"A solid old-school shooter."

Galaga is one of those games are usually in a very dark corner in a place where there are a few Arcade cabinets, but there are also almost always someone who is playing the game. The game got released after that the Arcade game Space Invaders have invaded America, and almost made the country to run out of quarters since everyone wanted to play the game over and over again. Since that game got so popular, many companies decided to make an own Arcade game where you control a space ship and your job is to shoot down as many alien ships as possible. Galaga is just one of those games that to this day stands out a little from all the others.

It was very popular in those days that you saw all the spaceships that would appear on the screen at the same time and just had to shoot them down, but that's not as simple as that in Galaga. Here more alien space ships can appear while you are shooting those that already have been on the screen for awhile. Since your space ship explodes if any of the alien space ships crashes in your space ship, you always have to be alert to not let any aliens crash into you.

Just like in almost every old-school Arcade game, the whole point in the game is to get as high score as possible. In Galaga you can sadly only move in two directions, left or right. This makes it a bit difficult at some times to dodge the enemy bullets, if you get hit by one of those, your ship will explode. You have a total of three ships, and once you no longer have any more ships, it's game over. Once you reach a special number in your score, you will get a 1-Up.

There's another creative thing in Galaga that shows that Namco knows how to make excellent Arcade games. There are one type of alien space ships that can use a tractor beam to take over one of your ships and you will lose it. But then you can recapture the ship by shooting down the ship that first captured it, and then you will have two battle ships to play with.

Galaga is some what addicting. Once you have run out of Space ships you'll want to give the game another try. I heard that it took the dude who has the world record in this game about 9 hours to get it, so you don't have to worry about that it will be impossible for you to set a new personal record. This game really shows why Namco can do great Arcade games.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/07/07