#9 Galaxian
Released: 1979 - Arcade
Developer: Namco
Played: 4th February 2013 - MAME Emulator & Rom
I have to say from the off, I wasn’t as
bowled over by Galaxian as I thought I would be, it’s like a fancier Space
Invaders but with none of the charm and more epilepsy inducing visuals. The
simple graphics have given way to more colour, more action, and more explosions
and whilst I’m usually not against this I just felt that it left a lot to be desired.
I suppose this could be because I’m playing it retroactively and have played
many games like it over the last 20 years, but I’ll try and approach it from a
point of seeing it for the first time.
After playing Asteroids, Space Invaders and
Pong, Galaxian does blow them out of the water visually, the sprites are
multicoloured, the background animated and the effects when killing an enemy
are even improved. When it comes to playing, it’s essentially the Space
Invaders format, a group of aliens; you have three lives, shoot to kill. The changes
however are notable, this time we’re in space, flying along through the cosmos,
battling a group of space bugs hell-bent on destroying the ship and feasting on
our brains, probably to get earth defence codes, location and/or other secrets…that’s
the usual sci-fi spiel right? This time instead of advancing and reversing
direction the bugs kamikaze dive towards you whilst shooting, either in singles
or multiples and basically try to kill you on the way or just or crash if that
fails just smash straight into the ship, if you miss any or they miss you the
bugs magically reappear at the top of the screen and rejoin the colony ready
for another attack. For the first time background music is
present during the main game and even a crude theme song is present on the
title screen, this would become a staple in years to come.
Whilst I might not be a loyal Galaxian fan I
know that a lot of people are and I can appreciate why, especially on release,
it’s fast, exciting and there's plenty to keep you coming back.
0 comments: