Galaxian
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| Galaxian

Back in 1979, the first ever true colour computer game was unleashed in arcades. Building on the success of arguably the most famous computer game of all time, Space Invaders, and now, over a quarter of a century later, available on the small screen of your mobile phone, we're talking about Galaxian.

What made games so addictive in those days of yore – and the reason they differ so greatly from modern computer games – was the fact that unless you had the hand-eye coordination and concentration levels of a fighter pilot, you stood little or no chance of ever completing them.

That simply wasn't the point of the arcade experience; before home computing, games developers and publishers made their money from repeat business, and if a customer could easily complete a game, they wouldn't come back to play again.

For those lucky few who were able to demonstrate enough skill to finish a game, however, a certain amount of celebrity status was borne on them in their local arcade via the high scores list, and a crowd would gather every time they went near a machine.

Fast forward a few decades and now you, too, can achieve that level of hero worship in your school or office by attempting to complete Galaxian on your mobile phone.

To those uninitiated in the likes of Space Invaders or Galaxian, the premise is simple. You play as a spaceship capable of sideways movement only, scooting along the bottom of the screen, who must destroy a vast army of aliens, massed at the top. Oh, and you're armed with only a single laser.

Where Galaxian takes the concept a stage further, compared with the likes of Space Invaders, is the periodic assault from a group of between one and three aliens who swoop down to the bottom of the screen in an erratic fashion, with the sole intention of crashing into and ultimately destroying your ship. So you need to shoot or avoid them too.

Pretty straightforward, eh?

Well, yes. Retro games don't always age well, and what was fun 25 years ago can easily seem pretty laughable today. And while none of the Pocket Gamer team is old enough to have been around an arcade when Galaxian debuted (not that we'd admit it if we were), the big question remains the same – is Galaxian as fun to play today as it was in 1979?

Upon loading Galaxian onto your mobile phone you'll be amazed at how faithful a recreation it is, with the exact dimensions making sure your mobile phone screen accurately reflects the classic arcade machine, albeit scaled down rather dramatically. And most importantly, you'll find a great shoot-'em-up still delivering excitement after all these years.

Don't expect a varied gameplay experience, don't expect ground-breaking visuals, don't expect even to complete it. What you are getting here is a piece of arcade gaming history, and one of the most addictive and challenging shooters ever made for your phone.

Frankly, you'll be sad to see it go when you eventually upgrade your phone for a newer model. Unless of course you simply download it again!

Galaxian

Undiluted classic arcade action, though it may be an acquired taste for some
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