Ms. Pac-Man High Scores and a Crazy Ms. Pac-Man Sticker

I know I've posted stuff like this in the past, but for some reason I feel like I've never posted this one. If you search 8bitcity's Youtube, you can find some videos of old 100k+ Ms. Pac-Man games and other fun stuff as well.

Below is the Ms. Pac-Man video, enjoy!

Pac-Man Pasties

Things are getting PG-13 over at 8-Bit City. These Pac-Man pasties might be every girl gamer's ideal Christmas present. Or maybe not.

History of Namco Museum Collections and Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Review

Namco Museum is a long-time favorite of mine, and it's a pleasure to review it finally. The most impressive aspect of the game is arguably the menu, which simulates an arcade and plays a few classic '80s pop hits. The loading times are bad, but not a major deterrent. Arcade games always take a long time to load. Most of the games are fun, a few are not, but all are worth playing and most offer at least a nice distraction. The packaging does not make the eyes bleed. Everything covered.


Except the history of the Namco collections. It all began in 1995 with Namco Museum Vol 1. for the Playstation. Over the next 3 years Namco releases another five volumes. In 1999, yhey also released a modified Vol 1. for the N64 and Dreamcast with Ms. Pac-Man (more of a "greatest hits"). Between 2000-2002, Namco Museum was released for the GBA, PS2, GCN, and XBOX, followed, in 2005, by the updated Namco Museum 50th Anniversary. The DS and PSP saw releases of collections, Namco Museum DS and Namco Museum Battle Collection respectively. The XBOX 360 received the best collection by far: Namco Museum Virtual Arcade which includes the kickass Pac-Man Championship Edition as well as a cache of treasures. In January 2009 they released Namco Museum Essentials for the PlayStation Network, and allowed users to get arcade cabinets for the Playstation HOME. The Wii has already seen two collections: Namco Museum Remix (2007) and Megamix (2010), giving gamers much of the same, and a few (apparently shoddy) "updates" to the classics. I'll probably end up buying Megamix because I'd hate to have to track it down in the future. The entire mess is so complicated that wikipedia has a gigantic chart graphing what games appear in which collections.


Now that you know the history, learn the games! (You probably already know them). I'll do a mini-review for each game and post random images I've scoured from Google Images!

Pac-Man: Great game, but only one board. Painfully slow.

Ms. Pac-Man: Better game, more interesting boards, but still painfully slow on this collection. Good luck getting past the Junior Board.

Galaga: Classic, yet you can only play the slow shoot version. Disapointing.

Galaxian: Not as good as Galaga.

Dig Dug: Awesome music, great gameplay, a timeless classic, perfectly ported.

Rally-X; Awkward and forgettable.

Pole Position: Good fun, but terrible as a racing game. Better racing games exist on the 2600, and it doesn't compare to Outrun.

Pole Position II: Still not as good as Outrun.

Xevious: See the full-length review. Xevious defines a genre.

Dragon Spirit: Somehow misses the Xevious formula, yet may hold some depth and entertainment.

Boscovian: More annoying than anything.

Rolling Thunder: Good for a few hours, but once I doubt anyone really enjoys this game. Okay, I'm sure some people like it, but I'd rather play Ghost 'n' Goblins if I'm going to play an incredibly awkward and challenging arcade platformer.

Mappy: Should not have been created.

Sky Kid: Although the real-world theme is dull, the gameplay is solid and the simultaneous combat is a real party-saver.

Pac-Mania: One of the best Pac-Man games, and definitely a reason to buy this collection.

Galaga '88: An incredible update to Galaga, also adds to the value of the collection.

Overall you get a lot of great games, some bad ports, some okay ports, and some clunkers. Hey, every arcade needs some bad machines to make you appriciate the good ones. Besides, playing a few minutes of Boscovian can take the edge off of a 12-hour Xevious binge or a weekend of Pac-Mania.

