Welcome to the Namco Museum: Special Galaga Tour!

Get your parents to sign these release permission slips, and pack a sack lunch. Because today we’re going on a back-to-school field trip to the Namco Museum for a special Galaga tour in honor of the release of the new Xbox Live Arcade game: Galaga Legions. I’ll be your tour guide today, so be sure to stay in the group, no photos, and we’re walking, we’re walking…

 

There are two types of dream jobs people may have. One type of dream job is a more plausible one. Like maybe you really would like to be an accountant, or an interior decorator. The other type of dream job are the ones that would be impossible to be, like a mattress tester, bikini inspector, or game reviewer (ha ha). Well my impossible dream job would be a Namco Museum curator. No type of job exists, but it’s still fun to dream. Well, enough of that, let’s get on with the Galaga tour.

Galaxian
The history of Galaga actually doesn’t start with Galaga, but Galaxian. Galaga is actually the sequel to this game. This game came out in arcades in the late 70’s, soon after Space Invaders’ popularity boom. It was one of the first, if not THE first, full color video game that didn’t use tricks to simulate color like screen overlays and whatnot. It also had a more advanced sound chip for better effects.

Galaxian also introduced some new gameplay elements over Space Invaders. You still shot at aliens in formation, but now, the aliens would dive down at you to attack! That doesn’t seem like such a big gameplay difference nowadays, but back then, even a little change was a HUGE difference. A ‘shark element’ was also introduced into Galaxian as well. A shark element is a video game term that means that in a game, if you are given a choice to try a more challenging feat for more points, but increases the danger, then that’s a shark element. The term comes from the shark you could try to avoid to get the better fish in Fishing Derby for the Atari 2600.

Anyway, Galaxian’s ‘shark element’ comes from the flagships that are at the top of the formation. When they dive down, they bring a couple of red escort ships with them. If you shoot the escort ships, and then the flagship, you’ll get a ton of bonus points. But you have to watch out because the escort ships shoot out a ton of bullets as they dive. And that’s pretty much all there is to Galaxian.

Galaga
Galaxian may have been the first game in the series, but Galaga’s the one that started it all. Considered to be one of the granddaddies of space shooters, Galaga has always been a classic favorite. And like Ms. Pac-Man, you can still find plenty of Galaga arcade machines in Laundromats and pizza parlors today. In fact, a few years ago, Namco even made a new arcade cabinet that combined Galaga and Ms. Pac-Man and let you play both (and even Pac-Man if you knew a secret code). And like Pac-Man, Galaga has become a bit of popular culture as you can find Galaga images on T-shirts and other odds and ends.

Like Galaxian, in Galaga you must shoot down formations of space bug aliens. The ‘shark element’ from Galaxian is still here where you can get bonus points from shooting down the escorts and flagships (which take more than one hit now). But a new ‘shark element’ was introduced here that ended up being kind of the staple of the Galaga series. Sometimes the flagship would come down and shoot a tractor beam. It was easily avoided, but if you let your ship get captured, and then shot the flagship down on the next dive and freed your other ship, you’d get a dual ship for double the firepower. But it comes at a price: do you sacrifice one of your lives for extra power? Having double ships sure helped in the new bonus ‘challenging stages’ where you had to shoot down the ships flying in formation.

Gaplus
This is the sequel to Galaga but it got a little confusing when it came to the US. Midway released it in the US from Namco, and even though it still said Gaplus on the title screen, many arcade marquees called it “Galaga 3.” Which is technically correct, but many probably didn’t realize Galaga was a sequel to something else, so people questioned “What happened to Galaga 2?” Gaplus kind of bombed because people were still playing Galaga and it was making more money, and Gaplus came out right around the arcade crash of 1984. I was lucky enough to get to play Gaplus in the arcade because my local Pizza Inn was notorious for carrying rare and unusual arcade games. Now you can play Gaplus on Namco Museum vol. 2 on PSOne and Namco Museum Remix on Wii.

