Previous Next

And yet another Galaxians game, this time of superb arcade action quality. The scale of the graphics is small but the pace is furious.

This game has all the quality of the amusement arcade machines. The various types of enemy craft make their entrance in beautiful spiral formations - a machine gunner's dream. If your trigger finger works fast enough, nearly all the sting can be taken out of the attack waves as they make their entrance.

The sound is marvellous and continuous. The enemy ships give off a high-pitched wail as they attack, punctuated by your laser bursts. There are three kinds of target ships: blue, red and the yellow 'mother-ships', which turn green the first time they are hit.

The motherships try and trap your craft with a traction beam. It's easy to avoid the beam, but it's not good policy to do this. Best play is to let them capture one ship, then try and release the imprisoned craft by shooting down the mothership. This gives you two craft on the screen, doubling your firepower.

One very nice feature is a 'challenge' screen, after every three or four waves, which gives you four waves of enemy craft, in 'duck-shoot' formation. The program keeps tabs on how many you hit and awards you bonus points, depending on your level of hits. Very satisfying.

Another thoughtful little touch is that the program starts off by offering you two different ways of configuring your keyboard controls (it also gives you the option of using a joystick). Highest score and present score are on a blue panel at the side of the screen as you play. A must for all Galaxian fans.