Remaking classic games has become fairly popular as of late. In truth, they have been remade a thousand and one times, but now developers are opting to redesign the classics as opposed to just giving them a new coat of paint. Just this month we saw a remake of Bionic Commando. But as far as Live Arcade remakes go, Pac-Man: Championship Edition paved the way. Galaga Legions was made by the same folks that did Pac-Man: Championship Edition and the changes are even more severe.
In basic terms, it is similar enough to the original Galaga. You fly a spaceship (that dies if it hits any objects) and you shoot at the multitude of aliens as they swarm down the screen in set patterns. That is where the similarities end, and the differences come in. Firstly, you are no longer restricted to only flying horizontally, you can now fly vertically (and even diagonally) as well. Secondly, there are swirly patterns that briefly appear on screen before a wave of enemies appear. This indicates their impending flight pattern and enables you to get prepared (and out of the way). The most drastic addition is that you now have the help of two satellite guns which you can deploy.
These additions changes the game of Galaga fairly drastically. So much so that it can hardly be called Galaga. But you know what? It’s fun. Due to the increasingly more crazy enemy patterns, having a greater degree of freedom in movement is a necessity. You can still only shoot straight up like the old days, which means your success will hinge on how effectively you use the satellite guns. As you move about with the lift stick, you can deploy the guns individually with the right stick. They are stationary, indestructible and will fire in the direction you deployed them (left/right/up/down). You can redeploy them at any time. The aforementioned swirly patterns give you the a second or so to quickly arrange your guns to deal with the oncoming wave. If all this is a bit much to also hold down the shooting trigger, you can select the autofire option shoot constantly.
It employs the capturing mechanic from Gaplus (Galaga sequel), meaning you can capture enemy ships and use them for additional fire power. There are black holes that appear (I guess they are black holes.). When you have shot at these enough times it starts sucking up all the ships on-screen which you then get to control. You deploy enemy ships with your satellite guns making them more powerful.
Graphically Galaga Legions looks like you’d expect from a Live Arcade game these days. The backgrounds can get fairly hectic and makes things seem more chaotic than they truly are (in a good way). I preferred to play in Vintage mode which uses redone sprites from old Galagas. Legions does not have a multiplayer component, but it doesn’t need it. In fact.I am not sure how it would be done.
Galaga Legions is a pretty fun game, but is likely to get lost in the pile this month. If you are interested, try the trial version as it provides a fairly complete picture of the full experience. I am not very good at it, but it’s fun.
Tags: Microsoft