*So, the Galaxians are apparently a race of aliens who are attacking the Earth. *So, let’s just get on into the game and we’ll talk about those innovations as we go. It just raises the bar on the things that were great about Space Invaders and makes many of them even better. There are still things I very much like about Space Invaders that this game doesn’t duplicate (the music, for one thing), but taken as a whole Galaxian is the new best game of this project in my opinion. To this point, I’ve definitely ranked Space Invaders as THE game to this point. *And I can say that this is richly deserved.
It was a huge hit in Japan and by 1980, Namco had made a deal with Midway and the game hit North America like a wrecking ball: 42,000 arcade cabinets sold in two years. I mean, before I get into the game itself, I guess I should just mention that it was exactly the kind of success Namco wanted and needed at that time. Namco had yet to have much in the way of big success when Kazunoro Suwano got handed this plum assignment by his boss: “Make the best post-Invaders game yet.” *Like many of the games we’ll see come out in 1979 and on into the 80s, Galaxian started off as an attempt to duplicate the success of Space Invaders which Taito had released in 1978.
