Galaxy Saver

Genre: Arcade / Shmup

Players: 1

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Review:

Galaxy Saver is an Arcade-style game with some Shmup elements first released on the Nintendo DSi via the DSiWare service in 2013, and later grandfathered into the Nintendo 3DS eShop when the Nintendo 3DS released. This game has players defending a shielded location from damage by rotating around the location and shooting at incoming threats.

The presentation here is mostly very good, using retro-style 2D visuals (with occasional 3D flourishes here and there), and a pretty catchy synthesized soundtrack. The Nintendo DSi/Nintendo 3DS’s dual screens are also clearly invaluable here, as you will absolutely need to use the second screen’s radar to hunt down enemies.

The gameplay in Galaxy Saver has players scrolling left and right on a circular spot they’re defending, trying to pick off enemies before they damage the shields you’re hovering over. Unfortunately, this latter element makes for an absurdly high difficulty that’s likely to discourage most players – even if you dodge the massive number of enemy bullets, you’ll still lose if you take too long taking out enemies, as their rain of gunfire will still damage the shield behind you. On some stages this is so bad that I could not for the life of me figure out how I was supposed to avoid losing one of my limited continue attempts.

It’s a shame Galaxy Saver’s difficulty level is so high, because otherwise I thought it had a lot of great old-school charm. However, even with the low $2 price tag, I feel like most players are going to find this game more frustrating than fun.

tl;dr – Galaxy Saver is an Arcade-style game with some Shmup elements that has players fighting off invading enemies while rotating around a circular shield. The need to defend the shield makes this game especially difficult, and as a result I can’t see most players finding this game worth the frustration, even with its low $2 price tag.

Grade: C-

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