Galaga: Virtual Console: Review

I was planning on doing a review for Mario Kart DS, but today has turned out being very busy for me, so I've decided to review a much shorter Virtual Console game instead.

I'm very surprised at the amount of Wii owners I've recommended Galaga to that haven't even heard of the game previously. The gameplay is very basic and only makes use of one button, but it's just as awesomely (or should I say horribly) addictive as it was back in it's arcade/NES days.

This is the sequel to the early arcade game Galaxian, which was also released on the very first home console, the Atari 2600. The controls are simple enough; left and right on the D-pad moves your ship left and right, and 1 or 2 on the Wii controller is used to shoot. You simply have to destroy all the enemies to complete each level, but these enemies do more than just sit there shoot at you; they're suicidal. If you leave them for too long they will come down at you in bee-lines. There's almost no way you're going to get them all before they start coming down, but you have to get as many as possible or else you're going to get showered by fly-like enemies, and most likely die. If they get by you without hitting you then they will appear again at the top of the screen, where they will settle into their normal positions for a few seconds before raining on you again. It's highly fun, highly addictive and highly frustrating when you shoot five or six times at one of these things, miss every time, and then they hit you. But that's a good kind of frustration; the kind that will keep you coming back to a game over and over again.

The thing that really sets Galaga apart from other shooters is the ability to have two of your own ships on the screen at the same time, therefore having double shots. The method of getting the double shots is creative and unique. In each level, there are four ships that are stronger than the rest. These are the green/teal ones in the above picture, and they take two shots to kill rather than one. One of these four ships has the ability to abduct your ships; as you may or may not have guessed, this is referred to as The Boss. The Boss will come down in a bee-line like the other enemies, but will stop when it gets close to you and sent out a vacuum beam. If you have any spare ships, then befriend this kind
ship and allow him to take you in. You will then use one of your spare ships, and with it you are to betray your new friend and kill him. Your old ship will then go back beside your spare ship, and you will take control of them both, therefore giving you double shots. I should note that you cannot shoot the boss ship until it starts coming down at you again or else your lost ship will remain an enemy and you will not get double shots. Since your two ships will be beside each other now you will be a larger target, but you will also be able to inflict twice as much damage. Good bargain, eh?

Every few stages there is a bonus stage. The game calls these “challenging stages” for some unknown reason. Challenging stages are made up of forty enemies entering the screen in several separate lines. They cannot shoot or damage you; they're simply targets. You will get 100 points for every one you destroy and a huge bonus if you destroy all forty of them. These stages are fun and they’re a nice change from the ordinary. Having the double shots for challenging stages gives you a huge advantage.

The graphics in this game are nothing special, but they do the job. The sprites aren't overly fancy, but the explosion effects are good and the starry background beats the blank, boring black one far too many NES shooters have.
The sound is far above average for an NES game. There isn't too much going on for sound at once so rarely is one sound cut short by another like in lots of other NES games. Basically there are just shooting sounds, explosion sounds and short music clips, but it all sounds great.
There is a two player mode, but it’s no reason to buy the game. Like Super Mario Bros, when one player dies, the other player gets a turn. What would be better is if both ships could be on the screen at the same time in a co-op mode, but it is what it is I guess.

Final review:

Graphics – 22/33
They do the job.

Sound – 28/33
The sound in Galaga is excellent. The shooting and explosion sounds are heard even more than the dot-munching sound in Pac-Man, but they won’t ever get annoying.

Gameplay – 31/34
Galaga is one of the most addictive games of all time. If the multiplayer was worth playing then gameplay would get a max score.

Final score – 81/100
There have been an overabundance of shooters released on VC so far, but there are few I can recommend above Galaga, if any. There is nothing fancy about this game, but as I’ve made very clear, you’re hard pressed to find a more addictive game ever made. If I was paying $0.25 for each game like I would be on an arcade, I would have spent close to $30 on this game by now, so paying $5 for an unlimited amount of games is quite the deal.

Casual/Hardcore Appeal – 5/5
Both sides will have an equally good time with this game. I recommended it to everyone, whatever your tastes may be.


So, that’s it for my first review! I hope you liked it. There isn’t much else I can show related to this game since it’s so simple, but I’ll try to get a gameplay video up (off-screen) sometime soon.

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