Namcot Collection's coming overseas, sort of! listings for Namco Museum Archives vol.1 & vol.2 showed up on Microsoft's store—the lineups aren't 1:1 with the JP version, so I'm guessing we'll just get the two with the super-Japanese games excised (thread) 
Namco Museum Archives vol.1 microsoft.com/en-us/p/namco-…
Galaxian
Pac-Man
Xevious
Mappy
Dig Dug
The Tower of Druaga
Sky Kid
Dragon Buster
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
& Pac-Man Championship Edition ("8-bit demaster")
Galaxian
Pac-Man
Xevious
Mappy
Dig Dug
The Tower of Druaga
Sky Kid
Dragon Buster
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend
Splatterhouse: Wanpaku Graffiti
& Pac-Man Championship Edition ("8-bit demaster")
Namco Museum Archives vol.2 microsoft.com/en-us/p/namco-…
Galaga
Battle City
Pac-Land
Dig Dug II
Super Xevious
Mappy-Land
Legacy of the Wizard
Rolling Thunder
Dragon Buster II
Mendel Palace
& Gaplus ("8-bit consolized version")
Galaga
Battle City
Pac-Land
Dig Dug II
Super Xevious
Mappy-Land
Legacy of the Wizard
Rolling Thunder
Dragon Buster II
Mendel Palace
& Gaplus ("8-bit consolized version")
both out June 18, btw
icymi, this was previously only announced for Switch in Japan as a sort of f2p app where you have to buy the games piecemeal but afaik these are standard single-purchase collections, I don't see any specific pricing info anywhere
icymi, this was previously only announced for Switch in Japan as a sort of f2p app where you have to buy the games piecemeal but afaik these are standard single-purchase collections, I don't see any specific pricing info anywhere
oh and because the compilation is specifically a "Namcot" collection in Japan—Namcot being the brand Namco used for home conversions in the '80s/'90s—these are all console versions, not arcade ports (& probably all Famicom/NES ports at that)
games announced/hinted at for Namcot Collection that aren't present in Namco Museum Archives:
Babel no Tou
Family Circuit
Family Jockey
Kaiju Monogatari
Kerunaguuru
Metro Cross
Star Luster
Valkyrie no Bouken
Wagyan Land
Warpman
Yokai Dochuki
Babel no Tou
Family Circuit
Family Jockey
Kaiju Monogatari
Kerunaguuru
Metro Cross
Star Luster
Valkyrie no Bouken
Wagyan Land
Warpman
Yokai Dochuki
they haven't announced as much but the implication with the Japanese version is it'll get three waves of content, so 30+ games all up, but only the first wave's available at launch, including a packaged version for ~¥2500
also, the Japanese version has a neat virtual shelf frontend that you can customise and unlock things for, but I don't see any pictures or mention of it on those MS pages... was it cut from the overseas versions?
one more thing: that "8-bit demake" of Pac-Man Championship Edition may very well be based on an old Japanese homebrew, similar to Sega's acquisition of the fan-made Darius port for the Mega Drive Mini
one more one more thing: the dev listed for this collection is B.B. Studio, a Bannam-owned team that mostly does Super Robot Wars & doesn't specialise in retro packages, but the frontend reeks of M2 and Namco typically works with a reputable shadow team called Gotch so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
shocking news: M2's behind Namcot Collection🇯🇵
some people involved have been talking about Pac-Man CE FC a little, apparently M2's been pecking away at it for around 5 years, initially with the intention of releasing it on 3DS, and it's had a lot of work done... I expect we'll hear the full story soon enough
I'm curious about Gaplus too, my guess is they ported that one completely from scratch
