Originally released for NES, 1988
Wii Points: 500 ($5)
Review it yourself

It was always a point of pride for my young self that I had figured out in Galaga that it was possible to recapture a stolen fighter and couple it with the active fighter to form a double craft with twice the firepower. Acquiring and maintaining that double ship became my primary goal in Namco's classic shooter, moreso than achieving a high score or clearing as many levels as possible.

The novelty of this trick is preserved years later in the Virtual Console release of Galaga's NES port. Originally released to arcades in 1981 as a followup to Galaxian, Galaga continued adding to the expanded Space Invaders formula of its predecessor, introducing numerous new elements--the aformentioned ship recapture, the "Challenging Stage" bonus levels, tighter overall gameplay mechanics--that allow it to remain far more playable than Galaxian.

That evolved formula is well known. Enemies spiral onto the screen in synchronized patterns, forming up in rank and file, and take turns dive-bombing the player's ship and performing lockstep suicide runs while the player fires endlessly in an attempt to destroy anything that moves. Boss ships, the titular Galagas, occasionally zip down to attempt to capture the player's fighter with a tractor beam. Of course, if the player has sufficient extra lives to continue, that captured ship can be retaken by destroying its captor Galaga mid-flight. This is the format of level upon level, broken up by the occasional faster-paced Challenging Stage.

Galaga's influence on the top-down space shooter is obvious. The additions of depth it made to the stage-based gameplay have been augmented continuously, with the shoot-em-up genre now having grown so intricate, fast-paced, and unforgiving that it has become largely accessible only to its hardcore fans. This development is somewhat ironic given Galaga's status as one of those most popular arcade games of all time, and it also allows the game to retain more of its playability than it might otherwise have. Those who remember playing Galaga and are intimidated or frustrated by the state of modern shoot-em-ups may very well find this version worth its $5 asking price to be able to give it another go, while those who have little familiarity with the game may find it too slow-paced in the face of other Virtual Console shoot-em-ups such as Hudson's Super Star Soldier or even sidescrolling shoot-em-ups such as Irem's R-Type III or Konami's Gradius, all of which were developed years after Galaga.

For those looking to own Galaga on a current generation system, it is worth noting that this version has a distinct advantage over its equally priced Xbox Live Arcade version, also available for $5. While the Xbox Live Arcade game is a port of the arcade version of Galaga, the Virtual Console game is a port of the NES version--the Virtual Console game was designed for a horizontally oriented screen rather than a vertical one. The score and ship information is relocated over to the right side and the viewing area of the main playing field is adjusted, allowing the game to fill the screen rather than be presented in the inlaid postage stamp format of the Xbox Live Arcade game.

I still found Galaga to be good fun. Despite the utterly predictable nature of the enemy ships, there is still an odd twitchy challenge that comes with trying to actually keep a bead on the insect-like craft--and you will know how well you performed in that department, as the game displays your hit percentage at the end of every level. In the end, Galaga may not be a hugely thrilling experience for those who missed out the first time around, but, for the rest of us, it's still rewarding to recapture that ship.

Turn the page for our review of Sega's Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, or go back for our review of Namco's Bravoman.