Three of the most popular games from Namco's arcade heyday are brought back in the '90s, both in their original forms and in "remixed" versions with updated sound and graphics and tweaks to the game play. Galaga Arrangement adds new formations to the waves of alien attackers, while Xevious Arrangement gets a modern audiovisual makeover with a few power-ups thrown in for good measure; Mappy Arrangement is the most radical departure of all, becoming a split-screen, two-player game. (Namco, 1995)

With these games' licenses to Bally/Midway (Mappy and Galaga) and Atari (Xevious) having long since expired, Namco re-released them to the public in what was one of the company's first attempts to mine its back catalog. 1995 also saw the release of the first volume of Namco Museum for the Playstation, so in some ways, Namco Classic Collection was a reminder from the company's arcade division that there were some arcade pleasures you still couldn't get at home, even with the most advanced console of the day. (The home division got the last laugh, though - Xevious Arrangement was almost flawlessly translated for the Playstation only two years later as part of the home version of Xevious 3D/G+.)

The updated graphics and sound are nice, building on and paying homage to the audiovisual features of the original games. (Apparently Namco was impressed with its sound team's efforts too - impressed enough to issue a CD containing all of the music from all three games.) Xevious Arrangement is really the big winner though - it's new music and high-quality graphics are a treat for the eyes and ears, and it plays enough like the original that it has the shortest learning curve. Galaga Arrangement changes enough to challenge seasoned veterans of the original game, but in some respects, since we'd already seen Galaga '88, it doesn't have the shock value of the modernization applied to the other games. And Mappy Arrangement really is a whole new game with its unique two-player mode. You can help each other out, but bumping into each other has the same effect on both players that running head-first into Boss The Big Bit would - both players lose a life - so you can only cooperate so much.

To this day, Namco Classic Collection Volume 1 sets a standard for how much you can change a classic and get away with it. It also marked the real beginning of their now-traditional mining of their classic arcade titles which continues to this day with games like Namco Museum for the PSP.

Rating:  A whole dollar - trade it in for more quarters, you'll be playing this game a lot.