Namco Museum 50th Anniversary offers more than 16 old-school video games for players seeking a respite from modern titles that seem to require a degree in quantum mechanics to pass the second level.
It shows that some games have held up well over time, while others suffered usability issues with home console game controllers.
When you crank it up on your game console, you're taken to a collection of standup video game machines in a virtual arcade.
Music from the 1980s such as Come On Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners and Joystick by Dazz Band blares in the background as you toggle around to select a game.
As an homage to all the quarters I'll never get back, I selected Pac-Man first.
Mind you, Pac-Man isn't just a game - it's an icon of the gaming industry. Everyone played Pac-Man. And more importantly, everyone knew how to play Pac-Man within the first few seconds of trying it: eat them when they're blue, run away when they're not.
It was a little awkward steering Pac-Man around the maze with the left thumbstick on the Xbox controller.
I had to hold the controller still with my left hand and toggle the thumbstick with my right thumb and index finger. That's a far cry from grabbing the original arcade joystick and slamming it from side to side to evade Blinky and the gang of ghosts.
Dig Dug is another fun blast from the past.
My little guy ran around the screen with his trusty pump at his side, inflating enemies to death and dropping rocks on their heads, and sadly my own as well.
Some titles didn't make the transition as well.
I couldn't steer worth a darn while playing Pole Position, a game I used to be quite proficient at in the arcades. And another car-driving game, Rally-X, was also tough to control.
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary (for PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, Game Boy Advance) is rated E 10+ and has some cartoon violence in some titles.
The games included are: Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Galaxian, Dig Dug, Rally-X, Pole Position, Pole Position II, Xevious, Dragon Spirit, Bosconian, Rolling Thunder, Mappy and Sky Kid.
There are also a couple of games (Galaga '88 and Pacmania) that bear "out of order" tags at the beginning. I only earned the right to play them after doing well in Pac-Man and Galaga.
How close are these games to the original? Well, they appear to take advantage of the same ROMs that contained the code for the original arcade games.
How can you really tell? Well, the patterns, cheats and Easter eggs (if you know them) still work. That's very cool if you're looking to employ the old "no enemy fire" trick on Galaga.
And no, I'm not telling you how.
