And, unfortunately, the same goes for the gameplay. While it seems that King of the Jungle did their best to update the original
Galaga,
Galaga: DE just doesn’t cut it. The one view that’s used most of the time also happens to be the most annoying, and it really doesn’t make for a fun game.
You’re an unnamed pilot on a quest to save the world from the encroaching Galaga fleet. Whatever. The game will take you from the wreckage of the ship you were guarding to flying over the surface of the Sun and back to Earth, all the while blowing up lots and lots of ships.
Those who have played the original title (and those who haven’t should, immediately; go find a coin-op machine and waste a few hundred on it like everyone else has) will recognize a few of the ships in the game. The mother ships are back, and they can still abduct your ship. There are a lot of other ships, too, from ones that take way more than two shots to ones with shields on one side that you have to hit at just the right time. The various types add variety, but none of them are really that inventive.
There are three basic modes that you fly in: a traditional ship-at-the-bottom, enemies-at-the-top view, one more like the Gradius games where you’re on the left and the enemies come from the right, and a Starfox-look where you’re behind the ship as it flies in a given corridor. Unfortunately, it’s the latter that’s used much of the game, and it’s a damned annoying view. It’s hard to get a bead on enemies in the center of the screen, and it’s just not as much fun as the other two styles.
And therein lies Galaga: DE’s problems. It just isn’t as much fun as the original. They tried to mix it up with different levels and different goals (collect all the escape pods, turn on the generators, blow up the enemy generators), but it just doesn’t make for a particularly fun game. The only times you’ll really enjoy yourself are in the two old-school views, and they don’t come up often enough. There are power-ups that try to liven the game up -- one lets you capture enemy ships, which is very nice when you get a good bad guy -- but even those don’t make the game.