Namco Arcade Happy Hour
Or something like that. New 14-game compilation for PS2, Xbox, Cube, GBA and PC. Except the GBA one doesn't have 14 games.
Namco has revealed that it plans to release Namco Museum 50th Anniversary, "the single largest compilation of Namco Arcade Classics ever" on PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Game Boy Advance and PC this August in the States.
The 14-game compilation consists of Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Pole Position, Pole Position II, Rolling Thunder, Rally X, Bosconian, Dragon Spirit, Sky Kid, Xevious and Mappy.
Games will be accessed from a virtual arcade hall with arcade cabinets lined up to go and play on, and the Xbox version will link up with Live to upload high scores, which should be nice. Assuming you can do more than just whack your initials in, anyway.
It seems that the Game Boy Advance version won't have that 14 games, however, with just Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug and Rally X on board there.
Still, it's another way for fans of 70s and 80s arcade titles to go back to their roots (a bit like a crack addict going back to coke for a few days or something).
That said, we're not sure about this claim about it being the biggest Namco arcade compilation ever. The PSP's Namco Museum Battle Collection, the US version of the Japanese Namco Museum game, includes ten more classics than its Japanese counterpart, with the likes of Tower of Druaga, Dragon Buster, Grobda, Dig Dug 2 and King & Balloon added to a roster that's otherwise quite similar to Namco Museum 50th Anniversary.
Mind you, it seems a bit silly to complain when Namco's basically only fibbing about being better than itself at the same thing. And we're confused now, so that'll be all on that for the time being. Watch out for both the PSP title and its multiplatform cousin pitching up in late summer over the pond, with Euro releases presumably scheduled for later in the year.