Despatche wrote:
The problem is that the idea of Galaga being a benchmark isn't based on merit.
I politely disagree...
Despatche wrote:
Galaga is a cool game for 1981, but it doesn't have as much staying power as its peers.
Sure. Like Sgt. Pepper is a cool album for 1967. Come on.
Despatche wrote:
This is why Gaplus was created. Far as I know, Japan correctly perceived it as the logical followup to Galaga, as it was intended to be. I don't know why Americans got so fussy about the higher difficulty for this particular game. Ms. Pac-Man is significantly harder than Pac-Man and Americans generally think it's a better game for it. The thing is that Gaplus, not Galaga, is the Super Mario Bros. 3 of its series.
The Japanese correctly envisioned the logical followup to Super Mario Bros, and that is the extremely rewarding and challenging Super Mario Bros 2 (J). Gaplus is totally, totally *NOT* a Super Mario Bros 3 case: it's not made to broaden the audience, it won't eclipse its predecessor in sales, it can't achieve a (mainstream if you will) status of timeless classic. In fact, Gaplus is great, but exactly on the terms SMB2(J) is: more challenge for the initiated.
Despatche wrote:
People say otherwise because of the historical narrative, not because of the games themselves. The historical narrative also gives them a free pass to be ignorant even when you explain the situation to them.
let's be cautious not to reverse the issue though; correct reevaluation of a game based on actual gameplay merits is absolutely fine (and certainly it's a shame that we got in decades a port of Galaga everywhere, and maybe two or three collections with Gaplus), but ignorance of history would be as much as dangerous. Correct historical perspective also mandates that Galaga's achievements in 1981 are a landmark; by 1984 Ga"plus" (even the name helps to put it in context) was a very, very late exercise in refinement, totally geared towards aficionado.
Ms. Pac-Man is much more timely in riding the wave. It's harder, better, bigger, and crucially is the second game in the series, released as early as Feb 1982. American Pac-Man is November 1980, so it's a little more than one year gap.
Gaplus is at the earliest a Japanese april '84 cabinet following a December 1981 hit. It's two years and half / almost three years gap, the whole world had changed in between.