Galaga '90 is a cool little update to one of Namco's timeless arcade treasures, and a great addition to your VC library.

User Rating: 8 | Galaga '88 TG16
By Asagea_888 | Review Date:
Galaga is one of Namco's greatest arcade shooters. It gave Space Invaders some good competition back in the day as a shameless copycat, yet it was an entirely different style all its own. Galaga '89 updated the formula with some interesting gameplay tweaks including vertically-scrolling stages, the ability to combine three ships instead of two and even the inclusion of boss battles. A home conversion of Galaga '89 was the furthest from people's minds, but that didn't stop NEC from bringing it to the Turbo Grafx 16 as a post-launch title. Renamed Galaga '90, this is a faithful translation of its original source code, and as a Virtual Console download, it is the most fun you'd have at a mere cost of 500 Wii Points.

If you've played Galaga '89 before, you'll know what to expect coming into Galaga '90. From the title screen, you can choose whether to have a single ship with two lives, or a dual ship with one life. Either way, the game itself is a challenging exercise of coordinated reflexes and lots and lots of shooting at quick-moving enemies that move in variable patterns and formations. As I mentioned earlier, Galaga '90 tweaks the traditional formula with some neat new features. For one, your ship can now combine up to three times---to get these formations, you must wait until the King Galaga flies to the lower part of your play area before it releases a tractor beam that will capture the ship you're using. Provided you have at least one extra life on standby, you're given the opportunity to rescue your captured ship (by shooting the King Galaga that tractor-beamed it) and combine to create a super fighter that fires two sets of missiles. Repeat the process a second time (with your dual fighter firmly intact), and you'll have a totally awesome, three-pronged star destroyer that would make the Millenium Falcon proud. Other new features include vertically-scrolling stages, strange boss fights, and dimensional warps; which not only grant you enormous score bonuses but propels you to stages with increased difficulty and greater scoring rewards.

It's all a pretty fun take on the good old Galaga formula, and nearly everything you remember about the Galaga '89 arcade game has been faithfully replicated to the Turbo Grafx 16. Graphically, Galaga '90 holds well to its arcade source, but it might have fared a little better given the capabilities of the TG-16 hardware. All the bleeps and bloops sound great---remarkably close to the arcade's sound chip. And old arcade affionados will appreciate some of the cameos from other Namco games; including Bosconian.

Overall, Galaga '90 is a fun little arcade gem at a very reasonable 500 points, and one that is easily accessible to both veteran gamers and interested newcomers. If you like these kinds of shooters, Galaga '90 is worth your attention, your time and your money.

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