1001 Games To Play Before You Die: #0143 Galaga '88

Monday, July 31, 2017

#0143 Galaga '88

So today I played Galaga '88, a remake of the original 1981 Galaga by Namco.

So before I get into the remake, just like with any sequels or remakes, I think I should probably go over what I thought of the original:

I liked it. Yeah. It was one of the first great SMUPS, but IDK, I think people overhyped it for me. It wasn't as groundbreaking as Space Invaders, and didn't have as big a "wow" factor as Galaxian did (which was the first Color game iirc) but it was a very tight and well designed game. For its time it was an amazing feat that perfected on what Galaxian started.

As for the remake? It's even better. Just like with Arcanoid remake of Breakout and the Blasteroids remake of Asteroids before it. Seriously, the graphics are improved, the sounds are improved, even the gameplay has tweaks that make it feel even tighter than the original. All the things you loved about Galaga are present here, but better presented and feels like a genuine update for the late 80s.

It DOES have a couple issues, but that mainly stems from the fact that it does try to be faithful to the source material. For example, you can still only fire one bullet at a time, there's still no upgrades, and there's really no continue system to speak of. Arcanoid and Blasteroids introduced these elements in their own remakes to keep the title from feeling dated the moment it hit the floor. It is unfortunate, in my opinion anyway, that they chose to keep these design choices, but I could see some purists preferring this.

If you liked the original Galaga, this one's even better. It's one of the few remakes I've seen where not only is the new one better, but becomes the definitive version of the game. This is one of those games, the gameplay is still just as tight as the original, the sounds and graphics are absolutely amazing, I just wish they would have updated the mechanics to modernize it a little bit.

If you liked Galaga, you're going to absolutely love this game as it's the same thing only better. If you're not a fan of Galaga, this will be okay. I can't see anyone finding the game bad, but some might not like the lack of updated mechanics.

Next up: Maniac Mansion

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Why I'm taking this challenge

So! I’ve spent nearly my entire life as a Nintendo Fanboy. A rabid fanboy to the point where when my family got a brand new Playstation 2 back in ‘02 (One of the best consoles ever). I refused to play it. I refused to have anything to do with the company that stole my beloved Nintendo’s thunder! This fanboyism ran rampant in my gaming life through high school and even when I moved out to live with the woman who would one day become my wife. I still didn’t play anything but Nintendo consoles. In fact, it wasn’t until we were gifted an Xbox 360 did I FINALLY play a game on a different console. That was Bioshock, it was also the first shooter I had ever played.It became one of my favorite games of all time. The rest is history, I’ve been playing games on any console I want now.

That’s all well and good, but this means that there is an entire other gaming WORLD that I’ve never played. Never experienced in my life. I love shooters, but with the exception of the half-life series, and System shock 2, every shooter from Doom all the way up until Bioshock, I’ve never played. Not Quake, not CoD, not battlefield.

So, since I’ve missed out on nearly 30 years of gaming, I decided to take a challenge. My lovely wife got me a book called 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die I am going to play through every game in this book. Starting with Oregon Trail (1971) and finish with Bioshock Infinite (2013) I plan to do at least one generation per year. At least. And to help me keep track of what I've done, I started doing small reviews of every game.

At first I wrote these in the starment.net forums, but eventually they became too lengthy to only be posted there, so I created this blog to not only help keep me organized, but so others can follow along as well. It won't be easy, but I think it's worth it to play games that I may otherwise never have played.