Games are recommended on a four-point scale like those "strongly agree/disagree" questions you get on surveys. This scale goes "Strongly", "If you like this kinda game", "Watch it online", and "Avoid at all costs" from best to worst. It's one part how likely I am to replay the game and one part how likely I am to recommend it to fans of that game's genre. I'm not in the business of objectivity, just what's fun to me. No reason to play a game if you're not having fun, yeah?

[#] Namcomuseum Vol. 1 (Namco, 1995)

Namcomuseum was where the arcade compilation train really rolled out of the station. It made sense! Pac-Man, Galaga, Dig Dug—huge hits that previous home consoles could only imitate, and with a new generation of home players who didn't remember them in their heyday, Namco saw fit to roll up several onto one disc and provide a "museum" component, a free-roam 3D environment to link the games together. It worked nicely, and so, Namco made four billion more.

This first volume consists of Pac-Man, Rally-X, Pole Position, Bosconian, Galaga, and Toy Pop. Bosconian and Toy Pop are the obscure ones, the former an eight-way overhead shooter with some gnarly voice synthesis and the latter a cutesy maze game featuring killer wind-up toys. Toy Pop is the only real dud here, and the museum is overall nicely detailed and fairly clean looking for such an early PS1 title, with plenty of crunchy scans of memorabilia and posters to peek at.

These games actually aren't emulated, they're recreated, and the astute will notice some differences, though they're so minor (we're talking muffled sounds and ghost speed differences) that they don't detract from the quality of the recreations. My only real gripe is the fact that you can't save your high scores unless you "register" with the front desk of the museum first. It's an annoying oversight, but mostly, Namcomuseum Vol. 1 is a PS1 must-have.