Retro Namco Appreciation Thread

[electricmastro]

An appreciation thread for Namco's older games (as recent as 2005 or so), whether developed and/or published by them. I think some of their standout games from that timeframe would include:

 

Tales of Symphonia

 

SoulCalibur

 

Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War

 

We Love Katamari

 

Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil

 

Tekken 3

 

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

 

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean

 

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht

 

Mario Superstar Baseball

 

Star Fox: Assault

 

Pac-Man World

 

Time Crisis

 

Splatterhouse 3

 

Galaga: Demons of Death

[+jgkspsx]

18 hours ago, electricmastro said:

Tales of Symphonia

SoulCalibur

Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War

We Love Katamari

Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht

Mario Superstar Baseball

Star Fox: Assault

Pac-Man World

Modern Gaming is thataway ?

[electricmastro]

6 minutes ago, jgkspsx said:

Modern Gaming is thataway ?

Are they all modern? I figured systems like PS1 and PS2 were retro by now.

[+jgkspsx]

Modern Gaming on AtariAge starts with the Dreamcast and the Game Boy Advance.

[electricmastro]

1 minute ago, jgkspsx said:

Modern Gaming on AtariAge starts with the Dreamcast and the Game Boy Advance.

Ah, didn't realize. Sorry about that.

[+jgkspsx]

I mean, all the Game Boy Advance discussion seems to happen in this forum anyway. I was just amused to click on a thread called “Retro Namco” and see games for the Gamecube and PS2  

[Reaperman]

I love that 60fps version of Ridge Racer that comes packed with R4--but I still think Ridge Racer Revolution is my favorite. To this day it's my torture test for video capture devices.

 

Starblade's home forms are all pretty great, but sadly I've never gotten to play the arcade original. For 1991, that arcade version just looks mind-blowingly good.  In 1991 I don't think I'd even upgraded to NES yet, and there was a game that looked like that somewhere in the world.

 

soul calibur was my favorite DC game from launch day, and probably my first 'better than arcade' moment. It had an awful lot of content in it. 

 

I've also semi-recently spent time with Namco's Mario Kart GP games thanks to wii/wii-u modding and it's surprisingly good. Mind this is coming from somebody who thinks Mario Kart should be a lot less 'mario kart' so it's a nice change.

 

Opening up the big Time Crisis ps1 box for the first time BITD--now that was a heck of a day.

 

I think I've reached maximum saturation for the original galaga, but I'll never turn down a go at Galaga '88/'90

 

One of my regrets growing up was not playing cyber sled. Outside of time crisis, and soul calibur, my local arcades didn't stock much namco, but they had that.  And rather than play it, I just stared at it with my jaw on the ground. Very pretty, but it looked complex and it was not cheap to try. At this point, I will probably never get a chance to correct that mistake.

Edited June 10, 2022 by Reaperman

[electricmastro]

15 minutes ago, Reaperman said:

I love that 60fps version of Ridge Racer that comes packed with R4--but I still think Ridge Racer Revolution is my favorite. To this day it's my torture test for video capture devices.

The original arcade game also impressed me. Reminded me of Sega's racer arcade offerings like Daytona:

 

 

[Reaperman]

17 minutes ago, electricmastro said:

The original arcade game also impressed me. Reminded me of Sega's racer arcade offerings like Daytona:

 

One thing I've always wondered is how common those were, because I've never seen even a single namco racing cab of any flavor.  

Mind I do hunt for them. I've lived in 3 states, on two coasts, and have even taken 'arcade vacations' outside my local areas, and I've still never seen even one. Growing up it was all sega or midway/atari titles in arcades. 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Reaperman

[Bloodreign]

Some Namco retro goodness:

Pac-Land

Pac-Mania

Marvel Land, Genesis version has more to it than the arcade release

Phelios

Super Pac-Man

Burning Force

Legend of Valkyrie, an awesome, awesome game, a must play

Valkyrie no Bouken, PS1 updated version, phenomenal looking remake of the Famicom original, prequel to Legend of Valkyrie

Xandra no Daibouken, aka Whirlo, (SFC/SNES) the first game in the Valkyrie series, released last amazingly

Mirai Ninja, on Arcade Archives these days

Marchen Maze, amazing this one has never seen an arcade archives release, but has PC Engine and Sharp X68000 ports

Cosmo Gang the Video, has a great Super Famicom port too

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Bloodreign

[electricmastro]

42 minutes ago, Bloodreign said:

 

Legend of Valkyrie, an awesome, awesome game, a must play

 

Ah right. Speaking of which, I saw Valkyrie's cameo in Marvel Land too.

 

[Trinity]

 

[+jgkspsx]

Nobody talks about Final Blaster at all. It is definitely awkward and uneven, and the last third of the game is just too hard, but the mechanic is fun and very worthwhile to try while it lasts.

 

 

Namco has gone through phases of wanting to be a major publisher of Western-developed games, but it has never worked out. The pinnacle was in the early to mid 2000s when they published all kinds of crazy stuff. This game was brutalized by critics, but it seems to have aged well, because nobody I talk to who has played it recently seems to dislike it.

 

Around the same time they published WayForward’s Sigma Star Saga, a weird genre fusion that is kind of reminiscent of The Guardian Legend except with Zelda instead of Wonder Boy ground level inspirations.

 

 

Also at the same time they published a secret entry in the Xcom series; Rebelstar Tactical Command, made by the creator of Xcom and a direct followup to the first Xcom series game, Rebelstar.

 

Despite these games being fun, great, and/or interesting , these games were critical and/or commercial flops and added to the existing challenges from an economic downturn and a string of not super successful self-developed games to drive Namco into a takeover by Bandai in the 2005.

