Space Invaders has the distinction of being of the most cloned, hacked and bootlegged video games of all time, but what about its official sequel, Galaxian? It’s not quite as original as its predecessor, but it’s superior to all the imitators that made it to the Atari 2600.

PRESS FIRE TO START

The premise to Galaxian is simple and very familiar: you play as a spaceship that scrolls along the bottom of the screen. Above you are seven columns containing four to six aliens each. The entire alien fleet marches back and forth across the screen and they take turns dive-bombing your ship.

The goal is to destroy all the aliens while carefully avoiding the kamikaze fighters as these are the only aliens that shoot at you. After you complete a stage the next stage is the exact same task with the overall pace and difficultly slightly increased. Each baddie is worth various points and a 1-up is awarded after 7,000 points.

PLAYER 1 – READY!

Compared to Space Invaders, Galaxian is essentially the same game but with one unique feature. This would be the faster pace which makes it an entirely reflex-based game. While the faster pace is exciting upon first encounter, the fact there is no real strategy to employ actually hinders the game.

Unlike Space Invaders, where the aliens dropped down as they made their way across the screen, the aliens here stay at the same height no matter how deep into the game you go. Therefore, shooting accuracy is futile since all you have to do is dodge enemy fire. There’s absolutely no reason NOT to hold down the fire button and let it rip. Perhaps the game designers could have incorporated a finite amount of ammo to make the game more challenging.

Although the pace and the difficulty of the game increase as you progress, the object never changes. And as is the case of games of the Sisyphus format, the gameplay feels very repetitive. Having different stages and slowly increasing the difficulty at least gives you a sense of progress. But no matter how well you succeed, the gameplay never changes – it’s just shoot, dodge, shoot, dodge.

JOYSTICKING

I’ve always felt games that only involve side-to-side movement should be paddle games, since having a too fast-moving character sacrifices shooting accuracy and a too slow-moving character makes you an easy target for the enemy. Thankfully, the controls to Galaxian are just right in that you’re able to move fast and smoothly without having to forfeit accuracy.

SPRITES & PIXELS

One of my beefs with Space Invaders was the dull visuals, but they have been vastly improved in Galaxian. This game utilizes every color in the rainbow and almost all of them on the screen at the same time. The animation is very smooth without any stuttering and just the bare minimum of flicker. The only bummer is the yellow border around the screen, which actually makes for a constrictive field of play.

CHIPPED TUNES

Usually I find a game with only a few select different sounds to be annoying, but the sound palate here is surprisingly pleasant. So many of the early 2600 games’ sound was grating and metallic, but Galaxian’s aural palette is quite original, and almost cartoon-like.

INSERT COIN TO CONTINUE

Games that are based on pure dexterity are usually fun to play multiple times in one sitting. I know I kept feeling the need to top myself, for a little while at least. However, after playing the game for a significant amount of time I realized nothing new was going to happen and I felt the repetitive nature to be nagging.

GAME OVER

As much of an improvement as Galaxian is over Space Invaders, it’s not quite good enough to be a game of lasting quality. It’s fun for short-term entertainment only.

Recommended: Yes