Developer: Namco
Publishers: Atari/Bandai
Everybody loves Galaga. It’s one of the most beloved arcade games of all time. It’s been an arcade staple so long that it’s outlasted the concept of an arcade staple. It’s been released so many times that you’re still likely to find one at a bowling alley or movie theater lobby near you. That being said it’s not a game that was ported to consoles much until the 21st century. Pac-Man, Namco’s biggest hit, has been ported dozens of times. It’s on almost every obscure console available. It’s so popular that the NES has two licensed versions, one by Tengen and one by Namco. Namco loves getting their games out on consoles, so the lack of Galaga in the early days is probably more related to the technical aspects than demand. It’s by far the most famous arcade game to not have a 2600 port, and as far as I know there was never even an attempt at make one. That’s somewhat surprising considering what a good job Atari did with Galaxian. I guess it was just too fast and too powerful for early 80s hardware. As a result, the two significant home versions didn’t come along until well into the 8-bit era, and they are both games I played a ton as a kid. So who wins, the Atari 7800 NES?
The Atari 7800 was my first console, and I have so many fond childhood memories of playing Galaga on it. Those great old arcade classics are what got me into gaming in the first place. So it’s a bit of a surprise to play it now and discover that it’s one of the worst versions of Galaga. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad game overall, but it certainly pales in comparison to the great ports that exist today. The main problem is that it is way too slow. It seems to move at about half speed compared to the arcade version. It was perfect for five year old me, but not great beyond that. It doesn’t quite capture the look either. It doesn’t have the usual score display, and instead of medals to track levels it has simple numbers. I know I’m nitpicking here, but if you were truly looking for the arcade experience you grew up with than it might be a disappointment. It’s still decent, but it’s certainly one of the weaker 7800 arcade ports.
The NES isn’t remembered for classic arcade ports, but they sure had some great ones. I know I was just griping about Ms. Pac-Man yesterday, but that is the rare exception. Most publishers handled it better than Namco. Bandai did a great job with this one even though they didn’t specialize in arcade conversions. Bandai mostly did bad, weird looking games that were quickly forgotten on the NES. Of course, now the company is called Bandai-Namco, so perhaps it was their destiny. This version of Galaga is subtitled Demons of Death for no reason at all. I don’t know if they were trying to make people think it was a sequel or just thought it sounded cool. I will admit though, demons of death certainly sound like the scariest kinds of demons. I’d be much less intimidated if they were just demons of discomfort or mild inconvenience. Silly name notwithstanding this is exactly what you would want if you were itching to play Galaga at home. It’s as close to arcade perfect as possible. The graphics, sound, and presentation put my mind right into the arcade. The speed is perfect, and it is pleasantly chaotic. My one gripe is that it’s a very bare-bones presentation. The Atari 7800 version had its problems, but even with that one you could change the difficulty. The NES version has no options at all. You put the game in your console, turn it on, and play Galaga. That’s all you get out of this one, but luckily that’s all you really need. Unless I’ve missed one, this is the best version of the original Galaga that would come out until the wonderful widescreen version on Namco Museum Volume 1.
I feel bad comparing the two because, obviously, the NES is a much more powerful system. If you only had a 7800 at the time and wanted to play Galaga you probably wouldn’t be sad, but you might not be excited either. I will say that 7800 Galaga certainly wins for warm childhood memories. That’s a game that has been with me for almost my entire life, and just looking at the cart gives me warm fuzzies. I can’t rank games based on memories though, so the NES version is going to rank much higher. In fact, it’s all the way up at #19. A great version of Galaga is always going to end up high on my list. That makes it the fifth best NES game I’ve reviewed so far. Galaga for 7800 is a respectable 78th. As you know I love old arcade games, so expect to see more of those high up on the list than most people would probably put them. There’s much more worth playing on NES than Mario, Mega Man, and Zelda, and I look forward to digging even deeper as this blog goes along.
NES Quality Percentage: 16/31 or 51.61%
Atari 7800 Quality Percentage 1/2
No comments:
Post a Comment