your own ship as it slides side-to-side you will notice that the pointy bits fade away quite noticably. In the arranged PacMan there's very noticable blurring in the movement of the ghosts and PacMan. It's not something that will likely bother you, but it's there.

Namco Museum was released on the GameCube and it had arranged versions also - and they kinda sucked. Where the GC version was developed by Mass Media, the PSP version was made by Namco themselves. You might expect the arranged versions to be better, but they still kinda suck. For different reasons. None of them play in the vertical orientation, regardless of the original's preference.

DigDug is slow enough to be sleep inducing, and offers silly new frills like rocks that roll sideways and new enemies that are totally uninteresting and unremarkable. There are also powerups, but I really didn't notice what effect they had on gameplay. I guess it's a subtlety thing.

The PacMan arrangement is really not fun. It's very similar to the GameCube version, with dots that wibble and very colourful levels, but they both go too far. The PSP arranged game has elevators you have to wait for, automatic doors and drawbridges you have to wait for, and silly features like powerups offering the ability to jump, control a mirror image pacman, and a charge-dash maneouver. It's just too busy, with conveyor belts and boost pads and tunnels that almost completely hid the dots and really silly boss fights. All the bosses are easy except for the last one, but even that's no challenge. I beat the entire game the first time I played it. It only took about twenty minutes.

The New Rally-X arranged game is just as boring as the original game, but now in 3D! Woo!

The Galaga arrangement is probably the best of the lot, but it's still not very good. It doesn't fill the screen, leaving large border filled with useless crap on the right side, and except for a triple shot ship - a feature seen in Galaga '88 - it doesn't really offer anything new. (Might be some new stuff, haven't seen it tho... To be updated!)

If you like the classics you could do worse than this. The arranged modes are better than their GC equivalents, though that's not saying a whole lot. The vertical modes are excellent, if blurry, and each of the classics offers extra options - Maniac modes and such - for getting high scores. It's a cheap title, a mere $35 in Japan, and if $5 each seems like a good price for the classic games then it's a solid purchase.

Lawrence.