Remember the arcades? The deep-fried french fries, Coca Cola, a pocket full of change and a couple of friends playing games in the back? Pac-Man, Rolling Thunder, Galaxian... enough to make any evening complete. So, still munching through your snacks, you tip the machine a coin and the quest to put your initials on the illustrious high-score table begins. Must have been one hell of a quest! Unfortunately, I wasn't around to see it. I entered the world too late to see the glory days of the arcades, but, that said, I do carry a great love of giant black boxes with games in them. So, trying to see what I missed, I played through this collection of retro titles. Judging by this collection, that chapter in video gaming's life was filled with horrible music, lousy interfaces and boring multiplayer modes. Of course, it's not fair to judge it by today's standards, yet today's standards are where we're at, and Namco should have checked them before throwing this title out on the market.

Bragging loudly about its fourteen games (not the largest number to grace a retro collection) and the opportunity for a nostalgic look back at the start of video gaming, Namco Museum 50th Anniversary will surely tempt many into buying it. However, you've got to quench your nostalgic needs for the time being. Yes, they do keep their promises - there are 14 games gathered on a single disc. However, the quality of these games are constantly shifting from the masterpieces to unplayable pieces of garbage.

There are quite a number of classics gathered here - Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaxian, Sky Kid... I was also quite surprised to find Rolling Thunder, the one arcade game I have actually played, to be on this disc as well. However, among these great titles, a few rotten eggs have managed to slip in as well. Is it just me, or is Bosconian completely unplayable? You control a spaceship that you can't move. Then you're attacked by fighters and you can only shoot in eight directions! For me it just didn't work at all! And that's not the only one - I found both Pole Position games to be awful as well. Only one track on the first one and a really high difficulty level on both, they're really bad. However, before focusing too much on the negative part of the experience, let's have a look at the positive sides! Well, there is always a great amount of nostalgia involved with re-releasing old games and if you've played one of these games at the arcade in the dim and distant past, discovering it again is pure bliss! It does provide you with a chance to discover the early classics and see how it all began. For example, in Pole Position you get what must be one of the earliest attempts at spoken lines in a game. It sounds horrible but it's fun to see the humble beginnings that led to today's high-tech gaming industry.

The shoot 'em up is the well-known genre where you've got a space ship at the bottom or side of the screen and you try to hit approaching fighters. Over the years not much alteration has changed to the basic formula, so the ones in this collection, and there are quite a few, are still enjoyable. Right from the beginning, with the revolutionary Galaxian and its successor Galaga to the more down to earth Xevious and the downright boring Dragon Spirit, it's a chronicle of the early years of shoot 'em ups. There are also a few racing games here, the two Pole Position games and Rally-X. None of those are standing out in any way, as they're all very basic and retro racing games don't seem to fare so well as other genres like the shooters. In Rally-X you're supposed to collect golden trophies while avoiding red cars. A lot like Pac-Man actually, just with cars. Both Pole Position games are just like any other racing game, with the only real change being the horrible controls and frustratingly high difficulty level.

You can also play a few platform titles, including Rolling Thunder, Dig Dug, Sky Kid and Mappy, the latter of which is a mix between Super Mario Bros. and Bumpy, another oldie, where you play a mouse trying to get through the level. You can jump on various pieces of… string?… and blast your enemies away by opening doors. It might sound boring but it's really fun to waste an hour with.

In Sky Kid you're a pilot flying through a landscape filled with tanks and other nasty things, headed for a target to bomb. This one grew old in just a few minutes and it's not one I would have devoted many coins to at the arcade. One game that I did find quite interesting is Dig Dug, which features a little character with the wonderful ability to dig! The ground is, of course, filled with enemies, which you have to kill, so you have to dig a tunnel to get to them. However, they can also walk through the dirt, so you have to think fast. It's really fun and is definitely worth taking your time to revisit. The last of the real arcade games is Rolling Thunder. This one is my favourite and is also the reason this game is still on my shelf. It's a platform shooter where you take control of an agent trying to bring down an evil cult. The story is so abysmal it's not even mentioned in the game, but if you want to bother, it's in the manual. Anyway, the HQ of the cult is swarming with different cloak-draped enemies, so it's up to you and your trusty sidearm to make your way through!

All of these games are fun to spend some time with, to a lesser or greater degree, but none of them will keep you entertained for very long, making this a nice filler for an hour between the other games you're currently playing. There are also two unlockable games, Pac-Mania and Galaga '88, which you get to play once you've attained high scores in a few games. However, making this an offline experience has one major drawback - there's no one to gloat in front of! The whole idea of arcades, the reason you were stuffing the machines with money in the first place, was the high score, the opportunity to get your initials in the top of the board for everyone to see. If you could play online, or even if there were leaderboards, there would still be plenty of reason for getting a nice score, but since it's just offline you can't really brag about it to anyone. So, go to an arcade, they're still around and it's much more fun playing out there, if more expensive as well!

When re-releasing retro games, there is always one major factor to keep in mind, one that will determine the loss or profit of the release - nostalgia. Some people have it, others don't. So, if you get nostalgic watching the opening screen, you'll stay that way throughout the game and will feel right at home. If you don't, then this is pretty much just a collection of oldies. Sure, these classics were what started it all, but if you're too young to remember them then there's nothing special here and you'll miss the lack of modern sophistication that you're used to. However, being a retro collection, Namco had no choice but to put these classics together in their original form, complete with "insert coin" and "press 1 or 2 player buttons" popping up on your screen along the way. This is what the retro fans want, but with a limited range of only fourteen games, some classics, others definitely not, the appeal of this title to younger gamers that don't warmly remember the golden era is very limited indeed.

Despite its age and the debatable quality of some of the titles, Namco Museum 50th Anniversary is still worth a look for arcade veterans. New players will not find it nearly as entertaining, and while every generation has its classics, some of which are most definitely present and correct here, most gamers today won't recognise the games and therefore won't really be interested. Although there are better collections with more games out there, like Taito Legends and Taito Legends 2, for example, if you recognise most of the game titles in here and have fond memories of them, then this retro collection is still worth a look; just be warned, the novelty will last about as long as your coins did back when you were a kid!

Reviewed by Niels Jakob Kyhl Jørgensen for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).