Galaxian (Arcade 1979)

Galaxian has a huge chip on its shoulder. It’s impossible to play this game without thinking about Galaga. No game lives more in the shadow of its sequel than Galaxian. There’s a good reason for this. Compared to its younger brother Galaxian is downright dull. Now I know that this game is a classic that can still be found in arcades today, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not very good.

Galaxian is a fixed screen shooter that presents the same formation of space bugs over and over. They move back and forth like in Space Invaders, but they don’t do much else while at the top of the screen. They don’t even fire while in formation. The only challenge, and with that the only fun, is when the space bugs dive. Then they become active offensive enemies. I enjoy the diving so much that I almost hate to shoot them while they are in formation. It’s bad when you have to sit around in a game waiting for the challenge to come.

Galaxian is an unusually slow and methodical arcade game. I know some people love it, but it just doesn’t do much for me. I just don’t have much fun waiting for space bugs to fly at me. I will take it out and play it sometimes, but usually only once or twice. It will probably end up much lower on my list than it would on the typical list, but I can’t help it if everybody else is wrong. It belongs lower down than just about every well known Namco game.

1. Pac-Mania

2. Metro-Cross

3. Dragon Spirit

4. Baraduke

5. The Legend of “Valkyrie”

6. Galaxian

7. Gyruss (Atari 2600)

Next time: Galaxian’s much better younger brother!