Namco Museum vol.2 is the second, and arguably hardest-to-find, title in the Namco Museum series for the PS1, this volume packs in arcade favorites like Mappy, Xevious and Super Pac-Man, along with lesser-known sequels Gaplus (a lightning-fast Galaga sequel, better known to U.S. gamers as Galaga 3) and Grobda (a ground-based follow-up to Xevious) and the quest-style Dragon Buster. The menu, option selection and control structure is very much the same as Namco Museum Volume 1, making it a bit difficult to navigate (something later refined in Namco Museum Volume 3).
Though the first and third Namco Museum PlayStation titles were reprinted as part of the "greatest hits" collection, Namco Museum Volume 2 somehow escaped that kind of sales success, and is now sought after by collectors. The original arcade version of Xevious is also included on Xevious 3-D/G+, but most of these other games haven't been seen in more recent Namco Museums for other consoles.
GAMES:
MAPPY:
Mappy is a 1983 arcade game by Namco. In the United States, it was manufactured and distributed by Bally/Midway. Mappy is a side-scrolling platformer that features cartoon-like characters, primarily cats and mice. The game's main character itself is a mouse. Mappy runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware, modified to support horizontal scrolling. The name "Mappy" is likely derived from mappo, a Japanese slang term (slightly insulting) for a policeman.
The player guides Mappy the police mouse through the mansion of the cats called Mewkies (Meowky in the U.S. version) to retrieve stolen goods. The player uses a left-right joystick to move Mappy and a single button to operate doors. The mansion has six floors of hallways in which the stolen items are stashed. The items are:
* Radio (100pts)
* Television (200pts)
* Computer (300pts)
* Mona Lisa (400pts)
* Safe (500pts)
In addition to Meowkies, the boss cat Nyamco also roams around. The name "Nyamco", besides being a play on "Namco", comes from nyanko, the Japanese equivalent of "kitty cat". Nyamco was renamed "Goro" in the U.S. release. He is faster, but less aggressive than the Mewkies. Throughout the levels, Nyamco hides behind the different objects to recover. Should Mappy recover an item which Nyamco is hiding behind, the player gets a bonus of 1000 points for having caught Nyamco in the act.
A level is completed when all the loot is retrieved. If Mappy tarries too long, a "Hurry" sign appears after which the music and the cats speed up, and more Mewkies are added.
The third level and every fourth level after that is a bonus round. Mappy, unbothered by any cats, must bounce across a series of trampolines, popping fifteen different suspended red balloons, with a "Nyamco" along the way. A bonus is awarded if all the balloons are popped before the music ends.
As there are 256 rounds, like in Pac-Man and other 8-bit arcade games, the last round's play is normal, but harder than usual. When the player finishes the round, which is also known as "round 0," the first round appears again.
XEVIOUS:
Xevious is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game by Namco, released in 1982.[1] It was designed by Masanobu Endo. In the U.S., the game was manufactured and distributed by Atari. Xevious runs on Namco Galaga hardware.
The player uses an 8-way joystick to pilot a combat aircraft called a Solvalou, which is armed with a forward-firing "shooter" for aerial targets and a "bomber" which fires an unlimited supply of air-to-surface bombs for ground targets. The game, presumably set in Peru, was noted for the varied terrain below, which included forests, airstrips, bases, and mysterious Nazca Line-like drawings on the ground.
The game has 1 level, but places change as you cross rivers. The Solvalou continually advances over varying terrain and the boundaries between levels are marked only by dense forests being overflown. If the player dies, play normally resumes from the start of the level. If the player has completed at least 70% of the level before dying, play will begin at the start of the next level instead.As the Solvalou constantly flies forward, it is possible to advance without killing any enemies.
SUPER PAC-MAN:
Super Pac-Man , released in 1982 is the third installment of the Pac-Man series of arcade games and the second starring Pac-Man himself. It is also the second game to be created by series originator Namco, as Ms. Pac-Man (the second in the series) was originally created without Namco's involvement.
Sound and gameplay mechanics were altered radically from the first two entries into the Pac-Man series - instead of eating dots, the player is required to eat keys in order to open doors, which open up sections of the maze that contain what in earlier games were known as "fruits" (foods such as apples and bananas, or other prizes such as Galaxian flagships), which are now the basic items that must be cleared. Once all the food is eaten, the player advances to the next level, in which the food is worth more points. In earlier levels, keys unlock nearby doors, while as the player progresses through the levels, it is more common for keys to open faraway doors.
In addition to the original power pellet which allows Pac-Man to eat the ghosts, a "Super" pellet was introduced which turns Pac-Man into Super Pac-Man—in this form, he is twice as large, moves much faster and has the ability to eat his way through barriers without unlocking them. In this state, he is invulnerable to the ghosts (which, for unknown reasons, become flat while moving horizontally and thin while moving vertically when Pac-Man is in this state), though he still cannot eat them without the help of the original power-up. This game also adds a speed button, which allows Pac-Man to move faster when in Super mode. Pac-man can enter the ghost house in this state, too, able to eat hiding ghosts.
