Galaga '88

released on Dec 01, 1987

The gameplay in Galaga '88 is built on the same premise as that of the original Galaga game, but is in many ways more complex and more difficult. The game is divided into a series of 29 Stages distributed through eight Worlds. The starship Galaga accelerates between Stages and Worlds and even to higher dimensions (go to the section on Dimensional Travel below to find out more). With the exception of the third and eighth, each World culminates in a Challenging Stage. There are six such stages to engage in any full game, and each begins with the on-screen announcement "That's Galactic Dancin'!" and has its own YM2151-generated song to which the enemy formations dance. In any given Challenging Stage, both the design of the enemies and their dancing formations shall vary according to the player's current Dimension. As in Galaga, the objective is to destroy all forty enemies before they fly away off the screen. However, refraining completely from touching any controls for the duration of a Challenging Stage awards a "secret bonus" ranging in value from 10000 to 25000 points, and equal to the "special bonus" which would have been awarded for destroying all forty enemy aliens instead. Galaga '88 introduces a variety of new enemies and behaviors. Most of these special enemies are worth varying amounts of bonus points when destroyed. Some enemies can combine into larger enemies which take multiple hits to destroy, while others arrive in eggs, explode in a shower of fireworks, grow with multiple hits, or sport armor which makes them invincible while in formation. Certain enemies drop small formations of tiny creatures that wiggle their way down the screen, and still others can act as escorts to incoming groups of enemies and then quickly dive at the player before leaving the game. Most stages also include various obstacles which appear once the enemy formation has been assembled. These can be destroyed with either one or several shots, and the first one on each stage will leave a "Warp Capsule". At the start of the game, the player can select how many Galaga starships to start with (one or two), affecting their number of remaining lives. The game ends after the final boss is defeated (or when the player's last ship is destroyed or captured) - in the latter case, the player can continue the game for an additional credit. The Game Over screen shows the player's hit-miss ratio and a visual representation of their progress. If the player reaches Stage 27, the game also shows a picture of the final boss (damaged if defeated, but silhouetted if not). If the arcade operator has set the "continue" option to "on", the player also cannot continue if he is defeated on Stages 27-29.


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It's Galaga, but they made the aliens cute and the backgrounds pretty. Remains quite simple but there's an actual end-stage now, and even multiple endings based on performance. Love the cocktail-jazz tune that plays when you lose. That's Galactic Dancin'

El mejor "matamarcianos" de la epoca sin duda.

Throughout each installment so far to this point, the Galaxian series has managed to hold onto a level of quality while managing to somehow not get stale (at least for me). Sure, some installments aren't as highly regarded as others, with features of future installments making the original game feel somewhat outdated, but they still provide a fun time regardless overall in my opinion. This also goes true with the next installment in the series, Galaga '88, and you will NEVER guess why they named it that. Not because it was released in 1988, because it first released in 1987 in Japan, so that title is a FUCKING LIE.

Anyway, as you would expect, this entry was also one that I ended up having a lot of fun with, although I wouldn't say I like it more than the previous installments.

The story is exactly what you think it would be, so nothing to comment on there, the graphics are pretty good and a big improvement over the previous games, the music is alright, even if I prefer tracks from the previous games more, the control is about what you would expect, although it sucks that you can no longer move your ship up and down like you could in Gaplus, and the gameplay is what you would expect from a Galaxian game, while adding enough to make it stand out somewhat from the previous games.

For the most part, it is your typical Galaxian affair, shooting aliens from the top of the screen, with new enemy types and hazards to face off against, bonus stages that now incorporate music and dance segments in them (because... music is cool? Yeah, I dunno, it's kinda weird), and you being able to upgrade your ship to a triple shot if you are skilled and lucky enough. This time around, however, you can actually beat this game instead of it just going on forever.

There are five dimensions in this game, where you can gather blue capsules throughout the levels that will take you to another dimension if you have enough by the end of a challenge stage, and depending on which dimension you beat the last level in, you will get one of four endings. The endings themselves are incredibly simple, yet kinda funny with what they show and say in each one, giving the game plenty of replay value for those wanting to go for them all. As someone who likes to be a "finishist" with the games he plays, that appeals to me a great deal, but I can also imagine others not really wanting to play that many rounds of Galaga just to see some pictures and text.

With all that being said, I wouldn't consider this game as good as previous entries like Galaga or even Gaplus. Sure, I like a lot of the things that this game tries, but at the same time, I wouldn't say it works as strongly as previously, where Gaplus had you being able to acquire multiple powerups to take down your opponents, but that just isn't here at all. Not to mention, of course, since this is an arcade game, it is meant to eat your money, so it can get pretty damn difficult at times, but it isn't really too much to where I would have quit.

Overall, while it doesn't reach the same level of quality of past entries, Galaga '88 is still yet another great entry in this franchise, and I would definitely recommend it if you haven't tried it out already.

Game #94

Did you know the Soundtrack was composed before working on the game?

Woah... they move some more!

It is one of the best games of Galaga