Gaplus
01 Apr 1984
All releases
01 Apr 1984 - Arcade
01 Oct 1984 - Arcade
31 Dec 1988 - Commodore C64/128/MAX
31 Dec 1985 - PC-9800 Series
23 Mar 2009 - Wii
23 Mar 2009 - Wii
26 Mar 2009 - Wii
Tags
Gaplus is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1984. It was the only other game to run on Namco Phozon hardware, and in the US, a modification kit was later released to change the name to Galaga 3, possibly to increase recognition among fans of the games even though there was no "Galaga 2". Since Gaplus is a sequel to Galaga, it has similar gameplay. The player controls a spaceship, that can now move vertically (limited to halfway up the screen, much like Atari's Centipede) as well as horizontally, and shoots at swarms of incoming insect-like aliens which fly in formation above it and swoop down to attack it in akamikaze-like dive. In this sequel, the level starts over if the player gets killed before all the enemies have come in. When all enemies are killed, the player moves on to the next level. By obtaining certain powerups, it is possible to shoot sixty bullets per screen, the most any Galaxian-related game has.
| Audio | Subtitles | Interface | |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | ✓ |
And while the core premise remained the same from galaxian, that being you are a space ship in space shooting down shit, i always like how galaga felt an improvement on that basic concept by introducing the tractor beams while making the game more smoother and better controlling. And while one may play galaga and think there is nothing else to improve upon, it is all blown out of water when you finally play gaplus.
For it completely gives onto its offensive playthrough, making dives moster faster, controls feel more smooth, the sprites and art being improved so much that even when you are the one who is blown apart by an attack, the sprite animation of it blowin up, while simplistic by today's standard, is still carrying that rhythm of badass space shooting that feel when you the destroy the enemies on other side.
Not to mention, how this game provides more offensive measures if you shoot down the tractor beam enemy early, it will grant you its tractor beam, and you can literally catch enemies for yourself and pull them on your side (though i believe the max limit of enemies you can get on your side is 4, since thats the max i ever caught) and not only you get wider rangers of shots, with like 5 space ships shooting at once making you feel like an unstoppable force, but it also provides you with a pseudo extra life, as any ship diving from sideways (which is the most anoying thing ships do in this) and you are not able to move forward (did i mention that now you can move forward, which adds another layer of both dodging and action, as while moving forward can be risky but you are also able to kill enemies more easily and faster) then those extra ships provide you will an extra fighting chance. That in a way becomes a second life meter (just make sure your central main ship don't get hit, because if you continue, all the ships you caught will be gone as well) making you feel even more rewarded for timing that shot right.
Unlike something like gradius or salamander which are stage based, this is still in the veins of the space invader formula of fighting until you die. Yes, this one does provide you with bonus stages where you can juggle shooting space ships for extra points (and the physics is pretty fun tbh) and it does divide levels into parsecs (i believe the arcade version parsec limit is 44 and the nes version is 103, atleast what i saw from youtube), it is not like cinematic in nature or defined levels, it is still the main galaxian/galaga/space invader time waster endless feeling level shoot em up, we have come to love. And that's a good thing. Not everything needs to have crazy backgrounds like salamander. Just a parallax scrolling star background going up and sometimes down (where enemies become faster, adding a nice challenge) is all sometimes you need to kill an afternoon.
also, the sound effects were bearable for me here, unlike galaga or galaxian where their low chip sound was draining on me. Here, i didn't mind them, and i liked the little jingle that played when you added an enemy to form a letter in the bouncing challenge.
Overall, this is genuinely fun. The wave based endless shoot em ups maybe draining for some, but i enjoyed this and the 13-15 parsecs i managed to survive after like 50 tries, was still a fun enjoyable time for me. I didn't even needed to listen to a podcast on side to enjoy those. And it was fun in the best way possible as I definitely reccomend gaplus as a game to anyone interested in the older arcade fixed shooters.