Gaplus
Released by: Namco
Year: 1984
Style: Classic Shoot ‘em up

Space invaders kind of bored me, didn’t do much for me at all. Asteroids was ok, but after a while I was like, “is that it?”

Galaga was the first shooter game to really hook me and to this day can still garners my quarters. It’s one of my few Wii VC old school downloads and I play it at least once a week. The gameplay, challenge stages and variety made this game a winner.

Gaplus, or also known as Galaga Plus or Galaga 3 (the search for Galaga 2?) is this weeks classic game of the week. The game as I can remember never really made a spash. I didn’t remember seeing it until many years later. I remember playing it on PS1 back in 1996 and I was amazed as to how good this game was. This one went over my head in the 80’s. It is said that the game was released right after the video game crash of 1983 which affected its popularity.

In Gaplus, you can now move horizontally about halway up the screen.  A notable enhancement is now the player has a “tractor beam”. In the previous installment, you had to wait for that green (blue if you shot him once) alien to come down and swoop your ship in. For the sequel, however, the player can now acquire the Tractor Beam. This is achieved by shooting one of the alien formation’s ‘generals’—a visibly more colourful alien than its comrades. The Tractor Beam will then activate for a limited time and any aliens the players captures (up to a maximum of six) will dock alongside the player’s ship for enhanced firepower.

The Galaxian Series

• Galaxian (1979)
• Galaga (1981)
• Gaplus aka Galaga 3 (1984)
• Galaga ‘88 (1987)

In conlcusion: If you love classic shoot ‘em ups you migh thave missed this one. The game has all of the fun of Galaga plus more with the classic feel you will enjoy. It even has an easter egg for your to discover.  Next week we will cover Galaga ‘88 which was another great classic! Do any of you have any memories of Gaplus and if so what did you think of it?

watch?v=KwcC1PcLL14

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