Galaga Legions DX Review

On paper, I should be in love with Galaga Legions DX. I'm into 2D shooters, retro games, pixel graphics, and heated leaderboard competition. Galaga Legions DX has all of this, but it's missing something more important: hooks. It doesn't get its hooks in me.

The goal is still blasting waves of incoming Galaga aliens, as it has been for 30 years now, but Legions DX is a much faster game than the original. The clock is always ticking, and you'll want to finish as many waves as possible before time's up so you can post a respectable score to the leaderboards. That's what Galaga Legions DX is all about: clearing your screen as quickly and efficiently as possible so that you can spend the maximum amount of time with the 'endless' final round where points are doubled.

But after a game, I don't find myself particularly interested in my score or trying to better it. Though there are many different areas of space to play in, they're all just five levels long, and the only things that change are the enemy patterns. So after one game you'll have experienced most of the gameplay Galaga Legions DX has to offer. There is nothing to work towards, save for a higher score. And while that is often more than enough for me (in games like Geometry Wars or Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, for instance), when I finished a couple rounds of Galaga Legions DX I was ready to move on to other, more addictive games.

• Your satellites can no longer be placed around the screen -- they're stuck by your side.
  
• Slowdown effect when you are about to collide with an enemy.
  
• Official Championship Score Attack Tournaments held periodically by Namco.

There is some strategy here, such as Galaga Leaders that will destroy an entire squad when defeated and bombs that will take out many enemies at once. Flight lines show you ahead of time where enemies are entering the screen and the path they will take. But it's not enough. It's also not a giant leap beyond what the first Galaga Legions offered. This is a slightly refined version of the same game. If you weren't sold the first time around, DX isn't likely to win you over, either.

Galaga Legions does provide the delightful ability to capture large swarms of enemies that will fight alongside you. But it is missing an "OMFG!" moment like the ghost trains in Namco's Pac-Man Championship Edition DX.

The best reason to play Galaga Legions DX is for the laser light show and super cool retro filters. There are six different visual types, all of which are very attractive. Once you've seen them all, though, your motivation to keep playing may drop significantly. It did for me.

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