Each world gives the player a chance to acquire up to two blue warp capsules by defeating large enemies and destroying obstacles completing a bonus stage with two capsules warps the player to the next dimension, in which enemies and formations are different and generally more difficult. Galaga '88 consists of five 'worlds', each one containing up to four stages, including a bonus stage at the end. A triple fighter can also be acquired by finding pink-colored capsules. A Boss Galaga can also capture a dual fighter rescuing it in the same fashion instead creates a triple fighter, an even larger ship with wide, fast-moving shots. If they are successful, the captured fighter joins with the player's own to create a dual fighter that has additional firepower and a larger hitbox. The player can reclaim the captured fighter by shooting a Boss Galaga holding one while it is divebombing. These aliens use a tractor beam to capture a player's ship, returning with it to the top of the screen. Ītop each formation are four larger enemies known as the Boss Galaga, which take two hits to destroy.

Colliding with an alien or their projectile results in a life being lost. Aliens will make an attempt to hit the player by divebombing towards the bottom of the screen. Its gameplay is similar to its predecessors as the Blast Fighter, the player must shoot each of the Galaga aliens, who fly into formation from the top and sides of the playfield. Its plot involves the launch of a starship named the Blast Fighter to destroy the hostile Galaga forces and their home planet. But watch out for the screen size and wonky controls.Galaga '88 is a fixed shooter video game. For the right buyer, this is a gleaming golden treasure even with bits of tarnish here and there.Īn admirable collection of arcade hits in their original forms, with souped-up modern reinventions originally on XBLA added in. But don’t let that deter you from picking it up if you have an interest. These three concerns are the reason Namco Museum Virtual Arcade didn’t score as highly as we’d have liked. We understand there are challenges on getting 25 year-old games to look good on modern HD sets, but there has to be a better solution than this. The playable area of Grobda was literally only about one-fourth of the 36-inch screen we tested. Secondly, like we’ve already mentioned, some of these just don’t control well with the 360 pad.įinally, you’ll often find more than half of the screen taken up by art, while the game happens in a smaller area in the center of the screen. Even the “Arrange” versions, basically remakes with prettier graphics and tweaked difficulty, have been released before. First, if you’re into arcade compilations, you probably bought many of these already in a previous Namco collection, albeit on a different system.

It’s a worthwhile stack, with three big caveats. Buying them all separately would run you nearly $60 at post time, and this comes with another 25 games. However, these oddities don’t change the fact that, if for some reason you don’t have all the XBLA offerings and you definitely want them, buying this is a no-brainer. Also notable is the strange way you play these nine offerings: You actually have to exit back into the Xbox menu system and select the game you want to play in the 360’s Arcade games menu … strange.

Galaga online namco museum