Namco’s collection is made up of some games which truly defined gaming in the eighties and still have quite a following today. Ranging from Pacman through to Galaga, even the younger generation of gamers will find something to like here. Especially considering some of the games have been remixed in an ‘arranged’ format combining old school gaming with modern gaming and culture, a popular option with budding DJ’s of today.

Pacman

This game continues to innovate and be synonymous with old school and modern gaming even today. Basically you control a little yellow face (pac man) and have to pick up pellets while avoiding enemies. The tables can be turned if you eat a power pellet and you can then eat the enemies. In terms of changes for the PSP the original is here in all its glory if you wish to play it, but there is also an arranged version which changes some of the game options and rules. For instance in the third level speed arrows are added and moving through these can help you kill enemies without eating pellets. Overall the game is still as fun as it was when it first came out and will be one of the more popular in this compilation.

Galaga

Galaga is an interesting one as it seems to be a sort of pseudo 1942-Space invaders combination. You fly through space shooting craft but these craft join together to make them tougher making it feel a bit like space invaders. The arranged version has improved the graphics giving it a sort of 3D feel but other then that not much has changed.

Rally X, New Rally

Rally X is a sort of pacman clone in that you drive a small car being chased by a car while having to pick up flags. However it is a heck of a lot of fun to play. The arranged version has improved the graphics somewhat and there is two versions of the classic edition included, Rally X and New Rally X. The arranged version is based on New Rally X. The controls can be annoying with this one until you realise the DPAD is a lot easier to use than the stick.

Dig Dug

Dig Dug is a game which tasks you with moving a little man around digging holes and dropping rocks on to enemies. However it does require some strategy because the rocks drop basically as soon as the dirt is removed around them. Running out of rocks is not an option as the entire aim of the game is to beat the enemies to move on to the next stage. The arranged version hasn’t changed much other than the graphics but the new character looks rather cool so it’s worth playing.

King Balloon

There is no arranged version of King Balloon. In the classic you are tasked with shooting balloons which are coming down to steal the king in a very space invaders like way. The difference is that if the King is caught you can shoot the balloon to rescue him. It’s quite fun to play but the more famous classics will probably get more play time.

Bosconian

Boscnian is pretty much asteroids with a space ship that can shoot front and rear and you have to aim the ship to hit the asteroids and ships coming into hit it. Again it’s probably a game that will be forgotten because of the other classic games.

Xevious

We really liked Xevious even if it doesn’t have an arranged edition (but should have) because of one cool feature and that is the ability to have both air and land combat. You fly a small ship but you can drop bombs on land structures shooting at you. It was probably one of the first games to introduce this mechanic and it works extremely well.

Mappy

This is a very strange game and is hard to play. You take the role of a mouse trying to steal items from the cats of the neighborhood such as TV’s. To do this you enter the house which has trampolines and doors to slam in cats faces. It’s interesting but again not one of the game’s best titles.

The Tower of Druaga

Think of a very early version of Gauntlet and you have the right idea. Taking control of a little barbarian man, you have to work you way through a maze, find the key, kill the enemies, and unlock the door all in a set period of time. Fun to play but the guy just moves too slowly to have you interested for any period of time.

Dragon buster

As the name implies you kill dragons in this one. Despite its simplicity I really liked this game. You travel from kingdom to kingdom, entering dungeons and killing enemies for the king. You basically do this by moving left and right and slashing. Now this may sound boring but the cartoon graphics and simplicity makes it one of the better games.

Grobda

Grobda is an unknown but extremely fun game to play. It reminds me a lot of the Tank Commmodore 64 games where you had to drive around shooting each other. You’re placed in a small area with a number of tanks and have to eliminate them without being shot. It’s a shame there is no multiplayer options for this one.

Motos

In this game a small craft and a number of balls are placed on a plane in space. You have to push the balls off the edge without being pushed off yourself which is harder than it sounds as the game progressively adds more obstacles and balls as you progress through.

Rolling Thunder

This game is again simplistic but again I really like it. You take the role of a human with guns having to shoot enemies in colourful outfits. Basically you move from left to right shooting enemies and gaining weapons. Simplistic yet it works very well.

Namco Battle Collection does have its problems (like the perspective of some of the games, top down, with borders) but overall fans of Namco arcade games from the eighties will really get into this, especially the arranged versions. It’s also a title that allows you to pick up the PSP, play two minutes, and turn it off without losing too much progress.

