"Galaga '90" - Turbografx-16/PC-Engine

Galaga '90 is the third sequel for Galaxian, assuming that you call Galaga a sequel to Galaxian. Which apparently it is to some people. I always thought of it as more of a spiritual sequel, but I guess that still has sequel in the title. It's called Galaga '88 in Japan, but we're a lesser audience and didn't receive it until later so it became Galaga '90. Naturally.

Namco developed the arcade title, and it was published in America by Atari Games-- they developed the PC-Engine port too, which is usually good news. This was the first port of the arcade game to any home console. According to the Japanese Wiki, most of the ship patterns are intact, however some of the visual effects were cut due to cartridge ROM capacity.

Apparently this is another game with multiple endings depending on which dimension you've warped into when you complete the game-- with higher dimensions being more difficult. I doubt I'll even beat it on the lowest dimension, but sometimes I surprise myself.

Let's play.

That's one shiny title screen you got there.

----- Playthrough -----

When you start up Galaga '90... or '88, or whatever, you'll be given a choice between picking either a single or a double ship setup. I started with the single ship setup since I figured in regular Galaga that makes it easier to dodge and I might be able to see more of the game that way.

I mean, I was wrong, because I got farther on double in the replay, but whatever.

If you pick a double ship, you'll start with one ship in reserve-- if you pick single ship, you'll start with two in reserve. I mean, naturally. It just saves you the trouble of having to do it yourself, which seems like a decent idea to me.

The game mostly starts out like a fancier version of regular Galaga, you'll be treated to a series of screens where enemies fly in doing little loop-de-loops, and eventually settle into position where they hover back and forth on the screen and eventually fly down at you-- however if you're lucky, you'll witness one of the new features right away: sometimes enemies will combine together and form one big enemy which will... pretty much just fly down the screen and shoot at you, but takes way more hits before it dies.

I failed to capture and image of that because I'm a bad game reviewer, so let's talk about another feature that makes an enhanced return.

Yeah, I mean, that's what they call me.

"Galactic Dancing" is the name for the new form of the bonus stages-- which are basically the same but now are set to the tune of various pieces of music. Enemies fly onto the screen doing more loops and generally dancing about to whatever tune of music is playing. It's pretty cute, I actually like this enhancement a lot even though it's purely an aesthetic one and not a gameplay one.

As you're playing the stages up to 10, you may notice that various pick-up-ables drop out of the stones that are in the stages you can shoot, and if you pick up two and keep playing, you'll eventually be treated to a fancy "warping" animation. You'll also quickly find yourself in uncharted territory for Galaga.

Oh God, not... vertical scrolling!?

Actually, yes, vertical scrolling. That's right, now you're playing a '90s shmup.

These stages are pretty empty compared to other shmups honestly, but they aren't the main focus of the stage. Some asteroids will come down as well as various enemies in small groups-- the main thing is when you get through these areas and to the end of each section, you'll be greeted by a Galaxian style group of enemies:

How many times do I have to teach you this lesson, old aliens!?

Like many things in the game, the formation changes depending on which dimension you're in (how many times you've warped, up to dimension 4 which is the hardest).

At the end of a few of these areas, you'll be greeted by your last challenge for that section, a huge boss that will shoot out streams of bullets and smaller enemies which will fly towards you. These take a significant amount of shots to take down. Also they're terrifyingly large on the screen. It's very intimidating.

WHO DARES ENTER MY LAI-- oh sorry my caps lock is on-- what do you want?

That's the basic of the pattern of the game that will repeat for as long as you can stay alive or until you reach the end (presumably... I was not able to). It's up to the individual player how far in the dimensions they want to go/how hard they want the game to be. Probably the most logical way to play through the endings of this game would be to play it without warping at all first, then warp once, then warp two times, etc...

I tried to complete it without any warps and I still failed, but I think I could probably do it in a few more tries. I managed to warp into dimension 3 on one run before dying as well, just to see what it looked like.

This is called The Pansy Route.

----- Review -----

How long did I play?
40 minutes.

How much did I beat?
Read just above, or look at the picture I guess.

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Intuitive Design: 

How easy is it to intuitively understand the game?

Well, you'll certainly be in good shape if you've played Galaga because it's exactly that but with additions, and honestly that's not so bad if you're a Galaga fan like me. I love Galaga, and this is just more Galaga and also more interesting, so I have no problems.

If you just collect two of the cores for warping, you'll see when the animation plays that they both fly up and open the portal, and it will make it obvious enough to you what they're for-- the ending screen which gauges how many times you warped will also be obvious enough to you, so everything seems pretty well explained if you play a couple rounds.

Gameplay / Difficulty: 

How rewarding does playing the game feel?

The game has basically the same reward loop as Galaga and that game is obviously satisfying to play (OBVIOUSLY, I SAY). The extra stage types are fun and rewarding little new versions of the same formula to tackle, and I don't find any of it ridiculously unfair or difficult, so far. 

Later dimensions are hard as they probably should be, but mostly they just introduce enemies which take more shots. I'm not really sure that's a good way to increase difficulty but in this context it seems okay. 

You get different bosses and patterns too, for what it's worth.

Depth: 

How deep/long is the game?

There's approximately 7 stages and 4 endings to go for, though really it seems like 'truly beating the game' would just be going for the ending in the last dimension, but it seems like a tough proposition. There'll definitely be some replays involved if you want to say you've done it, but I can't say how long it would probably take.

Sound / Graphics: 

How's the sound? How are the graphics?

A lot of the sounds come straight from Galaga, so there's not much to write about there, however there are a few new ones-- the shot sound is honestly a little high-pitched/grating once you've been playing for awhile but it was in the first one too. Somehow it seems a little worse here to me but I can't really say why.

The music is fun, especially the Galactic Dancing music, of which there are several. These are probably my favorite moments in the game when coupled with the patterns of enemies flying in.

Personal Chord: 

Does the game have that undefinable "something" for me?

I love Galaga and consider it to be one of my favorites of all time, so seeing this fancy revamped version of it with new features is a serious treat. I have a running opinion that remaking old games is a waste of time, but this is more of a true sequel than a remake despite the title, and for that I'm really thankful. I expected a fairly 1:1 remake with new backgrounds.

Should You Play: 

Is there a reason to even bother with this one?

I'm gonna say yes, especially if you like Galaga. If you don't, this is definitely more of the same with some new stuff, not a whole new game. The vertical scrolling parts don't hold up on their own, but as a change to the Galaga formula, they're a fun interlude. Overall, this one is going on my favorites list, but it doesn't have to be on yours (but every other game I like does or you're banned from reading the blog).

Obviously.

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