Galaga '88 (ギャラガ'88 Gyaraga Eiti Eito?) is a fixed shooter arcade game released by Namco in December 1987; it runs on Namco System 1 hardware, and is the fourth game in their Galaxian series. The game would later be released in North America by Atari in January 1988.
Gameplay[]
The player controls a starship, and must destroy all enemies to move to the next stage. Much like Galaga, the player can earn a duel-fighter by allowing their ship to be captured by a Boss Galaga and shooting it down; additionally, the player can start off with a duel fighter at the beginning of the game once the player has inserted a coin. Unlike the original Galaga, the player does not have to shoot down the Boss Galaga while diving, and can shoot it in formation. New to this game is the triple fighter, which can be earned by freeing a duel fighter captured by a Boss Galaga. Collecting a pink Warp Capsule can also transform the player into a Triple Fighter.
The player can also warp to different dimensions by collecting two Warp Capsules, which can be acquired by shooting down large enemies or by destroying various obstacles in that stage. Each dimension features an end boss, and the player can receive one of four endings depending on how well the player has done in the game.
Ports[]
Galaga '88 was ported to the PC-Engine in 1988, and later to the TurboGrafx-16 in 1990 as Galaga '90. A Game Gear version was later released under the name Galaga '91 in 1991, while in Europe the game was known as Galaga 2. A Sharp X68000 port was also released in 1995 by Dempa. The original arcade version was ported to the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox in 2005 as part of Namco Museum 50th Anniversary as an unlockable game, and later to Namco Museum Virtual Arcade for the Xbox 360 in 2008.
The PC-Engine release would be ported to the Wii Virtual Console in 2007, while the original arcade version would be released for the service in 2009 for Japan only. The game would also be ported to the Pac-Man's Arcade Party arcade game in 2010. A remake would be released for iOS in 2011 as part of Galaga 30th Collection, along with the previous three games. The game would also be ported to the Nintendo Switch as part of the Namco Museum compilation in 2017.
Trivia[]
- The PC-Engine port of the game was the only home port of the game to be released in 1988.
- The green hexagonal space stations from Bosconian appear in Dimension 4.