The game has a sense of familiarity when you first switch it on but Nintendo has completely built this one from the ground up. They could have ported N64′s Mario Kart, but to their credit they decided not to do that and have created a fantastic game. As you would expect there is a only few options to choose from including Single and Multiplayer with the main crux of the game being the tournament modes.

As with other Mario Kart titles the game is a racing title and the aim is obviously to finish first. However there has been a few changes to the game to keep it fresh. Most of the game remains the same. There are eight tournaments to choose from with only two unlocked initially. As you progress through you will discover the special cup and after completing that the retro cups are unlocked which are actually the tracks from the very first Mario Kart game. This is an absolute masterstroke by Nintendo as we can pretty much assume those who will rush out to buy this game, have been fans for quite some time.

The other familiar aspect is the three speed levels to choose from; 50, 100 and 150cc. Obviously, the more powerful the kart, the harder it is to control and therefore the harder the game is to play. Honestly however, 50cc really is for those who may have never played this game before and even then most will find it just not enough of a challenge to be even worth it. 100 and 150cc is where the gaming action is.

Although most of the game will feel familiar, there has been a few changes. First being one of the new powerups which turns you into a bullet traveling at high speed taking out competitors. When we discovered this powerup we weren’t expecting it but it works so well in the game that it should be kept for future games. Other changes are a bit less obvious other than the new tracks and karts. This is a game where many of the tracks have been built from scratch as opposed to inspired by previous games and the tracks are enjoyable to play.

You will find a bevy of characters to choose from but one of the coolest new aspects is the multiple karts. You can drive a kart from the latest game or choose to use a more old fashioned kart from the previous games. Each character has their own kart and statistics. Some are slow and easy to control while others are fast and harder to steer well. Choosing the right character can affect whether you win or lose.

Visually the game was a surprise. It is much better then we were expecting and when the DS produces graphics like this paired with this gameplay it can be easy to forget about the PSP. The game runs very smooth and seems to use a voxel style graphics engine for the 3D effect. Either way it looks brilliant with high levels of detail and most of all it compliments the racing and gameplay very well. The sound effects are typical with music and stupid character voices the order of the day.

Mario Kart DS is a must have game for the Nintendo DS and is possibly even good enough to make you go and buy a DS unit for it. Nintendo have really managed to put together an extremely fun game and with the online options, the Nintendo DS really does house the best Mario Kart game ever.

As with the original game, most of the game modes revolve around the NRL Telstra Premiership. You can play a season or exhibition match for a quick play but for the true die-hard NRL fans, franchise will be the order of the day. The franchise mode is new for Rugby League 2 and mimics that of many higher profile sport titles such as Madden.

The default camera is top/down but Sidhe have really worked on the TV style presentation and we found the dynamic camera to look the best while remaining playable. Aside from that really Rugby League 2 is a graphical update of the original game which to be honest is a little disappointing. Sidhe had two years to build this game, and decided the animation engine they used for the original was enough. Don’t be surprised if you feel a little too familiar with the game when you first start playing if you have played the original game.

With that said, the guys have worked very hard on getting this year’s game right. The AI has been reworked and generally offers a much better challenge to gamers this time around. The days of passing five or six times and sprinting to the try line is over. They have also heavily worked on the presentation but on the PS2 version this becomes more an annoyance than anything as it greatly increases the load time between plays. We found ourselves turning this off within the first match as the game flows much better without it.

In terms of animation, it appears not much has changed. The tackles seem all the same and this was one of our biggest disappointments with the game. It is obvious Sidhe has worked on many aspects but this is not one of them. However there are also many positives to the game. The franchise mode has given Sidhe the option to add recruitment and long term injuries to the game as well as the judiciary. The game only comes up with a ticker to indicate the amount of suspension. It would be nice to have the option to watch a replay and decide whether to contest it or not in the next edition of the game.

In terms of licensing, Sidhe does not disappoint. The game includes both the Telstra Premiership and English Super League and the grounds that make those competitions up and like the last game the representative teams are all here with the Blues and Maroons, International Teams and even City vs Country. The difference is with the franchise mode, this like the real world can affect your ability to play due to injuries or suspensions incurred while on rep duty,

The actual grounds have been updated once again and again appear be the real standout feature. Sidhe has put a huge level of detail into each structure right down to the advertising boards and surrounding areas of the stadiums. Even so, this also adds a little disappointment as we expected Sidhe to really re-work the graphics engine. It’s not a bad engine, but it’s also not that much better than the original. The game is also on console exclusive to Playstation so this obviously has limited the work that could be done to improve the graphics.

