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Pardon the dust! This page includes some jargon that hasn't been added to the site's glossary yet. I'll be around to fix this later, but sorry for the inconvenience in the meantime. |
Review: Arcade Game Series: Galaga
At a Glance
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How to Save and Pause:There is supposedly an autosave feature, but I don't know what it does or how to trigger it. This effectively means that there is no way to save your in-game progress. However, your final score is saved to the leaderboards when the game ends. To pause, press ESC or start on your controller. Time needed per session:You can expect to play this game for anywhere from ten to twenty minutes, depending on how skilled you are and where you've set the game's difficulty. Of course, I'm assuming you'll play at least two rounds per session, so adjust accordingly.
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Does this game pose issues for Christian players?
 | No - this is a great game for Christians As this is one of the earliest arcade games, there's not much to worry about - just some very mild violence as players and aliens shoot each other. |
Screenshots
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/arcade_game_series_galaga_0.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/arcade_game_series_galaga_1.jpg)
![[view screenshot]](../images/screenshots/arcade_game_series_galaga_2.jpg)
Game Overview
Although Pac Man was clearly NAMCO's breakout hit, they did produce a number of extremely popular games during the reign of the coin-op arcades. Surprisingly enough, Pac Man wasn't even their first breakout hit - that honor fell to Galaxian, an enhanced Space Invaders clone that came out in 1979. While Pac Man later stole the spotlight, two sequels to Galaxian were eventually released to critical acclaim. Galaga was the first of these, and so far it's the only game in its series that has been made available as part of NAMCO's Arcade Game Series.
Galaga takes many cues from its predecessor: the player spends the entire game fighting groups of aliens that hover menacingly in formation above them. But, unlike other games from the era, the aliens don't begin each wave in position. Instead, small groups swoop in from the sides of the screen, shooting missiles at you as they fly about before settling into place. During this time, you can fire at the incoming enemies or focus on defeating the aliens who have already joined the larger group.
When all of the aliens have entered the fray, individual aliens start breaking formation to dive down and attack the player. Once every enemy fighter has been disposed of, the wave ends and the next one begins. Games back then didn't exactly have much in the way of variety between levels; the only change in gameplay you'll see are the challenge levels that appear every few waves. During these "challenge levels", the aliens fly around, but don't attack or even stay on screen for very long, effectively turning these levels into a quick round of target practice. In fact, at the end of a challenge level, you'll get bonus points based on how many aliens you defeated and how accurate your shots were.
As simple as this game is, there's one trick that new players might not know about. In normal levels, a group of four "boss" aliens can be found at the top of the formation. These enemies take two hits to defeat and are worth more points than the others. They also have a special attack: sometimes they'll stop in the middle of a dive and fire their "tractor beam" at the player's ship. If it connects, your ship will be sucked up and confiscated by the aliens.
If that was your last life, then it's game over. But if not, it will become an enemy vessel and attack you along with the boss that stole it. If you can defeat its escort during an attack, then it will be rescued from the alien's control and merge with your ship, letting you use the "dual fighter" attack mode. This allows you to fire two shots at the same time, but it also makes you a bigger target. Be careful.
Ultimately, this is another classic game brought back from the past via the Arcade Game Series, and like the others, it's a welcome trip down memory lane. But, I'm not sure that it has enough staying power to keep the attention of kids today; high scores just aren't as important to players as they used to be.
Also, it's not a good idea to play this game while you're on duty at SHIELD - Tony Stark tends to notice things like that.
Galaga takes many cues from its predecessor: the player spends the entire game fighting groups of aliens that hover menacingly in formation above them. But, unlike other games from the era, the aliens don't begin each wave in position. Instead, small groups swoop in from the sides of the screen, shooting missiles at you as they fly about before settling into place. During this time, you can fire at the incoming enemies or focus on defeating the aliens who have already joined the larger group.
When all of the aliens have entered the fray, individual aliens start breaking formation to dive down and attack the player. Once every enemy fighter has been disposed of, the wave ends and the next one begins. Games back then didn't exactly have much in the way of variety between levels; the only change in gameplay you'll see are the challenge levels that appear every few waves. During these "challenge levels", the aliens fly around, but don't attack or even stay on screen for very long, effectively turning these levels into a quick round of target practice. In fact, at the end of a challenge level, you'll get bonus points based on how many aliens you defeated and how accurate your shots were.
As simple as this game is, there's one trick that new players might not know about. In normal levels, a group of four "boss" aliens can be found at the top of the formation. These enemies take two hits to defeat and are worth more points than the others. They also have a special attack: sometimes they'll stop in the middle of a dive and fire their "tractor beam" at the player's ship. If it connects, your ship will be sucked up and confiscated by the aliens.
If that was your last life, then it's game over. But if not, it will become an enemy vessel and attack you along with the boss that stole it. If you can defeat its escort during an attack, then it will be rescued from the alien's control and merge with your ship, letting you use the "dual fighter" attack mode. This allows you to fire two shots at the same time, but it also makes you a bigger target. Be careful.
Ultimately, this is another classic game brought back from the past via the Arcade Game Series, and like the others, it's a welcome trip down memory lane. But, I'm not sure that it has enough staying power to keep the attention of kids today; high scores just aren't as important to players as they used to be.
Also, it's not a good idea to play this game while you're on duty at SHIELD - Tony Stark tends to notice things like that.
Points of Interest
Customizable
Arcade cabinets came with a set of hidden switches that would alter the behavior of the game they hosted. For example, the cabinet's owner could change the number of lives the players start with, or how many points were needed to earn another chance. These options are available in this port's option menu, along with options to change the appearance of the side panels, make the screen larger or smaller, and so on.
Steam community features
There are 20 achievements available for the brave starfighters out there to collect. About half of them are earned by managing to get a perfect score on challenge stages, which probably puts them out of reach of most players. Some are also dependent on random in-game events, which may also make them difficult to earn.
No mouse support
None of the menus can be navigated using the mouse. You'll probably be using a controller to play this game, so you may not notice anything odd, but it certainly feels strange to see buttons that can't be clicked on.
Concerns and Issues
Very mild violence
Like other games of its era, Galaga has the player fighting crudely drawn aliens. Whenever something is "killed" in this game, it explodes into a shower of pixels. There's no blood, gore, or anything graphic going on.