Galaga / PacMan: PS4 Review

Galaga / PacMan: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Released by Bandai Namco

Galaga was a childhood obsession of mine.

The arcade game dropped in 1981 and was a simple concept; a top down static shooter that saw waves of bees and wasp like creatures bearing down on you.

Along with Pac-Man, a lot of my time was eaten up – along with my money – in arcades endlessly replaying these classic and simply executed games.

The Bandai Namco re-release along with Pac-Man and Dig Dug has formed a PSN pack to be downloaded onto the PS4 – and to ensure all that pain of the childhood is unleashed once again.

The ports are incredibly faithful and well executed; not one of them feels like the originals have been tinkered with and as a result, these games feel like a step back in time in terms of gameplay.

Within 2 minutes of Galaga being fired up, I was being killed in exactly the same way I was when I was 14.

And that was both a source of glee and frustration.

The PS4 controller works well for Galaga but doesn’t fare as well with the directional controls of both Pac-Man and Dig Dug, with deaths easily avoidable had the game simply been an old fashioned joystick.

But that’s a minor niggle for a pretty damn sweet set of reminiscences that look and play like the originals – in this day of tinkering and reversioning the classics that all of these games are exactly how you remember them is a welcome diversion.

Ultimately, you’ll lose the same amount of time you always did when you were younger and you’ll love every damn addictive last second of it.