If you still haven't had enough Namco euphoria, check out the overlong 3-part Youtube review of Namco Museum Anniversary Collection. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

How to play Google Pac-Man

Google actually saved their Pac-Man app. You can play it at the obvious http://www.google.com/pacman.

Controls:

Pac-Man: Arrow Keys
Ms. Pac-Man: WASD Keys

Click the "Insert Coin" Button next to the usual search bar. Nothing is stoping you from playing as both Pac-people and kicking total ass. Nothing except your lack of samurai gaming skills.

Ms. Pac-Man High Scores

7 months since the last post, and no better way to celebrate than with a youtube video! 2010 got a little hectic there, but hopefully things will return to normal on 8bitcity. I'll be posting everyday this week to start the year off right, so check back!

I've been playing Ms. Pac-Man lately after growing bored with the original Pac-Man; the multiple mazes, speed hack version, lack of patterns, and bouncing fruit make it quite the superior game.

What's with the Pacmania you ask? Some games get boring, some don't. The arcade classics are of course the most resilient.

WARNING: A Huge Battleship Golden Ogre Is Approaching Fast!

I traveled this weekend, and before driving across the state listening to Weezer's Red Album I had several interesting video game-related adventures. First, after seeing The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian with my girlfriend, we hit the arcade in the lobby. And, holy shit, they had a Centipede machine, which I'd never seen. Unfortunately, my bullets were invisible in the first level, but everything started working once the screen changed. Second, there was a Ms. Pac-Man machine. Not the Galaga + Ms. Pac-Man anniversary machine which has sprouted up recently, but a grimy, first-edition, old-fashion arcade beauty. I was one level away from the high score, but, sadly, I didn't have what it takes to go down in movie theater arcade legend.



Later, we went to Circuit City and spent thirty minutes digging around in PS2 bargain bins, and I found a $10 copy of Taito Legends 2, which includes 39 classic Taito arcade games. What really sold me, however, was Darius Gaiden.



I originally stumbled upon Darius Gaiden about 10 years ago, when I noticed it for 3 bucks in an Electronics Boutique. The art was amazing, so I decided to buy it. I was completely floored by the music, graphics, and addicting gameplay. On the surface it might not appear that interesting, just another Gradius clone, but the Darius series is unique because all of the enemies look like giant mechanical fish. The music was composed and performed by Taito's in-house band, Zunata, who do a fantastic job with this game. You'll be mesmerized by the trance voice singing "Close your eyes / close your head" during one of the songs.



Darius Gaiden is still your basic shmup. You collect powerups to increase your weapons, missiles (confusingly named "bombs"), shield, and bombs ("black holes").It's just that everything works so well together. The graphics and artwork are out of this world, and the game makes use of several nice effects (such as pseudo-3D backgrounds and multi-layered parallax scrolling). Hands down, this game has the best graphics of any game pre-1994 that I can remember (hey, if you've got a better suggestion the comment button is a few paragraphs below).



Underneath the sweet eye-and-ear candy is a really good game. There are 28 levels, and you pick one of two forking paths after each boss. You'll travel across the oceans of planet Darius, explore space ruins, and battle through post-apocalyptic cities. In order to see every level, you have to play through the game at least 7 times, if you are consciously making an effort to take certain paths.



And, fuck, I'm glad I'm playing the game on a console (for the record, Taito Legends 2 offers arcade-perfect ports, including a credit button!) because I would have spent at least 40 bucks so far at an aracde. Darius Gaiden isn't a hard game; it's brutal. I have the original PC version (the one I purchased in the past), and it only gave you 2 credits. I managed to make it 4-5 stages after a few weeks of practice, but the game is soul-crushingly difficult. That's really the game's only flaw, which can easily be overlooked. The majority of this difficulty is a direct result of the size of your ship, which is fatty glutton compared to modern shooters like Graidus V and Ikaruga.



Check out this psychedelic bullet-hell shooter if you've got the guts. Screw fishing, this game rocks.