Rugby League 2 is hopefully a stop gap until a better game for the next gen. The addition of franchise is what makes this game probably worth buying for NRL fans but for those who can wait and have the original, it’s almost as good and the upgrade is not worth the money in our opinion.

The story behind Ratchet: Gladiator is simple enough – Ratchet and Clank find themselves captured by a mad TV producer (Vox – an intergalactic version of Robert Murdoch) who is running the gladiator like TV program Deadlock – fighting to the death is a ratings winner and if you are good enough you might just earn your freedom. In short order and with doomed resolve, Ratchet is suited up and paired with a couple of bots who, with their complaining and absent mindedness, hardly inspire confidence in our hapless hero.

The main focus of the game is on Ratchet and the bots as they battle through the various scenarios. Clank, rather than being in the thick of the action, plays the part of his coach, sitting at a terminal and keeping an eye on events and giving advice via intercom – he is certainly a sideline player here.

Ratchet’s battlefields are mostly stadium like and with an ever increasing assortment of weaponry (including his devastating wrench) he must chew his way through attack bots of all shapes and sizes. His companions do their fair share as well and often the scene is a hail of bombs, laser cannon fire and exploding pellets. Adding to the confusion are the lumps of gold that zoom in Ratchet’s direction after each kill. This gold comes in handy between fights to upgrade armor, guns and his companion bots (they come to him in less that average condition). Once the required number of kills has been reached force fields allow Ratchet to go through to the next area – inching Ratchet closer to the enviable show down with the current champion.

All of this action would be frustrating and the appeal of the game would last about as long as a Federal election TV Ad if the graphics were poor and the control sluggish but thankfully this is not the case. Graphics are sharp and game play smooth and fast. No sooner have you fired than your enemy explodes, Ratchet’s weapons fire as rapidly as you care to thumb the control. Another Godsend, considering the manic pace of the game, is that scenes load quickly and if you’re unlucky enough to die you spawn again in very short order.

The production value of this game is very high without losing sight of its light hearted and comical roots but hard core fans will notice some differences. No more open ended scenarios or puzzle solving, this is just a shoot-em-up – make no mistake. Imagine if they made a first person version of Tomb Raider – same premise, different experience. The humor and characterisations too are again first class with some definite adult humor hidden behind double meaning and well placed ‘beeps’.

If I had to gripe about something it would be the design of the HUD and, now that I mention it, the default button config doesn’t seem as friendly as they good be. Running out of ammo isn’t very obvious, in fact the only clue I got while playing was a ‘click’ and this was easily lost amongst the bombs and cannon fire. Once you have cottoned on that your gun is no longer working, changing the gun is a little unsure. It should be R1 and yet I am sure that this only changed my weapon half the time. Most of the time I just stayed with one gun and used my wrench until I found more ammo.

With all this aside though, the bottom line is this game is fast, furious and a lot of fun. If the non-stop destruction doesn’t get you, the humor will.

AOE3 follows the same sort of mode choice we’ve been seeing in RTS gaming for years – you have online play, an offline skirmish mode for “sandbox” games, a custom scenario mode to play user created missions and a campaign mode which follows a set storyline. On top of this, you also have the AOE3 scenario editor, which lets you create maps and missions. None of the modes are necessarily new but the RTS genre as a whole has been pretty static in this regard – there’s no need to fix what isn’t broken.

While a lot of fun can be had online if you’re looking for real human competition, and in the skirmish and custom scenario modes if you’re just looking for some quick RTS action, the bulk of the game’s features can be experienced in the campaign mode. Basically, AOE3′s storyline follows the classic tale – there is a good and evil force, and the good force is trying to stop the evil force from getting what it wants. This premise exists over 3 periods of time (starting at the year 1500), and you will experience each period and the traits that go with them in the missions, which are mostly based in the America region. The missions themselves are pretty standard as far as RTS goes. Most missions in AOE3 consist of you landing in a strange new land requiring you to setup a base and destroy all enemy forces that surround it. You will get the occasional exception, but most follow this formula. As it would happen, this can become a little repetitive at times but the raw AOE gameplay is so damn addictive, often it is hard to shut it down even when you are doing much of the same over and over again.