Gaplus was a lot like Galaga except MUCH harder. There were more enemies and they moved faster, too. To counter this, your ship could move up and down the screen a little bit instead of just side to side only. Kind of like Centipede. Instead of the Galaga ships shooting tractor beams at you, if you shot the queen flagship while in a dive, YOU would get a tractor beam to capture the bugs. You could capture a ton of them for lots of firepower, as many as four or five ships on either side of you! Of course, this also made it easier to get hit, so your wide arsenal would get whittled down pretty quickly, especially in the ‘parsecs’ where the screen went backward! On some stages, instead of a tractor beam you got a drill weapon. If you could keep the ships, having all that extra firepower was handy in the new bonus stages where you had to shoot to juggle falling Galaga ships.

Galaga ‘88
Galaga got back to its roots with ’88. It featured updated graphics and sound on par with other games at the time. It was also a little more cutesy. The bugs were a little more cartoony and the colors were brighter. And at the beginning of every round, a close up of one of the bugs would come on screen and say “wa-wa wa-wa.” (that was my favorite part).

Galaga ’88 had new stages, some even scrolled upward. You could still get a ship captured and re-caught for double the firepower, but now you could get the double ships caught and re-caught for an even better ship-at the cost of one more life. Stages had branching paths, and if you could collect two blue capsules from destroying things like asteroids, you could go to a new ‘dimension’ at the end of the round that would take you to a different bracket branch in the next stage. Higher ‘dimension’ brackets were usually more difficult. The ‘challenging stage’ bonus rounds were back, but this time the aliens ‘danced’ in formation to silly remixes of classic tunes. There was a game called Galaga ’90 that came out on the Turbo-Grafix 16, but it’s just the same game as ’88, sans ‘wa-wa wa-wa’ bug. You can play Galaga ’88 on the 50th Anniversary Namco Museum game that came out on the PS2, GameCube, and Xbox. And you can download Galaga ’90 on the Wii VC.

Galaxian 3
In Japan they have large arcade ‘indoor amusement parks’ and over there, Galaxian 3 was a big screen game with up to 8 or 16 (can’t remember) seats and each player moved a cursor to shoot at flying spacecraft on screen while an early 3-D background showed you flying through asteroids and motherships. It was kind of like StarBlade, except multiplayer. If you were lucky enough to play this in the US, the experience was a little more subdued. I played this once at a Dave & Busters a long time ago and it was just a screen behind an enclosed curtain with four chairs squished in there. There was a sequel called Attack of the Zolgear but I don’t know if it ever came to the US. Nothing was really different, just a new backdrop and story. And aside from the name, I’m not sure how much this game really has to do with Galaga or Galaxian.

Galaga Arrangement (Arcade)
In the mid-90’s, Namco made a couple of arcade games called Namco Classics Collection vol. 1 and 2. On these you could play a trio of Namco arcade gems or ‘arranged’ versions of the originals. These featured improved graphics, sound, two player support, and new gameplay ideas. Galaga Arrangement was quite a bit like Galaga 88 except it had two player support. It was also less cutesy, but the music was still kooky and wonky, and I liked it. There were different kinds of tractor beam flagships, each one giving you a different kind of firepower if you were caught and reclaimed, just like in the other Galaga games. Some of the formations were also pretty hypnotic, and the bonus stages had a lot of spinning ‘Mode 7′ effects. You can play Galaga Arrangement on the first Namco Museum game (not the 50th Anniversary one), on the PS2, GC, and Xbox.

Galaga: Destination Earth (PSOne)
During the original Sony PlayStation’s heyday, Namco licensed some of its franchises to Hasbro Interactive. Hasbro’s developers made a couple of somewhat decent Pac-Man games on the PC, but everything else, like Dig Dug Deeper, was awful. Such was the case with Galaga: Destination Earth. Actually, the 2-D sections weren’t THAT bad, but once you got into the 3-D StarFox style areas, the game was practically unplayable. Stay away from this one, folks.

