Galaga
Hasbro
Due for PSX this fall.
The conglomerate that is Hasbro-Atari/Action is bringing one of the all-time best early arcade shooters to the PSX this fall. Let me start by saying that I love Galaga. God I love Galaga. Galaga was a better friend than most of the others I had during that period of time I often refer to as my childhood. Is the foregoing statement just an indictment of my poor social skills and the admittedly heavily chlorinated gene-pool that was my childhood neighborhood? Perhaps. But perhaps it also has something to do with Galaga’s simple, solid, and addictive gameplay—where twitch gaming rules, Galaga is its grandsire.
At first I was a bit concerned about the update. I mean, although some of them have taken the original game to enjoyable new heights (Q*bert, most specifically), the general lot have been mediocre at best, and downright stupid at worst. Of course, Pong has obvious limitations, and Frogger got so overhauled it was unrecognizable. But Galaga, I am happy and relieved to say, is by far the best retro-upgrade to date, a game that would still be enjoyable even if it didn’t have so much sentimental value.
Basically, the idea behind the game (kill a whole bunch of aliens as they fly at you in increasingly difficult patterns) has undergone little revision. The aliens are still crafty, kamikaze little buggers with a fixation for formation flying and a tendency to get squirrely if you don’t watch out. The major innovation, as anyone with a milligram of sense could have guessed, is that the game now takes place in a 3D environment. And while your progress through the level is ultimately linearish (although I haven’t played a full version, so there could be some surprises), freedom of movement is not restricted to an irritating level. Along with a thruster button that allows you to boost your ship past either empty stretches or undesirable groups of bad guys, a few other flying moves have been added. A host of pick-up items makes for a range of weapons and specials, as well as life saving repairs. If so far you think it sounds like StarFox, you aren’t making a totally off the mark guess. However, Galaga has a greatly enhanced feeling of speed, a much more satisfyingly arcade-like interface, and a lot less obnoxious voice acting.
The graphics on this baby aren’t the sharpest in the universe, but then again, Galaga was always about sheer gameplay. Still, the 3D insect-aliens look good enough to satisfy anyone but a particularly unreasonable person, and your ship has come a long way from its vaguely phallic yesteryear relative. The coolest thing, as far as I’m concerned, is that when you get to “Challenging Stages” the screen reverts to an R-Type like 2D mode that, as in the classic, rewards you greatly for cleaning out rows of aliens. The game of course includes the original version, and in a much better port than the Arcade Classics edition.
If you ever liked Galaga somewhere in your past, this looks like an update that will definitely satisfy the cravings you didn’t even realize you had. And while it is similar to other 2 and 3D shooters out there, the small innovations, the license, and the gameplay itself will certainly make you at least happy, if not proud, to own it (especially since it will probably come out as a reduced price title). The only downsides are the game’s brevity, occasional animation bog down, and the slight feeling that every level is awfully similar to the one before it. But I think that’s just out of respect for the original, which boasted most of the same features.