Review: Galaga (XBLA)

Galaga is a prehistoric shoot’em-up that is a genuine classic and still good fun.

Gameplay: Galaga is a classic, if not the original, up-scrolling vertical shoot’em-up featuring power-ups (clone your ship), attack waves, bonus levels and frantic button bashing. It plays as well now as it did in 1981.

Graphics: Actually, for its time, pretty good and still better than most mobile phone games! Galaga features minor updates for XBLA.

Sound: Classic, old school, beeps and smashes that still have a element of simple charm. Galaga has no obvious updates for XBLA.

Like other Namco games on XBLA, it is made easier by infinite continues, but the later levels are really tough, so you’ll need them. The achievements range from easy to quite difficult, so you may be playing this in short bursts for some time. There is no XBL multiplayer.

I can remember playing Galaga as a nipper in the children’s room of “The Angel” pub, Portland, Dorset – my ancestral home. It was one of the first video games I became addicted to. Luckily, my parents didn’t mind as it was an excuse to stay in the pub longer ;P. Galaga still has nostalgic appeal for me, and is a fun retro arcade game.

6/10