Galaxian was a sight to behold with the technical accomplishments of being one of the first arcade games to feature full-color visuals and a scrolling starfield to simulate vertical movement.Īt first glance, one might dismiss this game as a prettier Space Invaders knockoff and nothing more. The enemy characters were initially designed to resemble TIE Fighters from the Star Wars film but were later changed to be insect-like mechanized creatures.
After witnessing the success of Taito’s Space Invaders, the President of Namco tasked Sawan’s team with turning Galaxian into the next big arcade hit. Galaxian was created by Namco game designer Kazunori Sawan. If you told me cicadas were the inspiration behind this game, I’d totally believe you.īefore we get into the review proper, let’s take a brief look at the game’s history. They’re red-eyed, noisy in groups, and will eagerly dive-bomb you as if “ Ride of the Valkyries ” were blasting in the background. After experiencing the terror of having one smack me in the eye the other day, I realized that these critters share some interesting commonalities with the insects in the arcade classic Galaxian. If you live anywhere in the northeastern United States like me, your space is likely being invaded by the periodical cicada brood this time of year.
