Galaxian

***Galaxian*** is a 1979 fixed shmup arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was manufactured and distributed by Midway Controlling the fighter, the player is tasked with wiping out the titular Galaxians, who plot to take over Earth and enslave mankind. Enemies appear in a set formation at the top of the screen and will make dive bombs towards the player while firing projectiles. Bonus points are awarded for destroying enemies in groups or in mid-flight. It runs on the Namco Galaxian arcade system.

*Galaxian* was designed by Kazunori Sawano, who worked on many of Namco's electro-mechanical shooting gallery games, and programmed by Kōichi Tashiro. Namco had set out to capitalize on the success of Taito's *Space Invaders*, which had a massive impact on the video game market and was proving to be a critical and financial success. Although not the first video game to do so, *Galaxian* popularized the use of RGB through its colorful enemy designs, as well as the use of short jingles and scrolling backgrounds. It is one of the company's first video games to be exported outside Japan, thanks to their licensing deal with Midway Games.

*Galaxian* proved to be a critical and commercial success upon release, many applauding its improvements over other "invader"-type games and innovations. In 1982, it sold over 40,000 arcade units in North America alone, while in Japan it proved to be more of a success than *Pac-Man*. It was followed by a long series of sequels and spin-offs for multiple platforms — the first of these, *Galaga*, would usurp the original in popularity and be recognized as one of the greatest video games of all time. The original has been ported to numerous game consoles, including the Atari 2600, MSX and NES, and be included in multiple Namco video game compilations. It is cited as one of the most influential and important video games of the shoot'em up genre.

## Gameplay

*Galaxian* is a fixed shooter video game. The player controls TV's starship "Galaxip", the objective being to clear each round of aliens. The aliens appear in formation towards the top of the screen, with two escort ships, labeled the "Galaxian Flagship" or "Galboss". Aliens will make a dive bomb towards the bottom of the screen while shooting shots in an attempt to kill the player. Galaxip can only fire a single shot on-screen, and must wait for it to hit the top before being able to fire another, due to limitations of the hardware.

Flagships will make a dive bomb with two red aliens - shooting all three of these will award the player bonus points, with extra points awarded to the destruction of the flagship. Alien's movement will increase as the game progresses alongside the number of shots that the enemies shoot. The game's attract mode featured a short plot line, titled *"WE ARE THE GALAXIANS. MISSION: DESTROY ALIENS"*. Stages are indicated by flags at the bottom of the screen.

## Gashat

The Galaxian Gashat is one of the 4 Bandai Namco Gashats along with *Pac-Adventure*, Famista, and *Xevious* and possessed by Hiiro Kagami's counterpart (Kamen Rider Brave) from the Game World. Hiiro/Kamen Rider Brave received the Galaxian Gashat after besting the counterpart in a duel and would assume the Galaxian Gamer (merging with TV) in the final battle against the evil organization Shocker and taking down the Black Cross King and his multiple henchmen. The Galaxian Gashat and the Galaxian Gamer was exclusively and only seen in Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Chou Super Hero Taisen.

## Gallery

GalaxipBlue AlienPurple AlienRed AlienGalaxian Flagship