Galaxian (1979)

Namco

Arcade

3.21 from 155 ratings

358 members have it in their collection · 6 playing now · 37 backlogged · 23 wish listed

Galaxian is a shooter arcade game developed by Namco in 1979. It was released by Namco in Japan and a few months later by Midway Games in North America. The game was developed to compete with Taito Corporation's Space Invaders, released a year earlier, and featured a similar space theme. The player controls a space ship in the bottom part … Read more
Galaxian is a shooter arcade game developed by Namco in 1979. It was released by Namco in Japan and a few months later by Midway Games in North America. The game was developed to compete with Taito Corporation's Space Invaders, released a year earlier, and featured a similar space theme. The player controls a space ship in the bottom part of the screen and shoots at enemies descending from the top of the screen. The game was received very well by the public and has continued to be a game with a competitive community to this day. It was followed by a successful sequel called Galaga in 1981 and two less known sequels called Gaplus in 1984 and Galaga '88 in 1987. Galaxian was one of the most popular games in the golden age of arcade video games. Read less
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Details

Developers
Namco
Publishers
Midway, Namco
Genres
Arcade, Shooter
Themes
Science fiction
Franchises
Galaxian
Series
Galaxian
Event
Xbox E3 2004 Press Conference

Release dates

  • Sep 15, 1979 (Full Release) (Japan) Arcade
  • 1979 (Full Release) (North_America) Arcade

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Rating distribution

5 stars
15
4 stars
33
3 stars
79
2 stars
23
1 star
4
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Community All Reviews Statuses

scoopings

Review scoopings 3/5 · Dec 30, 2021

Great Game, But I Can Safely Say I'm A Space Invaders Guy

I [allegedly] played the original Midway-licensed Arcade North American version. I might be turning into an arcade guy ugh, which means I will have to go backwards in the chronology project gahhh

Look: 7/10 Gotta love this era. And arcade-style graphics are growing on me.

Sound: 7/10 Also solid for this era. And again, arcade-style sounds also are growing on …

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I [allegedly] played the original Midway-licensed Arcade North American version. I might be turning into an arcade guy ugh, which means I will have to go backwards in the chronology project gahhh

Look: 7/10 Gotta love this era. And arcade-style graphics are growing on me.

Sound: 7/10 Also solid for this era. And again, arcade-style sounds also are growing on me.

Play: 7/10 Fun, but I preferred Space Invaders. It was exciting, fast-paced, and innovative. This one felt a bit cluttered. Still, can't deny I played it for far longer than planned on a night I said early bed time. And, I got pretty darn good at it heh, once you had a feel for the mechanics and timings.

Feel: 8/10 More fun than I expected. Gotta give it credit. I would have had a blast if I ever had played this back in the day, I always opted for other games, alas.

Attachment: 7/10 If I plan to return to arcade games, there will be so many to play, I'm not sure if this one would make the replay list! Especially with Space Invaders predating it. But still, a solid game, and even more fun than I expected.

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internpepper

Status internpepper Feb 15, 2021

Out of Space Invaders, Galaxian, and Galaga, I like Galaxian the least but it's still a solid arcade shoot-em-up, mostly for the time.

Reset_Tears

Status Reset_Tears Feb 1, 2021

  • Space Invaders -- rows of enemies slowly advance toward you (until they speed up); there are bunkers
  • Galaxian -- enemies divebomb you after a bit; no bunkers
  • Galaga -- sequel to Galaxian; there are bonus stages; your ship can be captured (and rescuing it gives you double fire-power... sweet!)

I get that Galaxian is a classic, but it's not one …

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  • Space Invaders -- rows of enemies slowly advance toward you (until they speed up); there are bunkers
  • Galaxian -- enemies divebomb you after a bit; no bunkers
  • Galaga -- sequel to Galaxian; there are bonus stages; your ship can be captured (and rescuing it gives you double fire-power... sweet!)

I get that Galaxian is a classic, but it's not one that I care for. Galaga is just better, what can I say. But that's not strange, since Galaga was a sequel that took the basic space creature shooting formula and made it a bit more polished and interesting. So it's hard to go back to Galaxian. And really, I think I like Space Invaders more than Galaxian too.

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