Well this is surprising. This game suddenly came out on Steam a day earlier than the expected release date. This might have to do with releasing in Japan's time, but whatever.
The game itself is just another collection of Pac-Man titles ranging from the original up to the PSP era. But what makes this one unique from other collections is that the "museum" is a virtual arcade which can be customized by the player. While I really do like this idea, it really wasn't executed the best.
The game itself runs off one type of in-game currency, which is used to play the arcade titles and purchase stuff for the arcade. And while you do start with a lot, It feels kind of unnecessary since everything is rather cheap. And there's not much stuff to buy anyways, aside from gambling your life away on a gacha machine that's just kinda there. Most of the content is only obtainable through playing the games and completing challenges anyways, But I feel like the currency shouldn't be required for playing the games and only for the unlockables. Speaking of the games...
I really like the selection. Not only do you get the obvious classics, but some newer titles from the Wii and PSP era are now included, including games from Namco Museum Remix. Lesser-known titles are also included such as Pac & Pal and even Pac-In-Time. And the Arcade Pac-Man Arrangement finally gets a re-release after a very long time. It's a really good set of titles. But a lot of it is nearly ruined by several other factors.
The emulation for most of these games are NOT GOOD. While the games perform perfectly fine, all the arcade games have no integer pixel scaling, and some have an ugly filter. This results in tons of shimmering and/or a blurry picture depending on the game. The sound emulation is not so good either. Most sound effects and some music sound rather off, even in the original 1980 classic. However the more modern titles and console games seem to have much better visual and audible emulation, albeit with the near lack of any upscaled textures. Hell it gets downright lazy too. The original Championship Edition is just stretched to fit on the screen and Pac-In-Time is in Japanese in all regions and subtitles are just thrown in there. And if you're playing on a controller, there is very noticeable input lag.
I should mention that ALL references to Ms. Pac-Man are completely eradicated. All the way to the point where any game featuring her is either removed or redesigned to "Pac-Mom." The reasons for why this is are best explained elsewhere.
But even worse, not only do the arcade titles lack good audio and visuals, there are almost no visual settings whatsoever and a complete absense in DIP switch settings. This is inexcusable. And even though they're just simple maze games, being able to make the game easier/harder would be much appreciated for the more casual or hardcore audience respectively.
And not only that, half the games need to be unlocked. And to unlock one, you have to play through a specific game completely until you get a game over. Twice. So unless you're intentionally getting game overs to speed things up, some games like Pac-In-Time will takes tons of "time" in order to unlock the next game.
After all of this, I'd be safe to say that Pac-Man Museum+ was likely rushed to release. But do I recommend this game? If you're only here to play the games and just have fun, I'd say go for it. But if you're somebody who really cares about the quality of the games. Hell no. But hey, at least this is a big improvement from what was given back in 2014.
The game itself is just another collection of Pac-Man titles ranging from the original up to the PSP era. But what makes this one unique from other collections is that the "museum" is a virtual arcade which can be customized by the player. While I really do like this idea, it really wasn't executed the best.
The game itself runs off one type of in-game currency, which is used to play the arcade titles and purchase stuff for the arcade. And while you do start with a lot, It feels kind of unnecessary since everything is rather cheap. And there's not much stuff to buy anyways, aside from gambling your life away on a gacha machine that's just kinda there. Most of the content is only obtainable through playing the games and completing challenges anyways, But I feel like the currency shouldn't be required for playing the games and only for the unlockables. Speaking of the games...
I really like the selection. Not only do you get the obvious classics, but some newer titles from the Wii and PSP era are now included, including games from Namco Museum Remix. Lesser-known titles are also included such as Pac & Pal and even Pac-In-Time. And the Arcade Pac-Man Arrangement finally gets a re-release after a very long time. It's a really good set of titles. But a lot of it is nearly ruined by several other factors.
The emulation for most of these games are NOT GOOD. While the games perform perfectly fine, all the arcade games have no integer pixel scaling, and some have an ugly filter. This results in tons of shimmering and/or a blurry picture depending on the game. The sound emulation is not so good either. Most sound effects and some music sound rather off, even in the original 1980 classic. However the more modern titles and console games seem to have much better visual and audible emulation, albeit with the near lack of any upscaled textures. Hell it gets downright lazy too. The original Championship Edition is just stretched to fit on the screen and Pac-In-Time is in Japanese in all regions and subtitles are just thrown in there. And if you're playing on a controller, there is very noticeable input lag.
I should mention that ALL references to Ms. Pac-Man are completely eradicated. All the way to the point where any game featuring her is either removed or redesigned to "Pac-Mom." The reasons for why this is are best explained elsewhere.
But even worse, not only do the arcade titles lack good audio and visuals, there are almost no visual settings whatsoever and a complete absense in DIP switch settings. This is inexcusable. And even though they're just simple maze games, being able to make the game easier/harder would be much appreciated for the more casual or hardcore audience respectively.
And not only that, half the games need to be unlocked. And to unlock one, you have to play through a specific game completely until you get a game over. Twice. So unless you're intentionally getting game overs to speed things up, some games like Pac-In-Time will takes tons of "time" in order to unlock the next game.
After all of this, I'd be safe to say that Pac-Man Museum+ was likely rushed to release. But do I recommend this game? If you're only here to play the games and just have fun, I'd say go for it. But if you're somebody who really cares about the quality of the games. Hell no. But hey, at least this is a big improvement from what was given back in 2014.