Galaga ’88 is an attention whore that, despite all of its cute little bells and whistles, has never gotten the attention that Galaga has received over the decades. Now the bonus stages are referred to as “Galactic Dancing,” which is just about the corniest term one could use for such a thing, and become nauseatingly precious when the musical compositions by Hiroyuki Kawada add contrived levity to the proceedings. Now imagery in the background changes, as if the modest space setting of Galaga wasn’t convincing. Now the ship has to go into warp drive for the next stage to begin, as if a simple change of levels isn’t enough. Now the player’s ship takes off from a futuristic platform, as if we need that continuity in a gallery shooter. (Some might claim that Galaga ’88 is only a sequel, but this idea overlooks Gaplus, the 1984 follow-up to Galaga that didn’t reuse its immediate ancestor’s title.) The souped-up presentation of Galaga ’88 reveals the desperation of a development team attempting to top a lean mean classic. Galaga ’88 must live up to the braggadocious implications of its title, to its suggestion that the mega pop hit Galaga has been reincarnated in a superior body. Look at how the sports video game market persists. As consumers, we go to a car dealership with the expectation that we will see the latest year’s offerings on the lot. The citation of the year is a way of telling us that the game is for people of a modern age with more sophisticated demands. The reference to 1988 is not just technical acknowledgement of the approximate time of the release. Galaga ’88 wants to be a superior version of the 1981 masterpiece. With all of these changes, director Shigeru Yokoyama produced one of the most beloved games of any era and made Galaxian a forgettable footnote in the history of shooters. Most importantly, players can double their firepower by allowing a ship to be taken hostage and then freeing it. The aesthetic of the main ship evokes the offensively minded X-Wing from Star Wars rather than the more passive Enterprise spacecraft from Star Trek.
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Bonus stages emphasize accuracy and provide a suitable break from the game’s kill-or-be-killed paradigm.
#Galaga vs galaxian zip
Enemies zip onto the screen in graceful sychronization as opposed to automatically being in rows. Though a fixed vertical shooter like its predecessor Galaxian, Galaga is a more exhilarating, dynamic affair.
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#Galaga vs galaxian series
Note: This is the second essay of a seven-part series on game remakes.