#0023 Galaga

Two reviews in one week? I'm on a roll!

You know, it's a good thing I like space shoot em ups. Because if I didn't and I tried to do this list, I probably would be like “Ugh, another space shooter”. But luckily, I do like space shooters. And in 2001, Game Informer magazine ranked this game as the 19^th best video game of all time. It has received countless recognition as one of the best games from the Golden Age, and certainly the best game of it's kind. I'm of course talking about Galaga.

I always have more trouble talking about the legendary games. Pong, Space Invaders, Pac-Man, and to a slightly lesser extent, Centipede, and now Galaga. What can I say about this game that hasn't been said a million times? I'm not sure because I try not to read reviews on the games I play before I review them. I heard it's considered rude by critics and skews your own perception of the game.

With that said, Galaga is a 1981 shoot 'em up developed by Pac-Man fame, Namco. A squeal to 1979's Galaxian. It's still technically a Space Invaders clone. It only has three buttons, two that move the ship, and one that fires. You all know the drill, you shoot enemies that are in block formation at the top of the screen while avoiding getting hit yourself. If you clear all the bug-like aliens from the screen then you get to advance to the next level.

The thing that separates Galaga from other Space Invaders clones is how the enemies behave. The screen starts off blank, and all the aliens fly into formation from off screen. It's actually quite a spectacle, they all loop in doing somersaults and then fly down in different patterns, all enemies behaving differently. The “Galaga” alien being especially interesting. it will use a tractor beam to try and capture your ship. If successful, you will lose a life and your old ship will fight against you, if you destroy the Galaga that is controlling said ship, then the ship will return to normal, and return to the bottom of the screen and fight for you instead, doubling your firepower. I personally didn't really like this because while it does double your firepower, it also makes you twice as big a target.

But the real question here is how good is this game? How is the ultimate shoot em up, the crowning jewel of the Golden Age? It's good. You know, I liked it. The graphics are way better than Galaxian was, these look like honest to goodness 8bit graphics, but I wasn't blown away by them.. Not bad. But, it doesn't really do much to expand on the formula to things we haven’t seen yet. Yeah, the whole flying on to the screen thing was cool, the tractor beam by the Galagas was unique, but it really wasn't enough to set it apart from the millions of other space shoot em ups. So it was good, I liked it. But it would have been better if it was more unique, or added more to the formula.

Next up: Donkey Kong