"Space Invader clone/Prequel to Galaga"

Back in the late 70s/early 80s, when somebody made a popular game, there were tons of games to copy it's winning success (Space Invaders, Pac Man, Pong, etc.). Space Invaders especially changed video game history, and of course, it had lots of clones that followed it's game play. One of these clones was Galaxian, which was actually pretty good for a Space Invader type game.

The game play is very simple. You have to destroy squad after squad of enemy ships in outer space. You get to move back and forth, and up and down a little. The enemy ships stay in a formation, but about three of them drop down and try to get you at a time. They all shoot at you of course, and when the small group reaches the bottom of the screen, it ends up back at the top and rejoins the formation, while another small group drops down. Aside from the normal ship that takes only one shot, there's two large bat things that take two shots to down. Of course, unlike Galaga, these guys don't beam your ships up to them. If you destroy enough of the squadron, the ships will just start dropping continuously until you beat the level. Of course, after the ships were all gone, the level would be over, and you'd go onto the next level which was basically the same, but the enemies are faster and shoot more.

Considering that this is an Atari 2600 game, the graphics aren't too bad. The enemies don't look fantastic, but they work, and your ship looks really good. The sound is basic 2600 pinging and such, which is pretty annoying, but not too bad for an Atari game.

If you're a fan of the Atari 2600, or Space Invader clones, then you'll probably like Galaxian. You'll surely be able to pick it up for a very small amount. However, you might as well just hunt for Galaga, its sequel, as it improves on it quite a bit. It's a good game, but only if you like the genre.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 08/07/01