Galaga '91
A portable Galaga sequel for the Game Gear.
Galaga '91 is a 1991 fixed shooter video game developed and published by Namco for the Game Gear. It was published by Sega in Europe under the name Galaga 2. As the first portable installment in the Galaxian series, it is loosely based on the 1987 arcade game Galaga '88 and its TurboGrafx-16 home port.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Namco, Now Production
- Publisher
- Namco (JP); Sega (EU)
- Series
- Galaxian
- Platforms
- Game Gear
- Released
- October 25, 1991 (JP); August 1993 (EU)
- Genre
- Fixed shooter
- Modes
- Single-player
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Galaga '91 is a fixed shooter in which the player controls a lone starfighter of the United Galaxy Space Force, tasked with eliminating the Galaga aliens before they eradicate mankind. The game spans eleven stages, each indicated by small emblems at the bottom-right of the screen, with a final stage featuring a large boss enemy. Enemies fly into formation from the top and sides, then divebomb the player while firing projectiles. Four larger Boss Galaga aliens sit atop the formation and require two hits to destroy; they can capture the player's ship with a tractor beam during a divebomb. If the player shoots the Boss Galaga while it holds a captured ship, the ship is rescued and becomes a dual fighter with extra firepower and a larger hitbox. Shooting a Boss Galaga in formation while it holds a ship causes that ship to turn against the player. Bonus levels occur on the third, eighth, and twelfth stages, indicated by the text "That Is Galactic Dancing", where enemies fly along preset paths without firing. Some stages are vertical-scrolling corridors requiring the player to avoid moving waves of enemies and obstacles.
Development and release
Namco developed Galaga '91 for the Game Gear with minor assistance from Now Production, an external studio that had previously collaborated on arcade conversions. The game is based on Galaga '88 and its TurboGrafx-16 home conversion, but is a new sequel rather than a direct port. It was released in Japan on October 25, 1991 under the Namcot banner. A promotional LCD handheld was produced. The European version, published by Sega in August 1993, was renamed Galaga 2, a name that has caused confusion due to the existence of other Galaga titles.
Reception
Critics generally regarded Galaga '91 as well-suited for the Game Gear. Tim Boone of Computer & Video Games praised its accurate portrayal of Galaga '88, while Jean-Marc Demoly of Joystick and a writer for ACE appreciated its simplicity. The graphics, particularly the sprite animations, were widely praised, with a Mean Machines Sega reviewer calling them a strong point. Reviewers found the gameplay fun and well-designed, with Mean Machines calling it a good blaster for the system. Some criticism focused on the limited screen resolution: a Beep! writer felt it made avoiding enemy shots harder and made graphics look squashed, and ACE noted the screen size issue but still found the game fun. In 1995, Sega Saturn Magazine reported it among the top 20 most-popular Game Gear games by reader vote. Retrospectively, Stuart Campbell of Retro Gamer in 2006 appreciated how the game was built around the Game Gear's hardware and battery life, calling it addictive for short sessions. A 2020 4Gamer.net article compared it favorably to earlier home versions of Galaga, calling it an extraordinary update despite the small screen.
More in Namco Games of the 1990s 1-24
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