bulky arcade cabinets you see at your local arcade are now slipping away into obscurity,

becoming obsolete in their beautiful, boxy glory. But you soon started to realize that

this is a good thing. This means that you can bring those beautiful, boxy cabinets along

with you on a car or bus ride, to the cafe, to your buddies' houses, hell, you can even

climb up Mt. Everest and have Ms. Pac Man come with you! Ok, maybe you wouldn't do that.

The Game Boy Advance led the charge in contemporary handheld gaming, itself a continuation of

the legendary Game Boy, in a smaller, 32-bit package that was simply a hit. So, when the

Advance and arcade all-stars Namco decided to join forces and put together a package

of old school arcade gaming, who could doubt that they would deliver with Namco Museum,

developed to satiate the hunger of arcade gamers on the go. Anyone who has lived in

the late 20th century will immediately recognize each game, of which there are five, jam-packed

into one tiny cartridge, each game based on the high-scoring system that is so typical

of the arcade craze. You get the shooter Galaga and its bigger, slower translation known as

Galaxian, the esteemed chase-and-dot eater sequel to one of the most famous games of

all time Mrs. Pac-Man, the arcade F1 racer Pole Position, and the underground blow 'em up classic, Dig Dug. Everything here

is pretty much self-explanatory except for maybe the way that the normally vertical screens

for the arcade versions of the games are shrunk down to size so that they can fit into your

pocket and under your desk during math class. Unless you're racing around the track in Pole

Position, you'll remember that all the other games involve playing on a vertical screen,

but there's little to no effort involved in transitioning from the cabinet to the GBA.

Instead of being able to see the whole screen in Dig Dug, the game scrolls from side to

side or top to bottom when its called for. Mrs. Pac-man comes equipped with the same

scrolling option, but if you want, you can change the view to full screen, although things

appear a lot smaller than usual. Each game feels like arcade controls, and the sound

and music of each game have been preserved well. To be sure, Namco Museum is one you

should take along with you on a long road trip. Long, tedious college lectures come

to mind as well.