What is the difference between Galaga & Galaxian?

What is the difference between the popular games Galaga and Galaxian? Well, the one difference that outshines the rest of the differences you’ll find in the 2 games is the large number of things that Galaga had added to it in development that Galaxian simply lacked. This is something that we should come to expect considering that Galaxian is the precursor to Galaga – Galaga is the sequel to Galaxian. As with most sequels or 2nd gen games/pieces of tech, Galaga tends to outshine Galaxian in several areas. To better understand the differences between the 2 games we’re going to get into what they are about.

A few of the main differences between Galaga and Galaxian are that:

  • The graphics on Galaga are bit less high quality than that of Galaxian
  • Galaga has much more intricate gameplay than Galaxian. To go into more detail, in Galaxian you only have a single alien coming down towards you while others bounce around the screen. On the other hand, in Galaga there are a few different ships shooting at you while also flying erratically.
  • The ships in Galaga make the game a bit more difficult to beat because of how erratic their movements are while the movements of the ships in Galaxian is more similar to Space Invaders.

The main difference between the two games is how the attackers (aliens) move in each mission.

What is Galaxian?

Galaxian is an arcade game released in the year 1979 by the popular game producer Namco. The objective of building this game was to basically make a new and improved version of Taito’s(another popular gaming producer) game Space Invaders. Galaxian improved upon this game by adding a color display (whereas Space Invaders had a black and white display). Also unlike Space Invaders (yes, we’re talking a bit about Space Invaders here) Galaxian added enemies who were able to move around in distinct patterns rather than simply horizontally and vertically.

So, more specifically about Galaxian’s gameplay. It features, much like Galaga, groups of aliens who descend and shoot at the player’s ship in an attempt to destroy it Occasionally enemy ships would attempt to bombard your ship by performing a kamikaze-like attack on your ship where they basically dive at your ship (or the Galaxip to be more precise). Only a single shot can be seen on the screen at a single time (which is a bit old school, but this is an old game so it’s understandable). That’s pretty much it for Galaxian. It did improve upon the idea for Space Invaders, but it didn’t have much against Galaga, the sequel.

Video of Galaxian Gameplay

What is Galaga?

Much like what you’d see in Galaxian’s gameplay Galaga has players situated in a rocket ship at the bottom of the screen. The entire purpose of the game is to basically counterattack or evade the enemy fleets that you’ll encounter during gameplay. Each time a player is able to destroy an enemy ship they’re able to move forward in the game. To navigate through the game players are able to move from right to left and vice versa using the joystick equipped in the game. Of course, the game features several of the same things that one who is familiar with Galaxian would encounter during gameplay. For instance, players encounter alien swarms who shoot bullets, try to crash into, and even sometimes break away from formation to attack you solo all in the attempt to destroy you.

The first thing we’ll notice that’s very much different in this game than in Galaxian’s gameplay is that it introduced quite a few different features into its design. The new features are listed below.

  1. The game has the ability to have 2 player shots on the screen at a single time (the shots can coexist).
  2. There is a hit/miss stat that’s shown at the end of the game
  3. There’s a bonus challenge stage that you can play in stage 3 and at the end of every 4th stage afterward. These stages award you with points for every group of enemies killed. There are 40 enemies who come in groups of 8 (so 5 groups). Each of these groups basically lies onto the screen one at a time without trying to injure your ship whatsoever. Every time a group of enemies gets destroyed the main player gets 1000-3000 points. If you are able to destroy every single enemy you get 10000 bonus points. If not, you’re able to get about 100 points for every enemy you’re able to destroy.
  4. Enemy ships also have the ability to use a tractor beam to capture your fighter.
  5. This is the first-ever arcade game that allows players to have up to 8 digit scores as well.

Video of Galaga gameplay

To play these Galaga or Galaxian online you can go here

Play Galaga below

Play Galaxian below

Conclusion

So, there you have it – Galaga and Galaxian do have a few similarities (such as the plot and the design, somewhat) but, they Galaga definitely improved upon its concept. Instead of being forced to fire a single shot at a time players in Galaga are able to fire multiple shots on the screen at once, which works wonders for the game in general. If you’re interested in playing, give it a try. For more information check out the resources below.

This information was taken from Wikipedia, mostly

Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaga

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxian

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