It's Wednesday, so we're obviously here to tell you what new arcade game you'll be able to pick up on Switch as part of the Arcade Archives series.
Tomorrow, it's the turn of shmup sequel Gaplus, the third entry in the Galaxian series and follow-up to the hugely popular Galaga. Sometimes also known as Galaga 3, it's only one of two arcade releases that runs on the Namco Phozon 8-bit arcade system board. It's pretty much identical to its predecessor; you're fixed to the bottom of the screen and must score as many points as possible by shooting aliens and avoiding getting hit.
Upgrades such as a tractor beam, drill, slow-down debuffs, and extra lives are all available here, as well as the return of challenge stages, where this time you have to juggle enemies. There's also a two-player mode, where you swap the controller with a friend if you die.
Take a look at what you'll be blasting away at and getting into in space, then make sure you pick up this shoot 'em up on the eShop tomorrow, 21st April, for $7.99 / €6.99 / £6.29.
If you've played Gaplus before, or if you're going to pick up the Arcade Archives release, let us know below!
Further reading
[source nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 29
What about Galaga itself on Switch?
@anoyonmus it’s on the Namco Museum Arcade Pac along with Galaga 88.
@anoyonmus It's weird that you can't get it on Switch on its own. It's on Namco Museum, at least...?
PSA you can get namco museum on sale like every other week for ~5 bucks
PS this is cool, ive owned galaga in one form or another including OG gameboy but never this!
Is this game available anywhere else, such as on a compilation? Does anyone know?
@Burning_Spear It was on the Wii collections. I think it is on the Wii VC. And there is a de-mastered NES version on Namco Museum Archives Vol. 2 for Switch.
@Tandy255 Thank you. I don't have any of those, so I'll happily take the Hamster version.
Awesome, I do still had this game on my Wii via the Arcade Virtual Console so it's nice that I could now play this again on the go this time.
One of the three games Namco released on the Wii VC in the west before bailing (but they gave Japan something like 50 games).
Though speaking of Galaga being on almost every console. It wasn't on the SNES. Though Japan did get a clone game called Cosmo Gang: The Video. Considering the game has a puzzler cousin that got reskinned as Pac-Attack, wonder why they didn't do a Galaga reskin of this game and release it in the west.
@AlanaHagues I thought there was an actual Galaga 3, though.
Some crazy 3D arcade cabinet too insane to be ported to consoles.
(I suppose not worth comparison to another "impossible" game, G-LOC arcade, which got a Sega Ages Switch port without the vomit-inducing 360-degree rotation of the real machine)
@KingMike from reading around, I thought Gaplus was renamed Galaga 3 at some point for brand recognition? Or at least the arcade cabinets were. I might be missing something here, though. I'm admittedly not an expert https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7884
@RevLimit I see.
I Just wished it was a standalone tbh
@AlanaHagues it is apparently on the Namco museum
I played this in an arcade as a kid. When I told people that I played a version of Galaga where you could capture the enemies, nobody believed me.
I love Galaga 88 so this is an instabuy for me. Was just talking with a friend about how this needed to be on modern consoles the other day
So Bosconian next???
I would rather see DLC or a 2nd Namco Arcade Pak with these other games.
This game is tough. I can never keep all of the captured enemies very long.
The original Galaxian is not on Switch at all, except the Famicom version.
@Tandy255 Yes! Bosconian, please!!
@KingMike That was Galaxian^3 (and its follow-up, Attack of the Zolgear), that had the "impossible" cabinet. It came in two flavors, the absolutely gigantic one that was only at Namco's Wonder Egg facilities, and the significantly smaller (but still large) 6-person units that showed up in Namco-owned arcades all over.
And yet, Namco made an attempt to port Galaxian^3 to the PS1 all the same.
This is included with NAMCO MUSEUM® ARCHIVES Vol 2 which goes on sale quite often
@Would_you_kindly That one is a demake of this one. It was demake in NES quality so it fits with the rest of the other NES ports in the collection.
@Specter_of-the_OLED doesn't it play the same though I've only played the demake & really enjoyed it
This is pretty hard but I don't know how much I've played it if I have.
Love Galaga games
I'm not familiar with what games they usually pick for Arcade Archives, but I'd love to see Rampage if that's ever an option.
Gaplus is that deal and easily puts Galaxian and Galaga to shame.
@KingMike No, Galaga: Destination Earth was ported to PS one and to GBC and was a 3D game.
@Would_you_kindly Except the Namco Museum Archives are NES ports and not the arcade ports, but still well worth $5 when on sale.
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