Our Namco history deep-dive series continues with Episode 212
Highs AND lows, all in a single episode.
We—and by "we" I mean the cool dudes of Retronauts East—have been exploring the history of Namco's arcade games over the past year or so. This week, we hit the year 1988, and with it comes a downright bizarre assortment of games. You have the spy-guy thriller Rolling Thunder, the tokusatsu send-up brawler Wonder Momo, the loopy shooter Galaga ’88, and an isometric Pac-Man sequel in Pac-Mania. And that's just the popular stuff! There's also the Druaga-in-reverse Return of Ishtar, the inexplicable Hopping Mappy, and the indescribable Genpei Toumaden.
What we're saying is, Namco was all over the place in the late ’80s. And we do our darnedest to make sense of it all. Do we succeed? Well, uh, feel free to decide for yourself.
You might want to catch our previous Namco episodes before you tackle this one, by the way!
- Episode 148: Part one (the early years)
- Episode 171: Part two (beyond the Golden Age)
Retronauts Episode 212: Namco's Arcade History, Pt. 3
MP3, 28 MB | 58:39
Direct download | Retronauts on iTunes | Retronauts on Libsyn
Episode description: The Retronauts East crew continues their ongoing survey of Namco's legendary arcade output through the ’80s, tackling classics like Rolling Thunder and Pac-Mania as well as obscurities like Marchen Maze.
