"Its just like Galaxian, just a whole lot better."

When Galaxian came out, people thought that it was cutting edge because it was the one of the first video games to have color, but unfortunately because of its slow pace, many people thought that the game was boring and most stuck with the original space invaders, so to gain many lost fans back, Namco needed something to convince us that they were the king of shooters in the early 80's, so after a few tweaks to their slow paced Galaxian, and a few new enemies added, they released one the best shooter from 1981. Enter Galaga.

GRAPHICS: 8
The visuals in Galaga aren't bad, but there really isn't much to look at. Most of the time all that you will see are little specs of color that represent the stars blinking in the background, and the enemy bugs that try to attack, and way down in the bottom of the screen is your little ship.

The best visuals in this game are actually the enemies and your ship. All the enemies are detailed and differ in abilities by making their color different, which is good because it adds more variety to the game. Your ship on the other hand, while it is detailed, stays the same color for the entire game, and thus means that you don't get any power ups, either than the two-ship trick.

SOUND/MUSIC: 7
The audio in Galaga is pretty good for an old 80's arcade game, and because it's such an old game, the sound quality sounds aged and muted at some points, but that's ok, because all that matters is the way that the audio is put together.

For example, the music in this game is great, despite being only 5 seconds long. It sounds futuristic and it sets the mood for the rest of the game,

The sound is also pretty good. Most of the time you will hear the enemies falling down towards you, your gun shooting rockets out if its plasma gun, the Galaga's beam falling down from its claws and the enemies flying bask to the top of the screen. Its cool to listen to and it wound get annoying at any time.

GAMEPLAY: 9
Galaga is just like Galaxian, only 200 times better. Its fast paced, full of enemies and it make you think about you next move, and choose it wisely because if its wrong, it could be the end of you precious space shooters, and believe me, you want to save these ships until you at least get to the tenth level.

When you start Galaga up, you get the intro music, the stage number and you ship, which appears three seconds later at the bottom. Now, after the intro is done, you soon realize why this game is different from its ancient grandfather. In that game, all the enemies start at the top. In Galaga, they fly in complex patters and then go into position. This leaves you time to shoot them all down, and this is were I believe that Galaga is better than Galaxian. When you get the option of shooting your enemies down when, they are defenses (which, by the way, stops when you get to level 2) so it might seem easy to beet, so to create a challenging game, the developer programmed the game to send groups of enemies down at you at high speeds and at the same time dodge all their bullets that they send you.

So as you progress, you soon realize that this game started to get hard, because as you keep going, the enemies get faster, they shoot more rockets at you and they start to kamikaze you at the beginning of the level, so you must be mentally prepared before you start the game if you want to get far. Trust me, around level 20, the enemies pull no stops towards their goal: to destroy all your ships.

The game is a two-player game, which is good if you have someone who wants to play. They only two player problem that I have is that you cant play co-op. If they put in co-op, the game would have scored higher.

REPLAY VALUE:
Galaga doesn't have much in terms of hidden secrets and little tricks, so the game might get dull after a while, but because the game play is so good, you will be playing it until the arcade closes for the night, if you like old school games that is.

IS IT WORTH THE QUARTER?
I would say it is. If you ever see this game laying in the back, play it. It's a lot of fun for both old and young gamers.

CLOSING STATEMENT:
Galaga is really one of the best game from the 80's, and one of the best shooters ever created, and if you don't believe me, just look at all the versions of this game on the newer game consoles. This game is everywhere, so if you have never played it, there is no excuse.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/10/08

Game Release: Galaga (JP, 1981)