TV Games-Namco Arcade

+DamonicFury · July 13, 2003

Has anyone seen this thing yet? Put out by the same folks you brought you the Atari joystick with 10 built in games, this one is a shaped like an old-style arcade panel with built-in Pacman, Galaxian, Dig-Dig, Rally-X and Bosconian. Costs about 25$, and I found mine at my local GameStop.

The good: I LOVE the ball top joystick! For me, it's awfully close to the joystick that was used to control all theses games back in their incarnation as 80's arcade games. Besides being pretty authentic, it's also very responsive. The sides of the unit have bits of artwork from each of the 5 games, which is really cool... the unit itself is quite attractive!

The not-so-good: This product is really fun, but there's unfortuantely a lot to nit pick about. To start with, I think everyone would have loved more games to go along with this, especially the twin titans of the arcade, Ms. Pacman and Galaga. The games that are included are sadly not arcade-perfect translations. Most annoyingly (for me) is the lack of authentic sound... Pacman's eating doesn't sound much like his traditional waka-waka, Galaxian doesn't have that ultra-cool rumbling in the back ground, Dig Dug's music is a bit off, and Bosconian has no voice. The graphics are closer to the arcade, but still not quite there. (Pacman DOES have intermissions, however!) There are no two player versions of these games. And for some unexplainable reason, the radar screens for Rally-X and Bosconian are overlaid on top of the playing field instead of having their own separate area.

If problems like the above are REALLY going to bother you, then you should probably skip this item. I still think it's a really fun little box despite it's flaws, and I intend to enjoy it for quite a while.