Galaga Wars+

I was a huge fan of Galaga in the video arcade. It ate rolls of quarters probably best spent elsewhere. This version stays true to its origins keeping me always grasping for that next level, maple leaf or farming coins for upgrades. I haven’t even beat level one of the Cosmic Challenge, yet. Level 10 and 108 are my highest regular levels. So there remains a great deal to challenge and entertain me. For newcomers, it’s mechanics are like chess. Easy to learn, difficult to master. Sometimes, the graphics will propel me into sensory overload with all the explosions, ricocheting missiles and laser beams. Good thing I can pause simply by removing my finger from the screen. Nice touch. The one thing that confuses me is the level warp scenes. There are what appear to be power up balls to consume, but their purpose is a mystery to me. Other than that, only the rare minor bug that doesn’t detract much from the game. Update: A couple months of playing and now the game’s boring. After acquiring all the ships and reaching Level 11, coins and credits are pointless. The challenge levels are ridiculously difficult for the few tokens you receive for completing a task. Time to move on.

I’ve been playing this game for over a year, and the gameplay loop is well designed and a lot of fun. It’s been getting new updates every few months, and all of these updates add new enemies and variations to gameplay, but none of these changes stand on their own enough to deserve their own modes. The new additions should be consolidated into one single mode instead of being split between three separate modes. A good structure for this new mode would be to have the player go through an infinite level similar to the final level in the game, and have “events” trigger at random times during the level. These events would use the new enemies and gameplay variations already introduced in previous updates. An event based off of Nightmare Mode could randomly increase enemy speeds throughout the level, an event based off of Cosmic Challenge could temporarily change the environment to surround the player in darkness or force them to escort an escape pod through a specific section, and an event based off of Elite Mode could throw asteroids or lasers at the player. Once each event ends, the player could receive a power up as a reward, the gameplay would return to normal until the beginning of the next event, and once the player dies, they would be told how long they survived for. Instead of new monthly Updates adding new separate modes, they would just add new Event types to this mode, allowing the game to stay relevant and letting the mode get better every month. I play this game every day, and the ideas added in recent updates have showcased interesting new ideas. If these ideas and updates were focused one single mode like instead of each idea getting a completely new mode, players would have something to look forward to with each update, and the game would become truly amazing.