The graphics in Galaga Legions DX are varied in design, but all look good. You have a choice between six different design styles for your enemies, everything from a flowing modern design to a number of classic 8-bit looks, some utilizing classic Namco designs, although most looks are more retro in appearance. The backgrounds are varied, but all are pretty, and represent various views of the vastness of space. Honestly, the gameplay is so fast and furious that you won't have much time for sightseeing.

Sound effects and background music work well for Galaga Legions DX. The music has a retro flair to it and the sound effects do their job. I wasn't a Galaga player back in the day, so I can't compare the sound effects to those of the original, but Namco Bandai tends to be quite faithful in these matters, especially considering their commitment with Namco Generations, which is touted in Galaga Legions DX. You will definitely appreciate the very retro-sounding voiceovers at certain parts of the game such as when the "Galaga" is identified during your level.

Galaga Legions DX is purely an arcade shooter. You begin as a meager ship and as enemies encroach, you shoot them, recruiting some to your side, clearing the level. As things get more intense, the enemies will grow in number, complexity and difficulty, but your ship will also level up and have satellite (previosuly enemy) ships alongside it to assist, so it all sort of evens out.

You can choose to play the Championship Mode or play individual areas, of which there are nine total, tweaking the difficulty for each, as well as choosing your preferred visual style. There are five different levels, and you will go through a number of waves of enemies per level. You will have a time limit in which to clear the waves, but even when I didn't quite clear the last wave completely, I still seemed to progress, so it didn't appear to matter much.

Aside from playing through the Championship Mode (which doesn't take too long), and clearing individual areas, you can also choose Tutorial or Time Attack. Tutorial is a great place to start, because it offers lots of tips and tricks to quickly clearing levels and it identifies problem areas in the levels. Time Attack is similar to Championship Mode, but you will have the chance to beat your best time, and if you don't complete the levels in the given time, the round ends. Lastly, there's the Champion Score Attack Tournament, which had closed at the time of this writing, but should re-open soon for those who want to pit their scores against other online players. The online requisite Leaderboards, however, are always available for you to check.

Don't expect a world of variety in Galaga Legions DX; you shoot little alien creatures that attack you - it's what you do. Some may be more difficult to kill or more crafty in trying to kill you, but it's just a lot of the same. That's not necessarily a bad thing; I am just letting you know. That being said, you can play each level on each difficulty and it ends up being a lot of levels, but they all just seem the same after a while. Once you complete a level, it brings you back to the area select screen where you can, once again, tweak the difficulty and visual style type, but I do wish you could just blaze through each level one after the other, starting on the easiest level of difficulty and working straight through, but you can't. You can work through all of the areas on Championship Mode, though, so that's good.

Lastly, Namco Generations is avalable for you to check out the latest information on these classic revamped titles, like Pac-Man Championship Edition DX. There's a section with updated content, as well as the option for you to download the demo for Pac-Man.

There are three levels of difficulty in Galaga Legions DX: Easy, Normal and Hard, and I played a number of different levels on all three difficulties. I didn't see a big difference between Easy and Normal. They both seemed pretty easy to me.

When you play on Hard, however, you will know you are being presented with a bit of a challenge. You'll encounter more difficult enemies, such as ones who will try to corner you and enemies that are metallic and require a lot of shots before they are destroyed. The levels are still doable; they just give you more of a run for your money and you won't breeze through them quite as quickly.

Galaga Legions DX has a perfect control scheme for this type of game. You will move your ship with the Left Analog Stick and fire with the Right Analog Stick, by pushing it in the direction you want to shoot. By clicking the (LB) or (RB), you can switch between Focus Shooting, where you direct your shots, and a Spread Shot, which will help you tacle enemies encroaching on all sides.

You will face normal Galaga enemies, Galaga Leaders and Galaga Mid-Bosses, and neutralizing the Galaga Leaders and Mid-Bosses will take out the entire group of Galaga with them. There are also Galaga Traps, that function as black holes; if you activate them, they disappear with all of the enemies in that vicinity with them. Galaga Bombs explode if detonated and destroy all Galaga within a certain range. All of these are very helpful when trying to quickly clear a level.

You can move your ship all around the screen and you will need to be active in order to avoid the enemies. Staying in the center of the screen won't get you very far, since enemies like to mash you into a corner and if they successfully blow you up, you lose one of a few precious "lives."

Plain and simple, Galaga Legions DX is a fun arcade shooter. It's fast, furious shooting fun for anyone. While the ride seems short, there are a number of levels to play through here and I have had a good time every time I have played. However, it is pretty much the same thing, level after level, just with an advancing challenge. If you like shooters, give Galaga Legions DX a try. After all, you can download the demo from the XBLA Marketplace, so you have nothing to lose. If 800 MS Points seems a bit too steep for you, maybe hold out for a sale. I enjoyed playing it at E3 this year for a few minutes, and it has held my interest for several gaming sessions where the minutes quickly slip by without me even realizing it. If you're looking for a bullet hell arcade shooter with a good retro pedigree, look no further.