I’m having the same problem with no options showing up and I was looking at downgrading to the previous version also.
I read this and checked out my PHP options, and luckily my host (GoDaddy) has the option to choose between PHP4 and PHP5. They have instructions to change them, but it takes up to 24 hours for the change to take place.
Thanks for point out that the problem is related to PHP 4.x, I’ve been using NextGEN for only a month or two and it does everything I need!