Dragon Spirit was developed and published by Namco in 1987. Dragon Spirit is a horizontally scrolling shooter. The game has you playing as a guy who transforms into a flying dragon. It's the standard scrolling shooter game play of the time. You shoot enemies to collect their dropped items that power up your firepower. You advance through each of the nine stages to a boss creature. Since you're a dragon, you actually have a lifebar. You can take a few hits before dying. Also, because you're a dragon, the stronger your firepower becomes, the more heads you'll sprout. You can go from a single-headed dragon to having three heads. The game also features the Xevious game play of having to shoot both air targets and those on the ground. You don't exactly bomb the ground targets, as the dragon just tilts its head down and fires. The game is really tough. The graphics are great. 1987 is just into the second golden age of arcade gaming, where the graphics, sound, and depth of play took a huge leap over the Asteroids and Pac-Man era.
Rolling Thunder was developed Namco but published by Atari in 1987. Rolling Thunder is a predominantly sidescrolling action game. In it, you play an agent who is out to save his kidnapped fellow female agent from an insidious organization out to rule the world. You're armed with a gun, and you can jump. The game plays out one two levels of play. You can jump up onto walkways above and the like by holding up and jump. So as you're going through the levels, killing enemies and avoiding shots by others, you're constantly jumping from the upper and lower levels. The enemies also can move between the upper and lower levels. Throughout the levels are crates to duck behind and doors in the background. You can enter these doors, and enemies appear from them. They can be used to avoid an enemy or their firing at you. Some of the doors are marked with signs about weapons or ammo. Entering these will allow you to pick up the machine gun, or refill your ammo. The game is hard, but fun. It's really about cat and mouse with using the two sections of the play area. There are no real bosses, except for the last boss. This is the most advanced game in the collection as far as graphics and game play.
Pac-Mania was developed and published by Namco in 1987. Pac-Mania is the first of two hidden games on the disc. The game is a "3D" version of Pac-Man. There are four mazes, the original Pac-Man's Pac-Man Park, Block Town, Sand Box Land, and Jungly Steps. It's Pac-Man in three-quarter topdown isometric view. They've added the ability for Pac-Man to jump over the ghosts. Certain ghosts can also jump. This adds some depth to how the game is played. In the latter levels, there is a silver ghost that cannot be jumped. The levels all have obvious themes being named, but they each get their own musical theme. The game is fun, and the graphics are great for what they are. The only real problem is the speed. The game is slow. Pac-Man moves slow, and the ghosts all move slow. It's almost a plodding pace.
Galaga '88 was surprisingly developed and published in 1988 by Namco. Who would have guessed? Galaga '88 is the second of two hidden games. Galaga '88 is very much the same game as Galaga, but with new backgrounds for the stages, comic game sprites, and the ability to have three ships joined at the hip. You start by selecting if you want to begin the game as a single or double ship. Which means you'll start with one less extra man if you select the double ship. You play the same way. The enemies come out in waves and form up and begin swooping down and firing away. You have to avoid them and their shots and destroy all of them to move to the next stage. Every few stages you'll get the bonus round where the enemies come out in waves without firing and the object is to destroy them all before they leave the screen. Since they've added backgrounds, every once in a while you'll actually play over a scrolling background. Outside of these minor additions, it truly is just the Galaga game play. It's a great bonus title, and easily the best version of Galaga ever made. Take that for whatever you will.
Overall Namco Museum 50th Anniversary is a decent bare-bones collection of classic arcade games. You'll come for the classics like Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, and Galaga. You're likely to be pleasantly surprised by Sky Kid, Rolling Thunder, Galaga '88, and Bosconian. You're likely to enjoy the time spent browsing through Pole Position, Pole Position II, Xevious, and Mappy. Time killers is the best way to describe most of the games on this disc. I don't think anyone raised on today'sgames is truly going to appreciate any of these titles beyond their novelty value. This disc is for collectors of history more than anything else. As far as the emulation goes, I'm very pleased with the quality of the job Digital Eclipse did in compiling this for Namco. Everything looks and sounds perfect. As far as production value goes, I really think Namco dropped the ball. No histories, movies, commentary, art, photos, developer interviews, nothing. They could have handled this so much better. Especially in light of everyone else's collections. I'm going to give Namco Museum 50th Anniversary a 7.0.
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