Unfortunately, the campaign mode isn’t all roses, as we did experience a few issues, namely the cutscenes. The cutscenes in AOE3 set the scene for the following scenario and while they are fine at doing that, there are quite a few issues in a technical sense. First of all, at times the audio will cut out randomly. You will also see the narration out of sync and sometimes delayed in response. Another problem stems from the fact the cutscenes seem to be in real time and occasionally require triggers to continue (such as enemy units dieing), and a few times we saw the triggers failing to occur and we were left staring at motionless characters. We even experienced the occasional crash to desktop during cutscenes. This is an odd part to an otherwise very solid and reliable game – it doesn’t severely damage the game but you would hope such issues are resolved soon in a patch, as ALT-F4′ing out of the game because of a stalled cutscenes does tend to disrupt the flow somewhat. Usually these issues can be avoided by simply skipping the cutscenes, but again, that does disrupt the game’s flow and will leave many parts of the storyline a mystery.

When it comes to the actual in-game action, AOE3 is much like AOE2. While the countries, units and technology has changed (obviously, seeing that AOE3 is based on the colonial age), the same fundamental gameplay remains. You start a base, collect resources such as food, coin and wood as to increase your population, and eventually collect enough resources from your surroundings to start forming an army, all the while making sure you remain safe from enemy attacks. You then take this army and execute attacks or whatever it is the mission wants you to do, and once you’re successful (perhaps after a few attempts), the mission is done. It sounds simple and repetitive, but it still provides addictive, enjoyable gameplay, even though it is gameplay you’ve probably played to death before. It must be said though that this time around, your choice of country where relevant will give you unique benefits during gameplay – for instance, when using the British, settlers automatically spawn when houses are built, and the Russians allow training infantry and settlers in batches. These aren’t necessarily game changing but they do add a slight twist.

One area that I hoped would have improved for AOE3 was the combat management, however nothing has really changed here either. While the game touts a physics engine capable of better combat in a real time sense, which it certainly does, you are still basically left to watch as your units battle it out. You can issue a few basic commands to your units such as Guard or Attack on Sight, but when it comes to advanced formation control or better attack AI, the game falls short. You are still basically left sending your units into battle in any old random formation and it is still a bother to evenly spread out your attack amongst multiple enemy units, at least initially. The combat is still a very enjoyable part of the game, but it could use a bit of a facelift.

As far as actual new features go, the only major addition to the gameplay is your “home city”. Throughout your missions, you will receive allowances for shipments from home. These can range from a few villagers and food boxes, to cannons and special abilities. As you play throughout the campaign mode, your home town increases in ability and you can start sending even more advanced items directly to your base. The idea here is fine but it really isn’t an overly revolutionary feature, and it is probably a feature you could even safely ignore without suffering huge consequences. In the big scheme of things, a few units here and there aren’t overly impacting, although as your city becomes more advanced, so will your items on offer, so it is probably best described as a feature that increases in use as you play more.

Visually, AOE3 is a very nice looking game. Gone are the days of 2D graphics, as just about everything this time around is rendered in pure 3D – buildings, people, the environments etc, however when you look at a typical AOE3 in-game scene, you wouldn’t know the game was pure 3D straight away as it is rendered in a way that replicates the 2D isometric style of classic AOE. It isn’t until you start rotating the camera in a full 360 degree motion (horizontal 360 degrees anyway) that you realize the game is indeed fully 3D, however to do this you’ll need to go into game options and turn on the camera rotating function which is off by default, and even after you turn it on, the way in which you rotate the camera is a little awkward – you hold down CTRL and use the arrow keys on the keyboard. While the option says you can use the mouse to rotate, I couldn’t manage to do so. However, while the game does feature 3D camera control, placement of objects onto your map is still restricted to one direction – this is only a trivial issue though. Unless you’re a firm believer of Feng Shui or a wannabe city planner, the direction in which your buildings are facing in AOE is completely irrelevant.

AOE3 is a good game because it doesn’t change the AOE formula too much – the gameplay is essentially identical, and even though 3D graphics are used this time around, they are rendered in a way that makes the game look 2D isometric, even if it isn’t. What this creates is an RTS that does feel a little dated bar a few bells and whistles, although the fans of the series will likely feel right at home, which is, after all, the fanbase who made AOE2 a successful title in the first place. However, I still can’t help but feel more could have been done to make AOE3 a truly next generation RTS title. AOE3 is still a very enjoyable game, but whether or not it is a true upgrade over AOE2 is questionable.

At the same time, the more emotive right side of your brain takes note of one important fact: This is a game that features a big monkey. Not just any big monkey, but the granddaddy of all big monkeys. Monkeys automatically make games better – don’t they?

