Arcade Archives Galaga

Genre: Shmup

Players: 1, Online Leaderboards

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Namco Museum, along with Dig Dug, Galaga ’88, Pac-Man, Pac-Man Vs., Rolling Thunder, Rolling Thunder 2, Sky Kid, Splatterhouse, Tank Force, and The Tower of Druaga. It is also included in Namco Museum Arcade Pac, with all of the above games plus Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus. Also, the Nintendo Entertainment System version of this game is included in Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2, along with the Nintendo Entertainment System versions of Battle City, Dig Dug II, Dragon Buster II, Gaplus (8-Bit Demake), Legacy of the Wizard, Mappy-Land, Mendel Palace, Pac-Land, Rolling Thunder, and Super Xevious. Check out this page for a breakdown of which games can be found in multiple releases on Nintendo Switch.)

Galaga is a Shmup created to be the sequel to 1979’s Galaxian, with both games taking a lot of inspiration from the success of Space Invaders. Like that game, Galaga has the player’s ship at the bottom of the screen shooting at a formation of enemy ships above. However, like Galaxian, Galaga’s enemies don’t just stay in formation and slowly move down the screen, but instead take turns dive-bombing the player. Furthermore, in Galaga players must contend with “Boss Galaga” ships that take multiple hits and can use tractor beams to steal away your ship, which players can later steal back. It was a clever expansion of the mechanics established in earlier games, and was hugely influential in the Shmup genre. This game was originally released in Arcades in 1981, and was later ported to numerous other platforms.

As with many Shmups of the era, there’s not much to the presentation of Galaga. The 2D pixel art visuals depicted a black field dotted with some stars, various buglike enemy ships, and not much else. At the very least, the way the game depicted the tractor beam looked somewhat distinct, and the game’s opening theme and sound effects remain fairly iconic.

While this game was highly influential, by today’s standards it’s pretty repetitive and shallow. It certainly has some appeal as a classic, but those who don’t see this game through the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia will soon find themselves tiring of it.

This release of the game includes a new “Hi-Score Mode” that challenges players to get as far as they can in one run. There is also a new “Caravan Mode” that does much the same, but with the limit being five minutes. In addition, this release of the game gives players a decent array of options, including various display options, sound options, challenge modifiers, button mapping, and online leaderboards.

At $8, the Arcade Archives release of Galaga is insultingly overpriced, and players looking for a better deal do have other options. For under $30, the Namco Museum Arcade Pac includes Galaga plus 11 other games, including multiple good ones. You’re spending a bit more, but you’re getting a much, much, much better deal than this Arcade Archives release.

With this being the case, I see absolutely no reason you should ever buy the Arcade Archives version of Galaga. This is absolutely a classic game, but it hasn’t aged all that well, and the price tag is far too high for what’s on offer here.

tl;dr – Galaga is a classic shmup, although by today’s standards it is frustratingly slow and limited. What’s worse, this release charging $8 for this game is a rip-off when you get this game and 11 others in Namco Museum Arcade Pac. If you want this game, just get that bundle instead.

Grade: C-

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