[Reaperman]

I know this comparison isn't completely fair for a number of reasons, but here's 1991 from namco, vs what the pc-gamer master race was playing that year. Rebel assault would probably be a more fair comparison, but that was 1993 (which qualifies a 'much later' in that specific era)--and it still gets flattened. 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 10, 2022 by Reaperman

[+GoldLeader]

I went well out of my way BITD to collect all volumes of NAMCO Museum for Play Station.   Almost got screwed on that one too as they came out with Greatest Hits Versions, (and black label versions but with the small letter in the center, surrounded by game screens), While I was still trying to get the black label ones.  I did end up with some weirdness for volume 3 (I think it was) as nobody had a black label version,  so I bought the "rental" from Buy Back Games in Denver*...and got the black label box, but the game inside was a Greatest Hits variant.  I was OK with this because I could still spell out N-A-M-C-O with the proper box.

 

Damn!   $1,000 on eBay!            (Granted they'll likely take a Best Offer)

 

 

 

 

 

*We didn't have real game stores in our town back then...Just an E.B. and I kind of made fun of them.  I pointed right at the ad in the paper which showed a black label Namco Museum on sale and I said, "That's what I want!  Right there in the picture!"  Predictably they brought me the Greatest Hits version and I said, "No!  Not Greatest Hits version..."

 

 

 

[+frankodragon]

The best one of the Namco Museum is Volume 3.  It's where you can enter the Pac-Man residence and find Pac-Man taking a dump. 

[roots.genoa]

5 hours ago, jgkspsx said:

Also at the same time they published a secret entry in the Xcom series; Rebelstar Tactical Command, made by the creator of Xcom and a direct followup to the first Xcom series game, Rebelstar.

I actually stopped playing this one recently. ? I don't regret buying it, but it gets far too hard for me after a while. Just as in XCOM, enemies like to throw grenades that are impossible to avoid (and almost never miss their targets, contrary to your shitty guns), and deal a ton of damage. ?

Edited June 10, 2022 by roots.genoa

[Steven Pendleton]

11 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

I went well out of my way BITD to collect all volumes of NAMCO Museum for Play Station.   Almost got screwed on that one too as they came out with Greatest Hits Versions, (and black label versions but with the small letter in the center, surrounded by game screens), While I was still trying to get the black label ones.  I did end up with some weirdness for volume 3 (I think it was) as nobody had a black label version,  so I bought the "rental" from Buy Back Games in Denver*...and got the black label box, but the game inside was a Greatest Hits variant.  I was OK with this because I could still spell out N-A-M-C-O with the proper box.

 

Damn!   $1,000 on eBay!            (Granted they'll likely take a Best Offer)

 

 

 

 

 

*We didn't have real game stores in our town back then...Just an E.B. and I kind of made fun of them.  I pointed right at the ad in the paper which showed a black label Namco Museum on sale and I said, "That's what I want!  Right there in the picture!"  Predictably they brought me the Greatest Hits version and I said, "No!  Not Greatest Hits version..."

 

 

 

Dude you're missing the T!

 

 

[+GoldLeader]

 

17 minutes ago, Steven Pendleton said:

Dude you're missing the T!

 

 

 

Totally missing the T haha!

 

Except in Japan it was N-A-M-C-O-R!               (I know,  I know ... NAMCO^R )

 

 

Here the R (Registered Trademark "R" I assume) is Namco Museum Encore...The Limited Edition boxed set has room for all your other NAMCOs...(I wish they did it this way here!!!)

 

 

 

 

[RJ]

Assault

Xevious 

[electricmastro]

Namco's RTS in the vein of games like Herzog Zwei and Dune II. Solid first attempt, though it's too bad they didn't make another one.

 

Edited June 11, 2022 by electricmastro

[schuwalker]

21 hours ago, GoldLeader said:

I went well out of my way BITD to collect all volumes of NAMCO Museum for Play Station.   Almost got screwed on that one too as they came out with Greatest Hits Versions, (and black label versions but with the small letter in the center, surrounded by game screens), While I was still trying to get the black label ones.  I did end up with some weirdness for volume 3 (I think it was) as nobody had a black label version,  so I bought the "rental" from Buy Back Games in Denver*...and got the black label box, but the game inside was a Greatest Hits variant.  I was OK with this because I could still spell out N-A-M-C-O with the proper box.

 

Damn!   $1,000 on eBay!            (Granted they'll likely take a Best Offer)

 

 

 

 

 

*We didn't have real game stores in our town back then...Just an E.B. and I kind of made fun of them.  I pointed right at the ad in the paper which showed a black label Namco Museum on sale and I said, "That's what I want!  Right there in the picture!"  Predictably they brought me the Greatest Hits version and I said, "No!  Not Greatest Hits version..."

 

 

 

Seeing those brought back some nostalgia... I had all of them; I recall the "O" being a bitch to find in the stores - it was the one I really was chomping at the bit since it had Dragon Spirit. Pretty sure I ordered it through some store from Die Hard Game magazine. I didn't know about the Japan exclusive, and of course, it has the sequel to Dragon Spirit on there.

 

My favorite Namco title is hands down Bosconian. I dropped sooo many quarters in that sucker bitd.

[The Usotsuki]

BRAST UFF!

[roadrunner]

Baraduke

 

 

[+GoldLeader]

 

4 hours ago, roadrunner said:

Baraduke

 

 

 

FWIW,

 

An incomplete project from long ago...I have the boards/marquee for ALIEN SECTOR partially installed (work not done by me) into my second Frenzy cab...I would later find out Alien Sector is the American version of Baraduke...