Galaga Legions

[bVork]

Gamespot has a demonstration. The girl's stupidity makes me cringe but this is better than the five seconds of footage showed at the Microsoft conference. It almost looks like bullet hell with number of enemies they throw at the player. I'm also getting a bit of a Gridrunner++ vibe with both the larger enemies that can be destroyed to kill an entire formation at once and the autofire mechanic. For some reason, I'm also reminded of tower defense with the way satellites can be placed based on the movement trails that announce the arrival of a formation. Apparently (it wasn't shown in the demonstration but I think we saw a bit of it in the MS conference footage) you can capture groups of enemies and have them shoot alongside you - sort of like Titanion.

This looks great, but I really wish they'd cut it out with the "first sequel to Galaga" bullshit. Galaga 88 and Galaga 3 and Gaplus and Galaga Arrangement don't exist in their world, I guess. And Galaga: Destination Earth shouldn't exist in any world.

[James]

I played it yesterday, it really is completely unlike Gridrunner ++ but still a ton of fun. You kill things fast to get the scoring bonus up to 16x, and almost every wave comes with a larger enemy that kills the entire wave when you take it out. The problem is that, if you shoot the big guy without taking out the little ones first, your score multiplier will likely have shrunk to below 16x.

You've also got two options, and pushing the right stick in a direction places an option pointing that direction for several seconds. That means you can use the lines on the screen (projected entry path of the enemy waves) as a marker for where to dump an option, or just keep them beside the ship for better precision shooting.

So, yeah, completely unique game and one hell of a scoring challenge ahead.

James

[Cheebs]

This looks AWESOME!!!

[Kidnemo]

I liked pacmans quite a bit.

I think I will like this too.

The "blues" reminded me of Gradius V.

[onelocust]

I wish they kept the art design principal of Pacman:CE. They kept the old iconic pixel graphics and updated them with all the neon bells and whistles.

[bVork]

There IS a mode that lets you use the old graphics. But of course they didn't show that. Did you see it, James?

[sonic6]

*sigh* this almost makes me regret the decision to sell off my 360.

[epmode]

Christ this is awesome.

EVERYONE BUY PACMAN CE, TOO

[James]

I didn't get to see the original graphics mode yet. I had zero time on the main floor today so didn't get another crack at Legions, but I'll try again tomorrow. I can say that, when I played, I couldn't see the bit to change the graphics style but couldn't figure out how to access it.

James

[gameoverDude]

And Galaga: Destination Earth shouldn't exist in any world.

QFT. That one was a waste of $20, and a gross insult to Galaga '88. I don't know what the developers were thinking when they added the lame Star Fox wannabe scenes. The PSP Galaga Arrangement 2005 is bad, but not nearly to this level. On that one, the bugs don't shoot enough- making it way too easy.

This looks more like a sequel to Gaplus (8 way movement FTW), but it's probably better to keep the Galaga name for marketing reasons. I'll buy it.