In Galaxian they all appear already in formation, but Galaga begins each round of play with a nice touch that gives the player chance to get in early strikes on the enemy forces. One of the first small but meaningful changes between the two vertical space shooters comes in how enemies are added to the star field. However, the reason Galaga ended up earning greater public recognition, more sequels directly referencing the Galaga name, and more rereleases than Galaxian all comes down to one remarkably simple factor: Galaga is just better. Looking at the two games though they seem remarkably similar, Galaga not really innovating so much as building off the groundwork Galaxian had placed. Galaxian released in 1979 and was actually the company’s first big hit, and while it is one of the first full color arcade games to hit the market, its legacy has mostly been pushed aside in favor of Galaga’s even greater popularity. 1980 had Pac-Man, 1982 would have Dig Dug, and sandwiched between them is a space shooter called Galaga that stands out from the two games it rubs shoulders with in that it is a direct sequel to a previous Namco hit. In 1981 Namco was riding high on the success of Pac-Man from the previous year, but Pac-Man was only the start of Namco’s holy trinity of arcade classics.
