Review in Progress:
So there are 11 Famicom ports of Namco arcade games on here. I prefer the console ports of arcade games. To me it feels unnatural to play the arcade ports at home. Anyway, some of these were Japanese-only so it's kind of cool to have them here even though the Japanese version of this collection has way more extras.
Anyway, the games:
Galaxian:
Namco's Space Invaders clone. It's... fun for like five minutes? I don't really like it.
Pac-Man:
Perfectly serviceable port of the classic. Not a bad way to have Pac-Man on your switch.
Xevious:
It's cool to see the blueprints here for modern shmups. It's pretty fun but very unforgiving.
Mappy:
I love how bizarre this thing is. I had no experience with the arcade version. You jump on trampolines? Collect... tvs? Chase cats as a cop but they are actually chasing you? I don't really know what's going on here but I kind of love it.
Dig Dug:
Perfectly playable Dig Dug. It's... Dig Dug. Dig Dug is cool. I've never understood what the heck I am doing. I am blowing up and murdering animals while digging around? huh
The Tower of Druaga:
I was absolutely loving this for the first few levels. Then... I got to level 5. There are wizards. These preceded the wizzrobes from Legend of Zelda but they are basically those on steroids. When one appears you have like a half second to react and turn to block with your shield. Maze games are supposed to be a tiny bit chill I think... this is not chill at all. I was so ready to have a good time with this but I am not interested in having a high-stress wizard-avoiding experience.
Sky Kid:
Fun shooter. Horizontal scrolling shooter where you shoot planes and bomb a target. It's pretty straight-forward.
Dragon Buster:
Definitely cool for 1984. Seems like a predecessor of Zelda II. The controls kind of suck but the dungeon platforming is respectable for mid 80's standards.
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend:
This is a fun shmup with a slick little fantasy story told through interstitial cutscenes. Pretty impressive for a Famicom game but not exactly mind-blowing by modern standards. Still, I feel like we somehow STILL don't have enough games where you control dragons.
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti:
Cool to see this one localized in 2020. It's wacky and that's the best thing about it. The gameplay is fine but the goofy horror imagery is unique and the real draw here.
Pac-Man Championship Edition:
A demake of the original, I love how this is just billed as the title with no further description. It's amazing and a showcase for how good you could make an NES game given modern game design philosophies. This IS a Famicom game and would run on actual hardware. M2 is crazy, this is amazing, and honestly could be a $10 game in its own right. The package is cool without it, with it, it becomes an amazing, if incongruous, set of games.
So there are 11 Famicom ports of Namco arcade games on here. I prefer the console ports of arcade games. To me it feels unnatural to play the arcade ports at home. Anyway, some of these were Japanese-only so it's kind of cool to have them here even though the Japanese version of this collection has way more extras.
Anyway, the games:
Galaxian:
Namco's Space Invaders clone. It's... fun for like five minutes? I don't really like it.
Pac-Man:
Perfectly serviceable port of the classic. Not a bad way to have Pac-Man on your switch.
Xevious:
It's cool to see the blueprints here for modern shmups. It's pretty fun but very unforgiving.
Mappy:
I love how bizarre this thing is. I had no experience with the arcade version. You jump on trampolines? Collect... tvs? Chase cats as a cop but they are actually chasing you? I don't really know what's going on here but I kind of love it.
Dig Dug:
Perfectly playable Dig Dug. It's... Dig Dug. Dig Dug is cool. I've never understood what the heck I am doing. I am blowing up and murdering animals while digging around? huh
The Tower of Druaga:
I was absolutely loving this for the first few levels. Then... I got to level 5. There are wizards. These preceded the wizzrobes from Legend of Zelda but they are basically those on steroids. When one appears you have like a half second to react and turn to block with your shield. Maze games are supposed to be a tiny bit chill I think... this is not chill at all. I was so ready to have a good time with this but I am not interested in having a high-stress wizard-avoiding experience.
Sky Kid:
Fun shooter. Horizontal scrolling shooter where you shoot planes and bomb a target. It's pretty straight-forward.
Dragon Buster:
Definitely cool for 1984. Seems like a predecessor of Zelda II. The controls kind of suck but the dungeon platforming is respectable for mid 80's standards.
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend:
This is a fun shmup with a slick little fantasy story told through interstitial cutscenes. Pretty impressive for a Famicom game but not exactly mind-blowing by modern standards. Still, I feel like we somehow STILL don't have enough games where you control dragons.
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti:
Cool to see this one localized in 2020. It's wacky and that's the best thing about it. The gameplay is fine but the goofy horror imagery is unique and the real draw here.
Pac-Man Championship Edition:
A demake of the original, I love how this is just billed as the title with no further description. It's amazing and a showcase for how good you could make an NES game given modern game design philosophies. This IS a Famicom game and would run on actual hardware. M2 is crazy, this is amazing, and honestly could be a $10 game in its own right. The package is cool without it, with it, it becomes an amazing, if incongruous, set of games.