Galaxian
15 Sep 1979
All releases
15 Sep 1979 - Arcade
31 Dec 1979 - Arcade
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Galaxian is a shooter arcade game developed by Namco in 1979. It was released by Namco in Japan and a few months later by Midway Games in North America. The game was developed to compete with Taito Corporation's Space Invaders, released a year earlier, and featured a similar space theme. The player controls a space ship in the bottom part of the screen and shoots at enemies descending from the top of the screen. The game was received very well by the public and has continued to be a game with a competitive community to this day. It was followed by a successful sequel called Galaga in 1981 and two less known sequels called Gaplus in 1984 and Galaga '88 in 1987. Galaxian was one of the most popular games in the golden age of arcade video games.
| Audio | Subtitles | Interface | |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | ✓ |
Uno de los juegos que mas disfrute en mi infancia junto a mi padre, una gran jugabilidad, enemigos con buena mecánica y excelente sonido.
⚠️DATO CURIOSO⚠️
*Fue el primer videojuego lanzado por "NAMCO".
And while it was definitely built by chasing something popular and influential, i believe this game manage to slightly really revolutionize the basic pillars put together by space invaders in a significant way, even if i believe galga was the one which perfected the formula, this was the significant leap, not only in fixed space shooters but games in general. As it was one of the first games to feature RGB colors, and so that results in sprites that look more lively in their animation, especially when you consider that the divebomb animation actually decreases the static ness you might have felt with space invaders.
Gameplay wise, you somewhat know the deal. You are space ship defending against the oncoming invasion of alien space ships, who themselves could shoot back, and you have to shoot them before they shoot you. Here, unlike space invaders they divebomb, making it even harder to get a hit. And while from an arcady perspective, that seems well off, getting enough quarters while making it feel action packed, i do feel it is slightly more janky and hard to gauge than something like galga, where the main ship and divebombing ship felt at almost a same sync level, so you didn't have moments where it felt like your ship was too slow against the enemy ship. But then, that could be a skill issue on my end. Still i felt the control of ship to be more responsive in galga than here, and I can gauge why in history galga surpassed in popularity in comparison to galaxian.
Another thing, in space invaders you have to defend both yourself and the base. But here, all of you have to defend is yourself. For you are the base.
That while some may consider less challenging as it decreases the amount of task you have to keep track off, i do feel it does make it more action packed and beginner friendly. Since now have the feeling of "I am venturing out to kill the aliens" instead of "they are venturing in to kill me" kind of thing. Feels more badass, and since you only have to keep track of yourself, it doesn't become a static feeling exercise at frustration.
About the art, for the very first rgb colored game, shit looks good. Could've been bad, and i have seen even more bit colored games like salamander, stumbling at places in terms of color, but i guess since this game is just a baby's first step from space invader, it still retains simplicity enough to not stumble at more complicated edges, but also maintain a balance of beauty. So yeah, while the sprites are not going to blow your mind, they are not going to burst your eyes either.
The music. Eh, its fine. It still became a little droning to my ears like galga did, but cannot blame them with the sound chips available at time. Its not like every composer back in day was bloody Tim Follen.
Anyway, so yeah. Galaxian is a good time pass, and a decent step up from space invaders basic core, and makes it more action packed, and gives the player themselves a pseudo-bit of movement (in that they are not actually moving, but by removing bases from something like space invaders, and setting it in space than earth, it does tickle your imagination enough) and a whole lot of excitement.
You won't have a bad time if you want to spend 15 minutes randomly playing it on your browser as some another big game downloads or if you wish to do something with your fingers as listen to a podcast. Fun stuff.