Developer/Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
Price: $5.99 (Lite Version Available)
Verdict: It’s Galaga. If you want Galaga on your iPhone, then get it. It’s so worth it.
Pros: It’s Galaga, it still holds up incredibly well for the time, and it comes with the fun Remix mode.
Cons: Some control issues, $5.99 may be too much for non-Galaga addicts?
Hello, my name is Carterdamus the Magnificent. My powers are great and mighty. I predict things, and they come true. Hence, who is better to review Galaga Remix?
Well, yeah, it's Galaga. Awesome!
If you haven’t heard of Galaga…please give me the blueprints to your time machine so I can go back in time. I may be our only hope against Skynet. But the game, the sequel to Galaxian, has you controlling your space ship (that can apparently only move left and right) to take out formations of supposedly evil alien bugs. Who knows, maybe you’re the evil one, it’s not like the game has much of a story to go by. There are bugs, trying to kill you, you gotta shoot them! The game’s a classic for its time for adding complexity to the classic Space Invaders formula with the unique formations and the game’s powerup system that let you have a fighter be captured and then you can double your firepower by rescuing it. It’s a classic, and it still holds up really well to this day. Also, you can continue from your last played level, so you’ll finally be able to see levels you only saw in your wildest dreams, all 255 of ‘em.
This is Galaga Remix, also awesome. And has huge bosses to fight!
The package doesn’t just come with the classic Galaga, though. What I did not predict was that Namco would also throw in a ‘Remix’ mode of the game, a pixel-perfect port of the Galaga Arrangement on the PSP’s Namco Museum Battle Collection. The game features new graphics and enemy formations, as well as huge bosses to fight in 35 levels. It’s not quite as challenging as classic Galaga, but it’s still really fun to play, and the boss fights are fun, although the game does just end on a Game Over when you beat it, apparently. This was an unexpected surprise addition to the package, and is definitely worthwhile.
And it has crazy backgrounds as well! Ohhhhh yeahhh!
As for how the games play on the iPhone, they’re solid, if not spectacular. The games themselves play well enough, no complaints there. The controls are the only real issue. There are 3 methods for controlling each game – d-pad, which has left and right buttons and a fire button. This is probably the best control method just as it works the best, although the buttons are kind of small, especially in classic Galaga’s portrait orientation. This is fixable, as sometimes I’ve had to move right away to avoid an oncoming bullet, and I just missed the direction button, so I died. And then I cried. And I rhymed. The accelerometer control is not responsive enough at all to be very playable at all. The slider control gives you a slider bar at the bottom to move the ship to an absolute position on the playing field. This seems like it could be the best, but it just does not work well. The slider control would work better if instead it was a strip where placing your finger down and moving left or right would move it left or right from its current position, not to an absolute position on the playing field.
So despite the control issues, I still have to recommend Galaga Remix. It is Galaga, and the d-pad controls are still playable, so if you want Galaga on your iPhone, you should buy Galaga Remix. Simple as that. There’s a Lite version available if you want to see if the controls work for you, but they shouldn’t get in your way too much to not have fun with the game. Next up, where’s my Pac-Man Championship Edition, Namco? ;)
