Galaga Legions Review

Space... The final frontier, As Captain Kirk or Picard (depending on your age ) utter those immortal words they hit a chord in our soul, demand we ask ourselves the question 'Is there anything out there?' Galaga Legions Boldly answers the question with a psychedelic assault on the gamers' eyes shouting 'Yes there's bloody millions out there... prepare to engage!'

Galaga legions, is the next title released in the 'Summer of Arcade' promotion and comes from the same team over at Namco, who were behind Pacman Championship Edition. Anyone familiar with that title will know how they reinvented the game both visually and through refining the gameplay, yet subtly retaining enough of the original to make it recognisable to the audience. Galaga legions is no different.

Graphically Galaga legions is a combination of old and new with the title screens still retaining a '16 bit' style. This is expertly done with thumbnails depicting the worlds that the gamer will see, very similar to the original Starfox on the SNES or R- type.

By contrast the in game graphics are startling, almost as if the sombre menus are designed to sucker punch the gamer!

The visuals are sublime, with the levels rapidly changing from traditional star fields and meteor showers to pulsating neon lights and luminous rainbows of colour. This is further reinforced by the spacecraft models which are also incredibly well done, with detail going into the textures of the enemy models; particle effect and explosions are especially nice proving that the future is bright the future is Galaga!

Another excellent feature, showing the developers understanding of Galaga's heritage are the various skins that you unlock. These transform the games look, making it look similar to the games retro old brother Galaxian. Gameplay wise these changes in appearance are insignificant, but moreover they show how aware Namco is of their audience.


On the downside to the Las Vegas style spectacle that the gamer is treated to; is that Galaga can and does distract the gamer. This ensures that at times the gamer is unable to see their ship's positioning clearly due to the score multiplyers appearing. Death's sometimes come, not from the fact of poor judgement, but more the inability to see enemies.

Galaga Legions is split into two core gamplay modes, Adventure mode which sees the gamer using a limited number of lives to progress through all the worlds, and Championship mode which allows you to play through any of the individual worlds. Each prove worthy of play mainly due to the novel yet simple controls.

Typically with any space shooter on Live the gamer would imagine dual thumbstick control method - with one controlling the ship while the other directing the fire power. For all that this gameplay mechanic created a 'newness' originally, Its over use has made it go stale quicker than an old loaf. Thankfully Galaga doesn't use this 'Traditional' method, well not quite.

Galaga legions key difference is the ability to deploy your ships Satellites, essentially mini ships. These Satellites are controlled with the right stick, while control of the main vessel if designated to the left stick. The Satellites can be deployed in either horizontal or vertical space where they remain fixed, firing in the chosen direction until repositioned by the gamer.

This drastically alters the way the gamer plays the game, rather than a no brain shoot em up, the gamer is forced to place them strategically in order to survive. Whereas Geometry wars sees the gamer fire in all directions, the intentional limitations of Galaga's controls enhances the gameplay, causing the gamer to think quickly and carefully about the satellites deployment.

This strategy soon becomes essential as Galaga legions soon becomes challenging, demanding of the gamer quick reactions and even quicker thinking. It's this level of challenge that makes Galaga both appealing and yet immensely daunting at the same time.

First play will see you die in a relatively short space of time, it is only after several attempts that you begin to notice patterns of attack within the enemy waves, recognise holes in what seemed like an almost impossible defence. From this point on Galaga asks the gamer to play a deadly game of risk, should you go guns blazing, or hang back an await the onslaught!

The fact that the gamer willingly enters this battle is testement to the addictive quality of Galaga, and that even when your last ship disappears into cinders and ash you don't mind repeating the level, all the while trying to employ new strategies or tactics to achieve success.

Galaga does use several hooks to keep you playing - namely being the Galaga itself; a huge eye like entity that when hit spawns hordes of 'space creepy crawlies' which defend your ship till their dying breath. This ensures periods of relative calm in the gameplay and further gives new gamers at least a fighting chance.

The most understated gem of the game, and the reason the gamer continues to play on is the leaderboards in place. On the screen the high score is always visible while on the left hand side of the screen is your current score. This notion of beating the high score far exceeds the need that the gamer feels to progress to the next level, and is in part the reason why the gamer doesn't resent the challenge offered by Galaga Legions.

The only possible criticism for Galaga legions is that for some gamers it will prove too difficult, not that any of the gameplay styles change, waves of enemy still attack in memorable patterns, deploying your satellites is still crucial; It's just Galaga pushes the gears into overdrive testing your acquired skills to the maximum.

One wonders how the Starship enterprise would have fared against the hordes in Galaga, reassuringgly or perhaps worryingly Namco shares Kirk's approach to Alien diplomacy far more than Picards; opting for maximum firepower rather than chatty, time consuming diplomacy!

Summer of Arcade is offering some truly quality games, and Galaga is no exception to this, and instead is arguably one of the most instantly gratifying titles released through this promotion. Galaga is brash and bold offering no apology for its retro style gameplay, but offering enough strategy, scope and replay value to make it an essential purchase.