Unlike most of my friends when I was younger, I wasn't afraid to go to the dentist. In fact, each time I had an appointment, I would go early and not want to leave. This is partially due to the fact he was nice *he really was* but mostly due to the fact that he had an arcade game in the waiting room: Galaga. It was a small table with a Plexiglas cover on top; underneath the fake glass played out a fake game that felt so real it was.
Unlike most of my friends when I was younger, I wasn't afraid to go to the dentist. In fact, each time I had an appointment, I would go early and not want to leave. This is partially due to the fact he was nice *he really was* but mostly due to the fact that he had an arcade game in the waiting room: Galaga. It was a small table with a Plexiglas cover on top; underneath the fake glass played out a fake game that felt so real it was...
Okay, so it's pretty fake. But that's beside the point; I mean, it's an arcade game. If it felt real, it wouldn't be an arcade game I played at my dentist's office for free. Part
of Galaga's charm is that it is so very, very cheesy, like another shooter arcade game from the 1980s whose name evades me at the moment.
The gameplay is as such: you are a fighter jet battling bugs. There are four types of bugs, such as flies (blue and yellow) beetles (red and grey) and the Boss Galagas. The Boss Galaga starts out blue-green and yellow, but after one hit turns grey. Either way, Boss Galagas present an unusual problem: they take your guy. Like the other ships, they swoop down at you, shooting at your jet. Unlike the other ships, they emit a tractor beam that, if you can't evade it quickly enough, sucks you up, taking you to the back of the enemy formation. It's been a while, but I remember being able to get your captured teammate -- there are three "lives" -- back by shooting the Boss Galaga that holds him hostage. The other option is to get in the way of the tractor beam and shoot him down (Boss Galagas take two shots to defeat entirely; one to turn grey, and one to 'splode).
As for standard attacks from the enemy, there are two: shooting and crashing. The flies and beetles swoop down at you, dropping bombs along the way (with the aid of really cool/distracting "descending through space" SFX). However, they also are able to do a kamikaze attack; the flies especially like to circle around and hit you from behind. Avoiding their pathway is half the battle.
Pretty much, the goal here is to stay alive as long as possible and shoot everything you see while not getting shot yourself. It's a lot of fun, and a good way to forget about drills.
