Quick Look: Galaga Legions DX

Never would have given this game a look without this quicklook. So pickin it up.

@jabbertrack said:

@Winsord said:

Not sure why Ryan's so into this one, but hated the first one; they're not that drastically different, other than being to aim freely in this one and the prior utilizing a turret-esque system.

My thoughts exactly. I think feeding off Brad's excitement.

Yeah, I'm wondering why as well. Considering they (collectively speaking, because they're feeding off of Jeff's review) emphasized that their big issue was that it didn't feel like Galaga; this is even more of a departure but is very, very evocative of the original Galaga Legions. Not trying to temper their enthusiasm for this one, but justifying an opinion by hearsay and justifying an opinion by actually playing the game are two different things entirely.

What was the other XBLA release that updated an old shooter? I know there was this one and Space Invaders Extreme, but neither one is the one I'm thinking of. I know there was a quick look of it, and that it had some basic black and white graphics that got flashier as the game went on.

@Sparky_Buzzsaw said:

What was the other XBLA release that updated an old shooter? I know there was this one and Space Invaders Extreme, but neither one is the one I'm thinking of. I know there was a quick look of it, and that it had some basic black and white graphics that got flashier as the game went on.

Space Invaders: Infinity Gene.

This pizza place by me still has an old Galaga machine. The pizza is terrible, but I really wanna go there right now.

MY EYES

THIS LOOKS AWESOME!

shutup and take my money!

Two minutes in?  
Chalk it up. 
 
Edit: MUSIC IS AMAZING 
Edit 2: Did Brad really just figure that out? Derp.

always seems like it takes Brad forever to catch on to simple but important game mechanics, not realizing what pre wave lines were telling him, and not seeming to realize how to best utilize the galaga bombs. That would keep him from pullin'-a-Brad so often.

Looks kind of bad since they turned a shooter into an automated puzzle game. I don't know why the flashy colors makes it okay for Ryan and Brad. At least Pac-Man CE DX is still Pac-Man, but at 11.

Wait, so this game has nothing to do with Gal Gun?
 
Color me uninterested.

MAPPY DX ! YES! DO WANT!!!

Summary of every Brad quick look. "Gah. Gah!. GAH! Oh god!"

What would a Doom DX game look like...?

Good stuff.

@MordeaniisChaos said:

What would a Doom DX game look like...?

Now I know what my nightmare is going to be for the next few weeks. Thanks A LOT! >:(

All I have to say is: SOLD. Hurry up and get this on PS3, Namco!

@CrashTanuki said:

Looks kind of bad since they turned a shooter into an automated puzzle game. I don't know why the flashy colors makes it okay for Ryan and Brad. At least Pac-Man CE DX is still Pac-Man, but at 11.

Nah, Pac-Man CE DX always had an optimal path that you should be racing through the mazes to pick up all the dots and train as many ghosts as possible behind you. While the original Pac-Man has 4 ghosts with different ai that vary up the experience a lot more, forcing you to adapt on the fly.

Concept wise these two DX's are pretty similar; figure out which is the right "track" and then stick as close to it as possible, which is also where the challenge comes from.

Trippin' balls

Holy shit this is nuts im buying.

Whenever Brad and Ryan are screaming this much, you know it's good!

Their excitement over this is ridiculous. This looks remarkably similar to Legions, yet they hate that. Slap a DX on it and add one or two differences, and suddenly they're adoring fans. (Also, listening to Brad talk about features in this game as if they're new is infuriating revisionism. It takes 10 seconds of research to realize these are familiar mechanics to Legions.)

@EoinMason said:

@MordeaniisChaos said:

What would a Doom DX game look like...?

Now I know what my nightmare is going to be for the next few weeks. Thanks A LOT! >:(

Serious sam.

Also the DX series seems like video games on crack.

If there was a Namco Museum DX, I'd be the happiest man.

@Marokai said:

Their excitement over this is ridiculous. This looks remarkably similar to Legions, yet they hate that. Slap a DX on it and add one or two differences, and suddenly they're adoring fans. (Also, listening to Brad talk about features in this game as if they're new is infuriating revisionism. It takes 10 seconds of research to realize these are familiar mechanics to Legions.)

thank you. saved me the trouble. this is just an excessively bad example of poor research and knowledge on their part.

