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Xbox Live Arcade captures Galaga

By Tor Thorsen, GameSpotPosted Jul 26, 2006 6:21 pm PT

Namco's arcade classic gets yet another lease on life in the form of a $5 straight port on Xbox Live Marketplace.

In 1981, the first Galaga arcade machine was turned on inside a North American arcade. In the subsequent quarter century, the Namco Games classic has remained popular, spawning several arcade sequels. During the early 1990s, one original Galaga near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus was used as an ersatz Breathalyzer--if a player could not score more than 30,000 points, his car keys were immediately seized. Today, a working unit remains a popular attraction at one of the more popular dives in San Francisco's Chinatown district.

Galaga has also been ported to numerous non-arcade platforms. In the 1980s it came to the Nintendo Entertainment System, the TurboGrafx-16, the Commodore 64, and the Atari 7800. In the 1990s, it came to the Game Boy on its own and to the PlayStation and Nintendo 64 as part of the Namco Museum collection. The first decade of the 21st Century saw Galaga-inclusive editions of Namco Museum released on the PC, PlayStation Portable, Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Game Boy Advance. Galaga has also appeared on mobile phones and PDAs.

Now, Galaga has come to the newest game platform--the Xbox 360. As part of its Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays release campaign, Microsoft today made the game available on Xbox Live Marketplace for 400 Marketplace points (approximately $5). But while many other older games rereleased on Xbox Live Arcade have modern-day features like online multiplayer and updated graphics options, the 360 Galaga is a straight port of the arcade game, offering only offline one- or two-player games. For more information, check out GameSpot's full review.

68 Comments

  • OPOLO

    Posted Jul 28, 2006 3:18 am PT

    I gonna have to check this out

  • SavoyPrime

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 9:13 pm PT

    Very fun game. The first XBLA game I got all 200 achievement points in.

  • dedned

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 4:49 pm PT

    Galaga is the best game of all time. way better than any ff or mgs.

  • VictusMaximus

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 4:11 pm PT

    Galaga is the best game out for Xbox 360. Old graphics, old music, and old school for old timers like me.

  • chikahiro94

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 1:45 pm PT

    @feryl06
    Let's take a poll - who's dumb enough to pay $5 for a game they want?! Who's dumb enough to pay $20 for disc of games that only has one or two games they actually want? If you like the games on those anthologies, great, fine. But for some of us they're not that great a deal. $5 for exactly what I want versus $20 for one or two titles and a lot of stuff I don't care about...

    The value of it is *completely* dependant on the buyer. Bad deal for you, fine, but don't knock people even though it works out better for them.

  • Drachman

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 12:36 pm PT

    Awesome game, still to this day. Too bad they didn't introduce online multiplayer options.

  • Rec-neps

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 12:35 pm PT

    This just gives me another reason to hurry and save up some money for a Xbox 360.

  • nix6six6

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 11:15 am PT

    nice, keep them coming, the more games the better. But eventually the $5 here and there starts to add up. For some reason I bought that Cloning Clyde game.

  • thorsen-ink GameSpot staff member

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 11:09 am PT

    I spent $5 for a beer at the bar which lasted a whopping 45 seconds--$5 for endless galaga sounds pretty good to me.

  • ApisBee

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 11:01 am PT

    Save this retro junk for the ineffectual little wii.

  • Chonsie

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 10:48 am PT

    Nice all we need is COMBAT for XBL arcade that would be cool. Playing combat on XBL multi-player now that would be sweet old school fun!

  • barkeep

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 10:46 am PT

    I'd pay 1$ tops.. not $5!

  • tbolt_88

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 10:28 am PT

    why do ppl complain about galaga being 5 bucks..i mean damn..like every game is at least 5 bucks..and its frigging galaga..its worth it

  • relset

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 10:01 am PT

    I can remember, galaga was incorporated in ultimate mortal kombat 3!!

  • feryl06

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 9:51 am PT

    let's take a poll---who's dumb enough to pay $5 for a single outdated, non updated game---when you can spend $20 on those anthology games, or retro games that have at least 10 games on it and are at least updated! MS, please stop throwing us these crumbs and start getting out the good games people wanna see---try taking a poll and listen to what CONSUMERS wanna actually play and focus on those xbox live arcade games--that's a start in the proper direction.

  • vhold

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 9:43 am PT

    I'm really not appreciating these mediocre xbox live arcade releases.

    Just make a freaking arcade anthology already and quit trying to nickel and dime people to death.

  • Maui00

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 9:37 am PT

    I'll get it some other day

  • wenbin09

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 8:50 am PT

    xbox live rocks!!!

  • dryden555

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 8:11 am PT

    its a straight port -- no updated graphics -- no thanks

  • OhSnapitz

    Posted Jul 27, 2006 7:59 am PT

    Call me when STreet Fighter 2 comes out.. 5 bucks for Galaga = Heck NO!

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