GAPLUS:
Gaplus, far more commonly known as Galaga 3 (although the game was released under both titles in North America), is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1984. It runs on Namco Phozon hardware and was only known as Gaplus in Japan. A modification kit was distributed later that changed the title screen to Galaga 3? to increase recognition among fans of the Galaga series and boost sales.
The player controls a spaceship, that can now move vertically (limited to halfway up the screen) as well as horizontally, and shoots at swarms of incoming insect-like aliens which fly in formation above it and swoop down to bomb it in a kamikaze-like dive. In this sequel, the level starts over if the player is killed before all the enemies have come in. When all enemies are destroyed, the player moves on to the next level. By obtaining certain power-ups, it is possible to shoot 60 bullets per screen; the most any Galaga related game has.
GROBDA:
Grobda is a multi-directional shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1984. It is a spin-off from Xevious, as the player's tank first appeared in that - as an enemy.
The player controls a tank in an arena filled with numerous indestructible obstacles - and several enemies such as tanks. When the player kills an enemy, it will cause an explosion and other enemies that happen to be in the way at the time will share the same fate as the first one. But if the player's tank is too close to the explosion it will also be killed. The player's tank has a shield that offers temporary protection from enemy fire, but constant firing from enemies will make it disappear. Each level is called a "battling", and there are 99 in total. If all 99 battlings are beaten the high score table will show that you have beaten 100 battlings. There is also a level select screen.
The game runs on Namco Super Pac-Man hardware but with a DAC for speech. Each stage begins with a voice saying "Get ready!".
DRAGON BUSTER:
Dragon Buster is an arcade game that was released by Namco in 1984. It runs on Namco Pac-Land hardware, modified to support vertical scrolling. The game was ported to the Famicom in Japan, which was later released for the Virtual Console in the same region on November 18, 2008. Dragon Buster has been ported for the PSP and is available as part of Namco Museum Battle Collection. It was followed by a Japan-only Famicom sequel, Dragon Buster II: Yami no Fuuin, and was later followed by the PlayStation game Dragon Valor. It was one of the first arcade games to feature a life meter (called "Vitality" in-game).
In the beginning, a prince name Clovis was born the son of the kingdom's chief bodyguard to the royal Lawrence family. As a young child, Clovis was very mischievous and undisciplined, so his father thought it might be best to place him under the care of a monk who lived in the woods far from the kingdom. Under the monk's care, Clovis began to learn various aspects of knowledge, including how to be a superior swordsman. When word reached the monk that King Lawrence's 16 year old daughter Celia had been abducted and held by a fearsome dragon, who wished to break the kingdom's spirit and coerce the kingdom to do his bidding, Clovis felt a sense of duty to chase after the dragon and rescue Celia in the name of his father. In order to save his sister, he trained daily with the monk and learned to withstand injury, whether cut by swords or burned by flame, and still be just as capable a fighter as ever.
The player must guide the hero Clovis through each round on to the castle to rescue his beloved Princess Celia. There are multiple Princess Celias in the game, one in every few castles. The goal is to reach the true Celia at the end of the game at the final castle. Celia wears a different outfit each time she is rescued. As you progress throughout the round you must choose various paths to take on to the castle. There are many paths to choose from and the number of these increase as you get to the higher rounds. The paths take you to the individual levels of the round. There are multiple bosses on each level and many less powerful enemies scattered throughout the level. You must find the boss that contains the exit on each level to proceed through the round to finally reach the castle. Clovis's vitality restores itself by 25% after each level is completed. Until like most arcade video games where the player has a set number of lives, the game will be over when Clovis' vitality reaches zero.
There are 5 different types of levels: The Cave, The Tower, The Boneyard, The Mountain and The Ruins.Every Castle is the same, it starts with a very long drop that takes you to the Dragon's room and from there you must fight the Dragon.
When the game was ported to the PC-8801 computer by Enix, the game featured an introduction to the game and a whole new ending featuring cinema screens showing a battle-torn Clovis and a teary-eyed Celia. A harder sequel called Dragon Buster 100 was created for a Japanese TV Plug-in-play game along the original. It had horizontal levels with 4 enemies and a dragon (the last one) on each one. Once all 100 enemies are beaten, the game repeats back to level one.
Dragon Buster was also included as a hidden minigame in Tales of the Abyss.
Manufacturer's description:
Compilation containing Namco coin-op classics "Xevious", "Gaplus", "Super Pac-Man", "Mappy", "Grobda" and "Dragon Buster". Based on the 1982-1984 Namco arcade coin-ops.
Features:
- Third person perspective.
- 2D graphics
- Cartoon graphics
- Arcade Machines theme.
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