Namco's Museum series finally arrives on Nintendo's handheld with Namco Museum DS. It comes with seven hits from the company's arcade archives, including Pac-Man Vs., a quirky game that was released for the GameCube a while back. While the game delivers on most of its historical goods, the lack of substance makes it one of the worst efforts in the series.

Pac-Man Vs. will obviously be the huge draw here, as four players can take part in the game at once. One player runs around the maze as Pac-Man, as he gobbles dots and power pellets. The other three players are the ghosts and attempt to apprehend him. Whoever does then takes over as Pac-Man, for as long as they can last. The previous GameCube release is incredibly hard to set up because of its numerous requirements -- four Game Boy Advance systems, a GameCube, a copy of the game, endless cables, etc. Namco Museum DS works much easier than that, thanks to Game Sharing. Simply find four friends with their own DS systems, set up the download and play. It's awesome.

The other games include Galaga, Xevious, Galaxian, the original Pac-Man, Mappy, Dig-Dug II and The Tower of Druaga. This seems rather paltry when compared to the huge number of games found in previous Namco Museums. Worse yet, a couple of these selections don't fit. Dig-Dug II makes the cut, but the original isn't anywhere to be found. Furthermore, does anyone really even care about Tower of Druaga anymore? This compilation would've been better off with the likes of Ms. Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, Rolling Thunder or the Pole Position games. Clearly, a lot of thought wasn't put into the game selection.

Namco Museum DS has options galore. Players can mess around with a music room and gallery to fulfill their need for 80s nostalgia; DIP switches and options are available to allow players to customize their gameplay; and two unlockable bonus games can be found playing on the Hardcore difficulty. Don't go crazy, though -- they're just "special" versions of Xevious and Dig-Dug II.

For $20, Namco Museum DS warrants a look, especially because of Pac-Man Vs. However, touch-screen control options and several more games would have made it much better.