And here I thought I was the only one on the planet who liked Mappy.

That shit was almost too crazy for me.

Their excitement over this is ridiculous. This looks remarkably similar to Legions, yet they hate that. Slap a DX on it and add one or two differences, and suddenly they're adoring fans. (Also, listening to Brad talk about features in this game as if they're new is infuriating revisionism. It takes 10 seconds of research to realize these are familiar mechanics to Legions.)

Crazy-looking game. Incredible and insane.

This looks hella dumb

This is not Galaga. This is awesome.

I need this on PSN and more Mappy.

Let's see where this takes us.

This looks awesome, but I still don't like Galaga, so I dunno...

pushing video compression artifacts to the extreme

This looks way better then Galaga Legions.

Buying this

@YukoAsho said:

@Marokai said:

Their excitement over this is ridiculous. This looks remarkably similar to Legions, yet they hate that. Slap a DX on it and add one or two differences, and suddenly they're adoring fans. (Also, listening to Brad talk about features in this game as if they're new is infuriating revisionism. It takes 10 seconds of research to realize these are familiar mechanics to Legions.)

Yeah. I'm gonna go replay Legions just to make sure, but I didn't really notice many chances outside of some aesthetic tweaks. Weird reason to fall in love with a game.

I would have to disagree with that. The Quick Look may not have communicated the differences, but they're definitely there and much more than "aesthetic tweaks".

Galaga Legions DX has a whole lot of the same aesthetics and gameplay mechanics as Galaga Legions, just like PacMan CE DX is similar to PacMan CE.

When they made PacManCEDX, they took the original PacManCE gameplay and amped it up by adding the sleeping ghosts and the ghost train. Then they gave you a way to survive that amped-up gameplay, by adding the slowdown and the bombs.

With the original GL, the gameplay was already amped up -- if anything, it was too amped up. Controlling your two satellite ships (positioning them and controlling their direction of fire) was done in a very unconventional way. A lot of people found it frustrating.

For GL DX, they pretty much got rid of the detachable-satellite mechanic, and replaced it with a much more familiar dual-stick-shooter mechanic. They also added the slowdown from PacManCEDX. I think that makes the gameplay a lot more approachable, while still keeping a lot of the strategy from the original GL (positioning yourself appropriately and picking the right shooting style to deal with each incoming wave).

The really critical difference between GL and GL DX is the timer. The timer has three big effects on the gameplay. First, it makes games a predictable length, which gives it more of the "just one more game" quality of PacManCE. Second, it goes along way towards eliminating the "stalemates" that could occur in GL when you misused your explosives and had a bunch of shot-resistant enemies to deal with -- in GL DX, if you take too long with any one wave, the timer runs out and you just move on to something else. And third (and the thing I wish they had noticed in the Quick Look), whatever time you don't use in the first four waves of a level gets added on to the fifth stage (where you get your legion and where all the big scoring is). That really changes the dynamic of the game. Instead of trying to shoot lots of little enemies and keep your score multiplier up, you're trying to cut your way to the boss ships as quickly as you can, so that you end each wave as quickly as possible and maximize your bonus time.

And of course there's one big play mode in GL DX that's completely absent from the original GL (and that wasn't shown in the Quick Look): the Time Attacks, where you get your legion right away and just try to blast your way through the enemies as quickly as possible.

You may or may not actually like GL DX more than the original -- if you're one of the people who liked the satellite-positioning mechanic in the original GL, you may find DX to be "dumbed down". But despite the similar aesthetics, it's a really different play experience. Personally, I bought GL and got frustrated with it very quickly; I'm having a lot of fun with DX.

I apologize; that came out as more of a blog post than a comment. :)

I enjoyed the shit out of the original Galaga Legions. This looks like a MASSIVE improvement beyond that one.

@Krakn3Dfx said:

Next: Gyruss!

Come on Gyruss Whatever DX.

FUCK...YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

@Jasta said:

Sold.

This looks very good. I want this.

Brad screams a lot during this quick look.

I don't get what there so excited over.  Confused. :(

Brad's little screams annoyed me. First time ever I'm annoyed by a member of the Bombsquad.

This looks pretty cool, any word if it's coming to PSN?