Home | News | Reviews | Previews | Hardware

Galaga: Destination Earth: Galaga Returns

From Hasbro comes Galaga: Destination Earth, a modern implementation of the classic arcade hit. Using a 3D approach, Galaga: DE recreates the familiar look of the arcade game for the first level. After that, you can expect the perspective to change often. One level has you flying ?into? the screen (although you are not allowed to stray from your course), while another has you in ?hover? mode -- attacking from a stationary location (for the most part) with a 3D perspective. The appearance is a nice blend of 3D and classic feel but the game seems to be at a very early stage. Unless a LOT of optimization is done to speed the game up, the frame-rate will not be acceptable. In some areas, when a lot of polygons are in play, the game slows to what appears to be about three frames per second. (Yes, I?m pretty sure -- at this rate, you can simply count them...)

It seems that sometimes companies try TOO hard to ?update? a classic game. In many cases, the classic game had a strong following and the people who played the games back then are now the more mature crowd that own gaming systems now. I think many people would be happy simply to have a re-release (of sorts) of the old titles. At the very least, a ?true? reproduction should be one mode available with the game. Galaga: Destination Earth is a mixed bag; the original was a hit with a great following, but (the current stage of) this version has my PC choking to a near halt... on a game that runs beautifully on a PlayStation. I expect that the speed issues will be resolved before release, and if they are, Galaga will rock. It probably won?t be received well by ?classic purists,? but it is a fun game all the same. It looks like it could be a winner, but we?ll give you the whole scoop when the final version is available to us...


-Geck0, GameVortex Communications
AKA Robert Perkins

This site best viewed in Internet Explorer 6 or higher or Firefox.