Galaga Arrangement (PSP)
On Namco Museum Battle Collection for the PSP, there were also ‘arranged’ versions of classic Namco games, but these were different than the Arrangement games in the arcade. Most of the ones on the PSP took advantage of the new, wide and bright screen. The basic gameplay ideas in the Galaga Arrangement arcade game were also found here. Sprites were replaced with 3-D replicas, though, and so were the backgrounds. And there were bosses. I don’t know if it was because of the wide screen, but Galaga Arrangement on the PSP just felt kinda ‘blah.’ Not really bad, but not really outstanding either.

Galaga Remix
On Namco Museum Remix for the Wii, they have a few classic game updates as well, but these use the functions of the Wii remote in some way. In Galaga Remix, you aim the remote at the screen and shoot formations of Galaga bugs, kind of like a shooting gallery. In each remix game, Pac-Man is in it, even if it’s not really necessary. Don’t get me wrong, I like Pac-Man, he’s my favorite video game character after all. But he didn’t really need to be in Galaga Remix. In the game, while you shoot aliens, Pac-Man rolls down a space age tube like a roller coaster, and you have to protect him by shooting all the space bugs before they hit him too many times. Make it to the end of each round to win. Galaga Remix really isn’t a true Galaga game, but like all the Wii remix games on this collection, it’s still a fun diversion. It kind of reminds me of Namco’s light gun game Point Blank. I’m surprised they haven’t made a Point Blank game on the Wii yet!

Galaga Legions
And the newest Galaga game just came out on Xbox Live Arcade! It’s made by the same folks who brought us the fantastic Pac-Man: Championship Edition. Even though I like Pac-Man: CE better than Galaga Legions, it probably has more to do with me just liking Pac-Man better than Galaga period. Galaga Legions is what you get when you cross the gameplay of Geometry Wars with Galaga elements, a.k.a. Galagometry Wars.

Swarms of Galaga bugs come at you from all sides, but luckily before they come on screen you’ll see a path that tells you where they’ll go. Your ship can still only shoot upwards, but you do get two satellite ships that you can deploy anywhere on the screen to shoot in any direction. It’s up to you to use strategy and quick thinking to place your ships in the best spots so that you won’t get surrounded. About once per stage, a ball comes floating around that kind of reminds me of the Smash Ball from Super Smash Bros. Brawl. If you shoot it enough times, a black hole comes out and sucks all the Galaga bugs into it. Then the bugs will fight on your side-up to around 20 of them! You can deploy them like the satellites, too, but like Gaplus, they won’t last very long once the droves start ramming into them! I wish there were more opportunities in the stages to get that black hole to come out, though.

Even though Galaga Legions doesn’t play EXACTLY like classic Galaga, it’s still a pretty fun and creative shooter. I like to use the “Vintage” skin, which makes all the game sprites look like classic Galaga visuals. The only problem I have with Galaga Legions isn’t the game’s fault at all. It just really kicks my butt! I love 2-D shooters, but I’m really not very good at them! And that’s all the Galaga games I know!

Galaga Related Games
There are a couple of games from Namco that aren’t really Galaga games, but they are connected to the series in some way. The first is Bosconian. It was an arcade game that came out just before Galaga. It was also a space shooter where you had to destroy green pentagon-like space stations and avoid asteroids, mines, and spacecraft. The reason why you don’t see very many Bosconian machines any more is because Galaga used the same arcade board, so many arcade owners just changed out the Bosconian board for the more popular Galaga one. In one world of Galaga ’88, in the background is a Bosconian space station.

Another Galaga related game is Cosmo Gang: The Video. A long time ago in arcades was a mechanical shooting game called Cosmo Gang where you had to shoot five approaching cute aliens before they took some batteries back to their ship. You’ve probably played it and not even known it. Later on in the arcades and on the Super Famicom, they made a shooter game with the Cosmo Gang characters and it played a HECK of a lot like Galaga.

Galaga Game Cameos
Namco is pretty famous for plopping classic game cameos in their other games, and Galaga is no exception. Even though I’m a HUGE Namco fan, there’s NO WAY I can list all the Galaga cameos in games, so I’m only going to go over some of the more significant ones.

