The Emulation Experts At M2 Developed The Namcot Collection

I still really want Namco to port Splatterhouse (2010). Awful but actually awesome splatter fest that was genuinely funny. Releasing it as a collection with the original trilogy on Switch would be the ultimate

Come on, not this, we need more Sega ages game.

The continual insistance of inserting PacMan instead of the massively superior Ms PacMan into these compilations is rather frustrating!

I'm intrigued by the 8-bit demaster of Pac-Man Championship Edition. I love CE and CE 2, and it'll be interesting to see how the demaster will work on this collection.

The 8-bit NES versions aren't bad........ They just aren't the real deal.

@mr_benn The only way they'd be able to do that is if they manage to wrestle the rights for the royalties out of AtGames' dirty palms, and that's a very big "if"

Namcot is an abbreviation of "Namco Home Entertainment" (sounds a bit more intelligible in Japanese pronunciation and cultural context), hence why the games featured here are apparently all either ports or console originals.

Hard pass since these are NES ports. I'd pony up the dough immediately on a comprehensive collection of Namco's classic coin-ops (but am not bothering with the Switch collection as it's FAR from that definition or even close to Museum Remix on the Xbox 360).

I'll be playing these on the evercade in a few days 🙌

I'm perfectly satisfied with the Namco Museum Pac on Switch.

@Quarth Its missing pole position and will anyone ever release final lap 1,2,3 please!

@sixrings Yeah, some games are missing. But personally I enjoy the collection. Really like the inclusion of Championship Edition 2.

No wonder why M2 has been so slow with the Sega Ages games!

For those complaining about a lack of Ms. Pac-Man (I get it)

It wasn't developed by Namco

Still only available physically on the Japanese and Asian versions? Then buy the physical multi-language version from Play-Asia.

@sixrings If MAME is anything to go buy, analog control for racing games is hard to get down.
The previous ports of Pole Position I played (the Windows 95 Microsoft Return of Arcade, and the PS2 Namco Museum had way over-sensitive controls).
If they do any more Namcot Collections, maybe the Famicom port of Final Lap? I think that might be the only two-player racer on the console (at least of the "behind the car" type).

@mr_benn They no longer have the license to Ms. Pac-Man. I'm hazy on the specifics, but I believe it was purchased by a company that produces cheap arcade minis. I go to the GameCube version to get my Ms. Pac-Man fix.

Does the Japanese version have different games? I thought Star Luster was on here

@Papichulo Exactly! I don’t even like playing the NES version of Donkey Kong.

@mr_benn i think issue is they dont own ms pac man and have to pay rights to use it and well nickle and diming namco dont want to do that.

Let's not forget that this collection's name starts with "Namcot" in Japan, which was the brand Namco used with NES ports of their games.

I for one welcome this collection, it's something different, as we already have some of the arcade games in Namco Museum on the Switch itself and many other Namco collections for past systems.

Digital Devil Story Megami Tensei being one of the games featured on here is a huge surprise

Ever since SMT became the flagship series they've barely ever acknowledged the fact that this duology of games preceded it or even that they were based on light novels

Thanks for the clarification about Ms PacMan (or lack thereof). Just went and found this - looks messy. https://www.polygon.com/2019/9/26/20886032/ms-pac-man-lawsuit-bandai-namco-atgames-rights-royalties

Would it be bad to put a disclaimer explaining why Ms. Pac-Man won't be included in Namco collections in these articles?

M2 are porting inferior NES conversions of arcade classics?

Isn’t that a bit like hiring the Beatles and saying “what we’d like you to play today is a few songs from Robbie Williams’ latest album”.

Most of these games are in the Namco Museum Collection.

Why on earth would I buy this if I own Namco Museum Arcade Pac? It’s like they’re just repackaging the same exact games and selling them as a different game on the exact same system. And Namco Museum Arcade PAC at least has PAC Man Championship 2 and that one from the Gamecube, Pac-Man Vs.

I really wish these were actual Arcade versions instead of Famicom/NES versions, but since M2 is at the helm for these collections, I guess I don't mind much...

Hopefully M2 can get back to making more Sega Ages titles after this...

Not all of the games are inferior ports and a few like Dragon Spirit are good in their own right. Splatterhouse is what the Parodius series is to Gradius and takes itself less seriously than the original. It's different from the arcade, but still very good. I would also take a NES version of the original Champion Edition over the disappointing Champion Edition 2.

@TheFrenchiestFry ??? I find no evidence that Megami Tensei is included. I would appreciate any link you might have very much, thanks!

Bandai Namco has the rights to Ms Pac-Man, but the MIT students who made Crazy Otto (the Pac-Man romhack that Midway bought and released as Ms Pac-Man) were receiving royalties on sales of any Ms Pac-Man stuff to recognize their contribution; AtGames bought the right to those royalties from the company that those students founded and then tried to claim that that gave them the right to release Ms Pac-Man games without Bandai Namco's permission (which they had been trying unsuccessfully to get for a while; Bandai Namco kept turning them down because they didn't want AtGames to screw things up again like with those plug-and-play systems that were supposed to have arcade roms but ended up having NES roms instead).

@COVIDberry

https://www.siliconera.com/namcot-collection-will-come-with-wagan-land-and-other-games-will-be-dlc/

It looks like it's being put up for DLC outside of the initial games included but it's confirmed

@mr_benn Namco doesn't own the rights to Ms. Pac-Man. AtGames does now.

@Boopero I'm fairly certain that the details in the comment left by Adamario is what happened.

Ms. Pac-Man was a derivative work that initially went unauthorized by Namco.

M2 where is Castlevania collection 2?

@Burning_Spear
Namco still owns Ms. Pac-Man but AtGames managed to buy royalty rights for it from people who had it originally. So while Namco could still use it, they'd have to pay AtGames which they don't want to do.

@TheFrenchiestFry Many thanks!