DELUXE GALAGA
ERIC VIGDAL
AMIGA PERSONAL COMPUTER
SHOOTER

Things have been pretty lousy for the Galaga franchise in the last few years.  Even if you could accept the lackluster arranged version of the game that was included along with Xevious and Mappy in Namco's first arcade classics collection (and if you could, you're a much more tolerant person than I am...), there was no glass of water tall or cool enough to help you choke down Hasbro's Destination: Earth games.

Fortunately, there's a game that will help you keep your faith in the Galaga series even when Namco and Hasbro have done their best to soil it.  And the odd thing is, it's a shareware release designed with no outside input from Galaga's original creators.  It's Galaga DX, and despite being released for the relatively obscure Amiga computer, it's become pretty popular on the Internet.  I had to discover for myself why the game was being so warmly received, and if it was worthy of its title.  After playing it (for hours!), I came to the conclusion that it had more right to be called Galaga than a lot of the games Namco itself has released.

One of the best things about Galaga DX is that it has a lot of great ideas that successfully build on the concepts in the original Galaga and its better sequels.  For instance, you can still earn promotions, but you've got to work harder for your stars and bars this time.  Instead of building up your rank by clearing rounds, you've got collect medals held by the game's larger enemies.  Once you've gotten all six of them, you get a more impressive title for your hard work, giving you an incentive to not only clear rounds and get a high score but try for the best possible rank.  Another great addition is that, although you warp to different locations after you complete sets of stages just like you did in Galaga '90, your warp drive fails from time to time, forcing you to battle groups of hidden and very dangerous enemies before you can reengage it.  These warp malfunction rounds add an element of surprise and some tension to the game... plus they give you the chance to grab a handful of those status building medals.

There are also new features you won't find in any of Namco's Galaga games.  The memory station, a mini game that lets you cheese free items from the game by matching pairs of icons, feels a little out of place, but it's fun, and heck, the game is tough, so any chance you'll get to power up your ship will be appreciated.  Speaking of power ups, you can also buy them from the shops sandwiched between sets of rounds or collect them while battling fleets of enemies, and some of them are pretty nifty... the gem bomb that turns all minor foes into valuable crystals and the ship armor that lets you shake off one hit don't appear very often, but when they do, you'll be happy they're around.  Be careful, though... not every item is helpful, and I'm not just talking about the weapon downgrades and mystery bonuses that could among other things leave your ship stuck in reverse.  Sometimes you'll get the chance to scoop up enemies with a tractor beam straight out of Gaplus, and although the wider spread of shots sounds like it could only be to your benefit, it also means that you have to share bullets with the bugs you've kidnapped, putting gaps in your line of fire.  There's also a bonus stage that lets you fly through a hail of meteors, but it's incredibly boring since you can't chip away at the asteroids with bullets.  I either avoid this item entirely or just crash into the nearest chunk of rock so I can get back into the actual game as quickly as possible.

Now that I'm on the subject, I might as bring up some of the other reasons that Galaga DX will never be placed on the same high pedestal as Galaga and Galaga '90, the best two games in the series.  The thing that bothered me most about Galaga DX is that the enemy formations, even the ones in the bonus rounds, are very unimaginative... there are no playful loops, unexpected swerves, or clever flight patterns.  The insects just fly around in single file groups before taking their places at the top of the screen.  This is definitely NOT galactic dancing.  There are no set patterns for when the enemies fire, either... they just drop an endless shower of missiles, creating walls of fire that limit your movement and make it damned near impossible to pick off entire chains of aliens the way you could in the original Galaga.

Also, as I'd mentioned earlier, Galaga DX is tough.  I'd even go so far as to say unfair.  For some reason, one hit will destroy your ship unless you've picked up units of armor, yet even the minor insects can absorb several shots in the later stages (on an annoying side note, the formation captains can take a similar amount of damage before just transforming into normal bugs, as opposed to changing colors the way they should).  Money is a rare commodity in this game, and it's a sure bet that whenever you've collected a reasonable amount, a thief ship will appear out of nowhere to suck it all away before you can spend it.  This sticky fingered star cruiser can be destroyed, but it takes a powerful weapon to bring it down, and if you don't have one, you'll just sit in place frantically pelting its underside as it sneaks away with your hard earned cash.  Daaaamn.  It gets worse... you begin the game with three ships, but you'll only get one if you continue, and if you do choose to do this, you'll be stripped of your rank as well!  I think someone out there needs to introduce Galaga DX designer Edgar Vigdal to the concept of "mercy"... if not for the gamers themselves, then for the sake of their easily abused controllers.

There are more frustrating things in this world than Galaga DX, though... like the fact that the official games in the Galaga series have been so awful lately.  Hopefully this shareware release will prod Namco into controlling the damage that's been done over the years to what WAS one of their best series.

MMM... HINTY FRESH!:  If you're having trouble scrounging up money and raising your rank in this game, and believe me, you will, there's a fairly easy way to shake the early rounds for loose change.  First, grab a double shot power up, some extra bullets, and an auto-fire upgrade from the enemies in the first couple of rounds.  When you have all of these, finish off all of the enemies but one in a round, and wait.  Keep waiting, and eventually the obnoxious "Hurry Up!" ship will appear at the top of the screen, just like the UFOs in Space Invaders.  Head toward the center of the screen and create a wall of bullets... the ship will collide with them and explode, dropping a medal.  Keep doing this and by the time you've got all six medals, another enemy will pair up with the Hurry Up ship, a large space station that looks like an inset gem.  Ignore the Hurry Up ship and blast the crap out of the station... it'll explode, showering you in coins!  After the coins are all gone (you won't be able to grab them all, so just get the green and blue ones), quickly finish the stage by killing the last bug... you don't want to stick around for when the Hurry Up ship starts dropping a dozen homing missiles in one pass (the little mothers are almost impossible to dodge!).