Namco Museum was released for PSP in Japan back in February. Now, six months later, it finally makes it to the U.S. So what's with the delay? Well, as luck would have it, Namco decided to add an extra ten games to Japan's selection of seven arcade classics and four "arranged" versions and redub the compilation the Battle Collection. Of course, it's possible that the decision too add more games may have been prompted by Sony demanding more games before it would approve the game for U.S. release, but regardless, we're getting about twice as many classics as Japan. Score.

Now, it seems that Namco trots out all of its classic games for every system under the sun, but I must say that these old games have never looked as nice as they do on PSP. The system's screen is so sharp that every pixel looks as clear as can be. The first time I fired up Pac-Man, I was stunned at how sharp it looked. The colors of the maze, dots, ghosts, and Pac-Man himself seem to burst off the screen. Even in a game that doesn't have such a high contrast between the background and the sprites (like, say, Rally-X) still looks outstanding. This is the best that these games have looked since their original arcade appearances.

Pac-Man Arrangement looks at the classic original from a different angle.

But what about the games themselves? Considering the total number of games available, the ratio of good to not-so-good weighs heavily on the "good" side. The classics that were featured in the Japanese original (find out more about them in our first preview of the game) are all great. Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga alone are almost worth the price. Each of these titles are true classics, with the only exception being the redundant Rally-X titles. Not to say that Rally-X isn't good, because it's plenty fun. It's just that New Rally-X doesn't add a whole lot to the original.

Coming to America

The U.S. exclusive games (as discussed in our second preview) are more of a mixed bag. These ten new games include titles that should have been included in the Japanese original (like Xevious and the way-too-overlooked-in-America Mappy), but also a few duds. I'm sorry, but Dragon Buster and King & Balloon just don't hold up as well as the other titles. It is nice, however, to see the nearly forgotten Dig Dug II make an appearance here. I would have liked to have seen the Galaga spin-off, Gaplus, though.

One of the stars of this collection is the platformer/shoot-'em-up, Rolling Thunder. Considering that it was released in 1986, it's the most "modern" game here, but it fits in quite well, and it's nice to be able to play it on the go. The only problem is, there's an awful lot of "ghosting" on all the character animations in Rolling Thunder. For some reason, everyone leaves faint images when they move. It's distracting, but your eyes begin to adjust after a bit. This is the only game that features this problem, though, so it seems very out of place when everything else looks so outstanding.