Atari Namco Legendary Pack follows on from both The Wider World Of Atari and The First Console War, for a third set of additional content.
Below I have gameplay of every game individually, as well as a video that shows all of the games in one, in case you want to binge in one easy viewing.
There’s no-one who doesn’t love PAC-MAN, and that’s one of my all-time favourites in arcade form, although while I played the Atari 2600 version loads as a kid – even memorising how to get around the maze without getting hit by a ghost – it was obviously a notoriously bad version by comparison. Still, when programmers were only given a few weeks to make a game, and often worked on their own, you’re not going to get as good a game as one that comes out in the modern era when someone working on a homebrew version can take as long as they like.
Dig Dug is also an enjoyable game of the time, although a better underground-tunnelling escape from reality at the time was Universal’s Mr Do!, and while Xevious is harder than I remember, the challenging shooters in Galaga and Galaxians were engaging, but also quite random in whether or not you survived.
While more Atari 50 content is always welcome, I have to ask, why are there just so many versions of the same game? While it’s great to see the various alternatives there are, i’d rather have had more variety, and not sacrifice other games at the hand of, say, FOUR Dig Dug iterations. Where’s Ms Pac-Man? Pac-Mania? Pole Position? Hard Drivin’? Gauntlet? Yes, there is documentary-style piece in image and video segments, but these additional games should’ve been included.
The 14 games (and their format):
- 0:00 PAC-MAN (Atari 2600)
3:23 PAC-MAN (Atari 5200)
6:02 PAC-MAN (Atari 800 8-bit)
9:48 DIG DUG (Atari 2600)
14:40 DIG DUG (Atari 5200)
18:01 DIG DUG (Atari 7800)
20:34 DIG DUG (Atari 800 8-bit)
23:00 DIG DUG (Arcade)
28:28 GALAGA (Atari 7800)
32:15 GALAXIANS (Atari 2600)
36:00 GALAXIANS (Atari 5200)
37:55 GALAXIANS (Atari 800 8-bit)
39:19 XEVIOUS (Atari 7800)
41:54 XEVIOUS (Arcade)
Check out all my Atari 50 Content below:
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.