Galaga Remix iPhone Review

Slide on over to this classic arcade shooter.

As one of Namco's beloved arcade classics, Galaga was an inevitable arrival on the App Store. What wasn't a foregone conclusion, though, was whether or not this retro remix of the yesteryear hit would be any fun on a gaming rig with no buttons or sticks. Fortunately, of the three control options offered in Galaga Remix, one is wholly functional and makes this upgraded shooter an enjoyable nostalgia trip for genre fans.

While Galaga Remix does offer a pixel-by-pixel port of the classic, the main draw here in the new remix mode that features updated graphics, new power-ups, and boss battles that cap every five stages. To the right of the play area, a map shows your advancement up a cosmic battlefield. At the top of the battlefield, you face off against a huge insectoid boss ship that fills the screen with lasers, bullets, claws, and antennae.

The game largely plays the same. Space bugs zoom into the screen along defined attack paths. If you can memorize or even predict the patterns, you can severely dismantle the enemy forces before they have a chance to roost along the top of the screen. There are mid-sized ships that drop down and "kidnap" your vessel in a tractor beam. Normally, this would be a bad thing, but in Galaga, it's an opportunity. If you let the aliens harvest your ship and then shoot the bug that stole it, you get the ship back and enjoy a twin fighter. Here, you get powered-up weapons. This was a favorite strategy in the arcade classic and I enjoyed seeing it make a comeback.


Galaga Remix offers three different control schemes; two of them are useless. The slider bar controls are uncomfortable to use and the tilt controls don't provide you with the accuracy needed to effectively blast incoming aliens. However, the control scheme that plants two arrow keys right next to each other works great. Using my left thumb, I just rolled back and forth between the two arrows to move my ship. This system worked well enough that any death at the hands of the alien invaders was pretty much my fault alone. There is a separate firing button on the right side of the screen for all of the control schemes. It is very responsive.

The remix mode features detailed backgrounds that change as you advance up the battlefield. The alien bugs are also more detailed and colorful. But the highlight (of course) is the giant boss ships that skitter into the screen and rain terror down upon you. Galaga Remix is bolstered by great music, too, and the sound effects sound like they were appropriately ripped from 1984.

Galaga Remix was reviewed with version 1.0.0.


Retrogamers will get the most out of Galaga Remix, which builds on the base successes of the classic shooter with new visuals, bosses, and power-ups. And having the original classic on-hand certainly doesn't hurt the overall package. I'm relieved that one of the three control schemes properly works, though, otherwise this would have been a disaster. If you are any degree of Galaga fan, you'll dig this download.

In This Article

Galaga Remix

DeveloperNamco Networks
PublisherNamco Networks
Release DateApril 8, 2009
Galaga Remix iPhone Review
Galaga Remix iPhone Review