Arcade Archives Gaplus

Genre: Shmup

Players: 1-2 Alternating (Local), Online Leaderboards

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Review:

(Note: A Nintendo Entertainment System-style “Demake” 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, Galaga, 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.)

Gaplus, released in Arcades in 1984, is the third game in the series that started with Galaxian and Galaga, but you might not know that from the way it is often treated. This game has only rarely gotten ported (once to Commodore 64 in 1988, and once to Japanese mobile phones in… I want to say 2007? It’s hard to find info on this). It has also frequently been left out of Namco’s numerous Compilations over the years, only occasionally sneaking into one – it was in Namco Museum Remix on Wii in 2007, and then on the upgraded version of that Compilation, Namco Museum Megamix, in 2010. It was an in-app purchase in the Galaga 30th Collection on iOS in 2011. And as noted above, Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2 includes a “demake” of the game.

If that seems like a lot of ports, you’re not very familiar with Namco Compilations, which it has released on pretty much every platform going back generations. That a major release in one of its prized classic franchises could go multiple generations without seeing a port or inclusion in a Compilation is extremely out-of-character for Namco. These are the guys that keep porting The Tower of Druaga and Pac-Land to everything, and those games are horrible.

As it released three years after Galaga, you can definitely see an improvement in the presentation here, with this game featuring more-detailed 2D pixel art ships and higher-quality sounds, even though everything about the presentation remains faithful to its predecessors. I suppose this game’s look isn’t quite as iconic as Galaga or Galaxian, but I still nevertheless find it to be an improvement.

It might be easy to be fooled into thinking that this game hasn’t changed much from Galaga, but the more you dig into it, the more you find it has been tweaked and improved. You can now move around freely rather than being stuck to one horizontal line. There’s a new “queen capture” mechanic that allows you to steal enemy ships and add them to your arsenal. There’s more variety in the levels. Overall, I think this is a wonderful sequel with a lot of fun ideas, so much so that I think this game is worth playing even today.

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. There’s also an “Old Version” and “New Version” of the main game, but I honestly can’t tell the difference. 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 Gaplus seems a bit pricey, but there’s not currently another way to play this game on the Nintendo Switch platform in its original Arcade form. As noted before, there’s a Nintendo Entertainment System-style “Demake” of this game included in Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2, but I would argue that version is clearly inferior to this.

With this being the case, this may be an Arcade Archives game that’s actually worth getting. It is pricey given how very old the game is, absolutely, but the game is fun and creative, even by today’s standards, and it’s released rarely enough that you’re not likely to find it in another Compilation package any time soon. If you’re a fan of Shmups, I think this may be worth a look.

tl;dr – This sequel to Galaga initially feels like more of the same, but differences gradually reveal themselves as you play – you can move freely now, there’s a new “Queen Capture” power-up mechanic that’s truly delightful, and greater variety in stage types. It all adds up to a refreshing take on a classic that’s rarely released on modern platforms. The price is a tad high given the game’s age, but if you’re a fan of Shmups, this may be worth checking out.

Grade: B-

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