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   Company Hudson Soft ESRB Rating E for Everyone Release Date US - August 6, 2007 Controllers Wii Remote Classic Controller Gamecube Controller Wii Points 600  Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 Virtual-Turbo |
Anyone
that spent any time at all in an arcade back during the 80's knows
Galaga all too well. It was one of the most popular games of the time
period and enjoys a fairly loyal following even all these years later.
The game took the Space Invaders idea and kicked it up a few notches
with enemies that came swirling from all sides of the screen and
rotated in many different directions. It might seem like a small twist
on the idea, but it worked perfectly to form a very playable, yet
challenging arcade shooter. In 1990, Hudson took this arcade classic
and updated the sound and visuals and put together an interesting twist
on the original and the result was "Galaga '90." While the game still
plays much like the original, there are just enough new game play ideas
to make it worth your time, even if you already own the original arcade
release.
The premise of Galaga '90 is a simple one. Aliens will come out in varying patterns, circling around overhead in many different directions. You try to shoot them as they're entering the screen in order to avoid allowing them to take their positions overhead. The more aliens you can destroy now, the less you'll have to deal with once the onslaught of alien attackers is over. After several waves of aliens have come into play, you'll then be required to shoot and destroy any that have taken root in a nice organized group above you. Once you've defeated all of the aliens on screen, the next attack wave will begin. Every few levels you'll be treated to a "challenge" stage aptly named "Galactic Dancing." In this stage, you won't take on enemy fire. Instead your goal is to try to eliminate every alien that comes dancing across your screen before they complete their run and disappear off the screen. If you can get all of them, you'll get a "perfect" bonus score. The developers have also added in all new scrolling stages that more closely resemble those found in the popular shooters of the day. In these stages, you'll have to not only deal with a barrage of enemies, but also certain obstacles that will get in your way as well. These stages feel a little out of place for those of us who grew up playing the original Galaga, but I guess it's nice to add a little variety to the mix to make the update seem more, well, up-to-date. Overall the classic arcade-style game play is still present in full force, and the new twists add to an already solid classic arcade shooter. It's still Galaga, only better. And that's really saying something considering how outstanding the original still is. Graphically not a lot has changed other than some nice updated background visuals. It's nothing too flashy, but considering the arcade original featured solid black backgrounds with a few tiny stars thrown in, it's still a nice touch to see something a bit more visually pleasing The scrolling levels feature a blue mist, but don't expect anywhere near the type of detail found in other scrolling shooters of the time period. The enemies themselves also receive a little bit of a facelift, and now feature more color variety and a greater amount of detail and animation. The entire upgrade is minimal, but fans of the original arcade title will definitely appreciate it a lot more than those who've never played it. The sound effects and music from the original Galaga can still be heard today and should be burned into the minds of any gamer that spent time in the arcades. It's almost as recognizable as the sound effects found in Defender. Much like the visuals, Galaga '90 gets a nice little musical update as well and all of the original music and sound effects have a slightly more modern ring to them. It's basically the same sound effects and music but now in a fresh remixed package. The scrolling levels also feature an interesting new musical track that's really spacy and hypnotic and easily the highlight of this updated musical collection. It's certainly not a musical effort on par with many of the other great TurboGrafx-16 titles, but it will be appreciated by the Galaga faithful who've grown a bit tired of the same old sound effects over the years. The original Galaga is still one of those arcade games that you can play even all these years later and still love it just as much as you did 20 years ago. It just has that something special that keeps you coming back for more. Galaga '90 basically takes the timeless classic and adds a little bit of a modern edge to it. While it's not a huge upgrade, it's nice to see the classic game with a fresh coat of paint and they couldn't have picked a better classic arcade title to update. If you're a classic arcade game fan, this is an absolute must-have title for your Virtual Console collection. And if you've never played Galaga, now is as good a time as any to see why this game has become one of the most beloved arcade games of all time. At the end of the day, this game is still as fun as it ever was. |
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