Arcade Archives: Gaplus (PlayStation 4|5 - Switch)

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Sturmvogel Prime
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Arcade Archives: Gaplus (PlayStation 4|5 - Switch)

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DANGER ZONE (PART XIV)
WE'RE GONNA NEED A DIFFERENT KIND OF BUGSPRAY


April was the "Namco Month" for Arcade Archives, and after Wonder Momo, a controversial re-release of Pac-Land (I'll talk about that in a future review), Legend of Valkyrie and Youkai Douchuki, they had the courtesy of releasing a shmup, and that was Gaplus.



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This is no longer the same old Galaga from your grandparents.


Galaga is with no doubts the vintage classic of vertical scrolling shooters and an "Institution" for the genre, along with its prequel Galaxian and other classics like Taito's Space Invaders and Midway's Defender. But there was more of the space insect blasting saga, and Gaplus is an obscure third part 'cos it is even lesser known as Galaxian, but much more challenging than its predecessors.



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Turning the tables on your favor with zero lives lost.

While at first it looks like the classic Galaxian/Galaga you know, the first thing you'll notice is the movement range. For the first time in the series you can finally move vertically, although your vertical movement range is limited to half the screen, it is more than enough to improve the player's manueverability and movement range this game might demand, and it surely does after the first two levels as the classic Galaga patterns are completely discarded in favor of new attack strategies. On the enemies side, the game will rely on the classic formation of insects in pure Galaga style, making you think the classic gameplay will be the same, but that's only a false impression as the the bullet patterns and even the enemy formations will ambush you faster and even in different emerging formations. The best instance of that is Parsec 4, as the background scroll backwards and the insects appear from the sides simultaneously. You'll also face new enemies like bullets that explode in four way shots, making them the first "bullet spammers" of shoot em' up history. If those were the changes on favor of the enemy, now let's talk about the changes ON YOUR favor. We already know about the improved movement range of the ship. Well, that's the beginning. The power-up mechanic was also improved. Rather than let your ship be captured and rescue it for having more firepower, you can turn the tables with the Blaster Head. However, there's a way to obtain it. You have to shoot down the insect carrying it once it is detached from the "formation", otherwise it will be destroyed with it. The first Blaster Head you're gonna get is the Red one which, like I've said it turn the tables because now you're who captures insects to duplicate, triplicate and even multiply the firepower six times (you and 5 captured insects).



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Assault Formation, powered by YOUR FORMER ENEMIES.

Having an horizontal row of six bullets looks unstoppable and menacing for your enemies, you will lose them with a single bullet, and keep in mind, being that wide means an easy target despite of the increased movement range. Losing 1 or 2 insects is nothing to worry about, but when the bullet hits your ship you lose them all instantly.
Other Blaster Heads available are the Blue type which grants you a fast twin shot and faster ship movement, the Pink Blaster Head that slows enemies for a short time or the Green Blaster Head which captures insects and throws them as missiles (22 years before Warashi invented the Anchor lock feature for Triggerheart Exelica). Another type of item is the hidden 1Up. Sometimes an insect will be carrying a piece of what it look like a spaceship, which as you gather all three of them it will become a spare fighter that adds 1 life to your ship stock.

Blaster Heads are not just for providing lethal firepower to your ship, they're also the secret key to unlock alternate ships. After getting the Blaster Head on Parsec 31, you'll be granted a ship change which resembles the Galaxian ship. But there's a way to get it earlier: Go straight up until you stop. DON'T SHOOT! Just sit there and let all the bugs form. Right after the last row of bugs get into formation a star will shoot from the top left side of the screen to the bottom right. If you time this right you can get up to 5 shots on it. After about 10 hits on the star (it will come out at random times during the game) it will transform your ship. There's also a second way to get it in Parsec 1: Go up to the very front and wait for all the bugs to come out. Then kill the 2nd bug from the left in the bottom row to make the special flag appear. Now, when the boss is coming down, move your ship and kill yourself by touching it. Don't touch the blaster head, just the boss. Your ship is turned into the blue one, and go get the special flag. That's some cryptic ways to get a second ship, right?. I guess these was the very first cheat codes in gaming history and the developers were experimenting on the concept of "Secrets", but hell, they're way too cryptic or hard to reach.




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GET IT MORE!

Along with the core gameplay, the Challenging Stage has also changed its format: Instead of shooting down the insects, you have to juggle them around with your shots. But keep in mind, you can't shoot them too much 'cos it might push them off-screen, so you have to calculate when to shoot them so you can juggle them with no problems, the best moment to shoot them first is when the insects are close enough to your ship. Also, as they take a hit and you're juggling them right, their speed will increase until they inevitably fall off. This is when having three or five captured insects from red Blaster Head come in handy. Before you decide to give up, there's a heavy reason to give this mode a try. The objective is to form the words "BONUS", "GAPLUS" "DOUBLE" and "TRIPLE". If you keep the insects the most time you'll be earning extra shots marked by green flies. These will give you even more points.


Galaga and Galaxian had console ports up to any known limits, well, not as much as being played on a Lego brick like Doom, but they were heavily console ported, while Gaplus only had a small bunch, being the Commodore 64, the NES and a few mobile phone ports the lucky ones, until Hamster released the game on the PS4/PS5 and the Switch as part of the Arcade Archives series, where the game has two original modes based on the old and new versions, both of them based on the original Japanese game. After all, the American releases had Namco's logo on the title, leaving the Bally-Midway logos on the marquees, something that will happen with later games like the Atari released Assault. Like all the PlayStation 4 Arcade Archives releases they have trophies to claim, but the number of them is quite few, being a total of 6: 1 for Original Mode, 1 for High Score, the other four can be obtained on either modes. It also has the 5 minute Caravan Mode, which is the "Survival" mode as you have to rack the most points as possible before time runs out and without losing all your ships.


Graphically, it retains the classic elements of Galaga and Galaxian like the simple fonts and the starry space with color changing stars. But the most notorious part is the new graphics for the characters, which gives the game a more lively and detailed universe. Now the insects look much more like insects and you can see a little more detail on the player's ship sprite. There's now even more musical tunes in the gameplay rather than just the start up and the bonus stage clear, breaking with the game silence a little bit more than its predecessors.



TRIVIAPLUS

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It's thrown away its wings... Yet it's still flying!

- Bally-Midway renamed some of the Blaster Heads on their advertising flyers. For instance, the red one was called "Phalanx Attack".
- It was the third and last title of the series released by Bally-Midway before Namco terminated their partnership thanks to Midway's unofficial Pac-Man games.
- Some conversion kits had marquees with the name Galaga 3 on them. The 2007 Java Micro Edition/J2ME port carried that renaming.
- The player's ship from B-Wings can detach the ship's main body from its wings, like the Gaplus ship before starting the game.
- The unmanned ADF-11 Raven from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown can detach the large wings and still fly since the nose section is a flying UAV.




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It was nice to see Gaplus back again.

While Gaplus has aged well after all these years, its still good to see it back since this game wasn't ported on consoles unlike Galaga and Galaxian. Now, if only Namco decides to release NebulasRay for Arcade Archives...



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In the "Jossett Scale", this is a positive result.
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