Galaga may have been the first cameo character in another video game ever, as the Galaxian flagship was a bonus ‘fruit’ in Pac-Man. The Galaxian flagship has appeared as a bonus item or enemy in other games, too, like Dig Dug and Xevious.

In Pac-Man World for the PSOne, one of the stages before a boss fight was a 2-D shooter where Pac-Man shot at pixelly Galaxian ships. And the boss was a huge “King Galaxian” who had an attack like the tractor beam from the original Galaga. And while the fight was going on, talented game music composer Tommy Tallarico had a remixed version of the Galaga theme song in the background. This whole stage was one of the major highlights of Pac-Man World. Too bad PMW2 and 3 didn’t have such good highlights. Also, in Pac-Man World Rally, one of the tracks was in space and had Galaga music and stuff, but I think they just slapped some Galaga references onto a generic space track.

On Smash Court Tennis 3 for the PSP, there are a couple of tennis themed mini-games called Pac-Man Tennis and Galaga Tennis. I don’t know how they play because I didn’t feel the need to buy a whole game just for a couple of the mini-games inside. Atari recently released the Xbox 360 version of Smash Court Tennis 3 in the US. Anyone know if it has the same mini-games from the PSP version?

Probably the most famous Galaga game cameos are in some of the Ridge Racer games, where you can play snippets of Galaga while the game loads! And like I said before, there are tons of Galaga references that I haven’t even gone into, like mini-games in Point Blank, etc.

Well that’s pretty much all I have to say about Galaga. Thanks for visiting the Namco Museum today, and be sure to stop by the gift shop on your way out! (Oh man, a Namco gift shop would be so sweet!)

So what are YOUR favorite Galaga games? Mine are Galaga Arrangement (Arcade), Galaga ’88, and just plain ol’ Galaga.

Namco Museum Closed Next Week Due to PAX
I’d love to have another blog for you all to read next weekend, but I’ll be out of town for a real-life video game field trip! That’s right, I’m going to PAX. So no blog next week, sorry. But don’t worry. When I get back I’ll put up a writeup about my PAX adventures on the GamingWithChildren page, so make sure to read that. And if you’re going to PAX, maybe we’ll see each other and say hello! And while you’re there, make sure to go to the GamerDad panel on Sunday from 2:30 to 3:30 pm. Please pray I have a safe trip there and back! Later! –Cary

9 Responses to “Welcome to the Namco Museum: Special Galaga Tour!”

  1. I think I’ve said it before, but I didn’t even know Galaga existed as a game until relatively recently (like the last 10 years). I always figured it was just a different name for Galaxian, a game I loved. Different names for the same game are fairly common between different markets (I grew up in the UK) and I didn’t even know I was a Gradius fan until years after I’d first played Nemesis 🙂

  2. You may not be able to aspire to a Namco museum position (although this post makes you well qualified). But you could apply for the very real job of a Blizzard museum curator. I saw an interview with him online once, but now the best I can find is this little mini tour of the “museum” at Blizzard headquarters:

    http://forums.maxconsole.net/showthread.php?t=104734

  3. That would be a good idea if I knew more about Blizzard games! It’s more fun for me to learn about Namco, though! 🙂 –Cary

  4. I’ve actually got a galaga remake on pc. Musta been back from 2000-2001. It’s really a generic space shooter though.

  5. That’s probably the PC version of Galaga: Destination Earth. –Cary

  6. I’m not sure. I don’t remember full on 3D levels. I remember the box praised the game for being HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL ON DIFFERENT LEVELS ZOMFG!!!1

  7. Well at least the PSOne version had horizontal and vertical 2-D levels, as well as 3-D levels. –Cary

  8. Umm179, I’ve played that one from 2000 – 2001, I even got kicked out of school in 7th or 8th grade for installing it on the network shared drive so everyone from the ele, mid, and high school could all play it. I remember the word war or komakazee?? was the name?? Ive been looking for that game all day! it was just like the galaga 1981 but in 3d? it was kick a$$.. if anyone knows the name of that game then email me at dbfanantic@yahoo.com

  9. never mind I found that game it WAS called WARBLADE!! that was the game I got kicked out of school over!

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