Well, actually, both of the above statements are utter rubbish. There have been good movie tie-ins (Chronicles Of Riddick, Goldeneye) and bad Monkey Games (Eye Toy: Monkey Madness and Ape Academy) to boot. King Kong’s not a game that totally focuses on its big monkey – indeed, for a great deal of the game you won’t be playing as the big shaggy chap at all – but it is a game that wastes no time whatsoever in immersing you in its movie feel. It’s that cinema-style immersion that sells Kong, and while like most cinema experiences it feels a bit short, it’s one heck of a ride while it lasts.

If you’re not familiar with the basic plot of King Kong (this author refuses to use the game’s full title, if only because if I have to type “Peter Jackson’s King Kong: The Official Game Of The Movie” more than twice, the review will run to about twenty pages, and will need its own leather-bound appendices), there’s an island, a movie within a movie, and a big ape. It’s actually not that much more complicated than that, although the plot of the 1930′s original was a good forty or so years ahead of its time, whether or not you accept the idea that it’s an allegory for race relations or not.

The first thing you’ll have to come to grips with in Kong is that you don’t start out as a tiny ape being shown the ropes (or vines, presumably) by a kindly elder ape. This isn’t a Disney flick, after all. Instead, you play as Jack Driscoll, a screenwriter-slash-IndianaJonesALike who travels to Skull Island with a motley crew of, well, film-makers. Think obsessive director (acted superbly within the game by Jack Black), screaming starlet and a cast of extras and technical types, and you’re on good ground. Except that you’re not on good ground – you’re on spooky Skull Island, sans Scooby Doo.

The second thing you’ll have to bring yourself to accept is the fact that Kong features no on-screen counters, inventories or displays of any kind. It’s a deliberate step to make it seem more film-like, and it’s one that works superbly well. You can always see what Jack’s carrying at any time, and an inventory count is only a button press away – although you will grow somewhat tired of hearing the same sound bites for ammo counts over and over again. This even extends to health bars – in a very Halo/Call Of Duty 2 style moment, when you’re hurt you’ll see the screen go red and blurry. You can hack on, in hopes of scoring a victory, or just go and hide somewhere until you heal up. Sure, it’s patently ridiculous – but then this kind of thing happens in the movies all the damn time.

Jack’s basic role within the game isn’t much removed from most modern FPS games – you’ve got to fight off giant insects, prehistoric monsters and everything else that a place like Skull Island throws at you. In one sense, it’s a remarkable feat of style over substance – at its core, you’ll be burning the same grass and wood structures over and over again, throwing the same burning spears and carefully stockpiling the incredibly meagre stores of actual ammunition you’re given in rote repetition. Where it works so well is that it’s been superbly paced and directed, and is accompanied by some truly jaw dropping visuals – and hopefully the Xbox 360 version has done even more, although we won’t know that in the Australian market until next March.

Then there’s the big fella, Kong himself. You’ll actually have to wait a fair while to control Kong – and it’s a great tension builder that makes you anxiously race through each section with your anticipation growing all the time – but once you do, you’re moved out of the first person world and given control of a hulking hairy behemoth of destruction. He’s not clever, and you don’t need to know how to do a dragon punch to control him, but the foes that you were hiding only seconds before from are now just minor annoyances to be swatted away with the back of a hirsute hand.

The change in pace and the change in your power are refreshing indeed, but there’s no slacking in terms of visual splendor or jaw dropping action sequences. There aren’t many games that combine a cracking visual engine along with actually appealing design, but Kong should long stand as one of the best examples from this generation.

So, what’s wrong with Kong? Well, like most Hollywood blockbuster movies, it is more a triumph of style over substance, and in this case the lack of substance comes in the form of a quite short running time – you should crack the game open in under ten hours easily on your first run-through. There are additional objectives and better stuff to unlock as you go along, so there’s some incentive to replay it – beyond the fact that it’s one of the simplest and yet most captivating games to come along for a long while – but there’s no denying that on the games scale, this feels a little lightweight. It’s probably fairer to judge it on the movie side of things – for the equivalent of seven or so movie tickets, you’re getting a similar amount of play content. As such, it’s fair to say that Kong will probably pop up in the second-hand bins of your favorite local software emporium rather quicker than many of this year’s biggest hits do – but at the same time it’s a game that everyone should play. It’s also a title that anyone making a movie tie-in should study very carefully, as it solidly creates a new standard for such titles. If all movie tie-ins are as fun as Kong, we’re in for a bright gaming future indeed.