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Namco Museum Essentials coming to PlayStation Home in July

by Andrew Yoon { Jun 17th 2009 at 6:05PM }

Japan's Namco Museum Essentials is crossing the pond to America's PlayStation Network this July. The downloadable app will serve as a hub for various Namco arcade games, such as Pac-man, Galaga, Dig Dug, Dragon Spirit, Xevious, and a new 1080p "re-envisioned" Xevious: Resurrection. In addition to the standard gamut of features (trophies, leaderboards), players will be able to unlock PlayStation Home rewards to proudly display in their virtual apartments.

Namco Bandai will also be launching a new destination within PlayStation Home simultaneously with the release of Museum Essentials. It will serve as the hub for all of Namco Bandai's upcoming downloadable games and will include a virtual arcade featuring a trial version of Museum Essentials. In addition to the free demo, PlayStation Home items can be unlocked for those who visit the space. All in all, it looks as though Home fans (casual and hardcore) will have a lot to look forward to.

Gallery: Namco Museum Essentials

iPhone fires energy beam, captures Galaga Remix

by JC Fletcher { Apr 2nd 2009 at 11:17AM }

A relatively obscure version of Namco's classic shooter Galaga is coming to iPhone, along with the least obscure version of Galaga! The newly announced Galaga Remix contains both the original 1981 game and a widescreen presentation of 1995's Galaga Arrangement, which features updated graphics, bosses, and various gameplay tweaks. The trailer after the break features footage from Arrangement.

Both games will be playable in one of three control schemes: virtual directional buttons, a sliding-based method, and tilting. According to Touch Arcade, the game "will arrive in the App Store any day now and will be priced at $5.99." This is what we want out of high technology: the ability to buy and play super-old games whenever we feel like it.

[Via AppGamer]

Continued →

Oh, the '80s: Alec Baldwin's hard nights ended with ... Galaga

by Jason Dobson { Jan 12th 2009 at 11:05PM }

Before he was a thorn in Tina Fey's side as the Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming at GE, Alec Baldwin was something of a sot, spending much of the '80s in a haze of "sex, drugs, booze." And when it came to sobering up, it wasn't coffee that was his drug of choice. It was Galaga, though we imagine blurred vision kept him from ever putting in his initials.

Baldwin writes in the book "Moments of Clarity" that evenings of debauchery would often end in a warehouse with him playing the arcade classic into the morning. "This was the only way I could go 'beta' and go into that state I needed to be, where I could calm down and take my mind off everything," recalled the actor, who confessed that God got him sober. And while the 30 Rock star oddly describes the deity as a "65-year-old retired postal worker named Lenny," we still like to think that the Galagans played their part.

See how classic arcade games, like Galaga, have been updated for the modern audience:

Galaga Legions team wants another shot

by Justin McElroy { Dec 3rd 2008 at 9:00AM }

If you remix something once, you're edgy, willing to let two styles careen into each other and just ride the resulting wave to cash and fame. If you remix something twice? Well, that's just a bit too much for our conservative Baptist upbringing, unless you've got mad, Puff Daddy (P. Diddy?)-level skills ... or you work for Namco Bandai, apparently. The same team that crafted a bold, fresh take on Galaga this year with Galaga Legions says it's itching to take yet another bolder, fresher look at the franchise.

As producer Nobutaka Nakajima told Gamasutra, "Because there are so many different ways of taking the Galaga franchise and many different aspects that could be created into the core fundamentals of the game, we do want to look at Galaga again." Sounds great, but could you maybe remix a few other classic franchises before you get into a rut with one? Hint, hint.

X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Galaga Legions

by Richard Mitchell { Aug 20th 2008 at 6:00PM }

And the August Xbox Live Arcade onslaught continues. This week it's time for Galaga to make a comeback. We're talking about Galaga Legions of course. Created by the same team that transformed Pac-Man into Pac-Man Championship Edition, Galaga Legions takes the original Galaga formula and expands upon it, making an old game feel new again. The only question, especially given the quality we've seen this month, is whether or not it feels new enough. Check out the latest episode of XBLA in Brief to find out.

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Reminder: Galaga Legions swarms XBLA this week

by Richard Mitchell { Aug 18th 2008 at 12:30PM }

Hey kids, just a quick reminder that this week's Xbox Live Arcade game is none other than Galaga Legions. Created by the same team that reinvented the Pac-Man formula for Pac-Man CE, Galaga Legions adds significant changes to the Galaga formula while still retaining the feel of the original. We had a chance to play it at E3 last month and we were definitely impressed. Priced at 800 Microsoft Points, Galaga Legions will hit XBLA this Wednesday.

Home virtual arcade now includes Dig Dug, Galaga, Pac-Man, echochrome

by Andrew Yoon { Jul 31st 2008 at 5:06PM }

If you're one of the few that's already in the Home beta, you may have already experienced the underwhelming virtual arcade, located in the Games Space within Home. The new version being released for Japan will expand the arcade offerings, and the new choices look yummy. Namco Bandai is offering seven games within Home, with four revealed already: Dig Dug, Galaga, Pac-Man and Xevious. Three more "secret" games will be revealed later.

More intriguing, a 2D Home-exclusive version of echochrome can also be accessed from within Home. With more and more game offerings being added to the online service, we're confident that everyone will want to access the virtual world at least once -- if only to play these games.

[Via Joystiq & Siliconera]

Japanese Home beta opens, adds Namco classics

by Randy Nelson { Jul 31st 2008 at 3:50PM }

Sony has begun accepting applications for the next beta phase of Home ... in Japan. PS3 users can put their names in the hat (from which 10,000 will be chosen) directly from a new option in the Japanese PlayStation Store. Successful applicants will be notified via email before the beta officially kicks off at the end of August.

In related news, classic arcade games from Namco are showing up as virtual coin-ops in the Japanese Home client. Pac-Man, Dig Dug, Galaga, and Xevious have been rolled out so far, with three "secret" titles still on the way. It's interesting to note that Home users – at least in the beta – can play these games for free, whereas they are paid downloads on Xbox Live Arcade. We'll have to wait and see if this holds true for Home games from Namco and other publishers in the open beta (which is supposed to hit by year's end).

Source – Engadget
Source – Siliconera

Castle Crashers, Galaga Legions, more on XBLA in 4-6 weeks

by Richard Mitchell { Jul 17th 2008 at 7:00PM }

During our guided demo of Microsoft's upcoming stable of XBLA games, Microsoft's Scott Austin informed us that all the games on display would be available in the next four to six weeks on Xbox Live Arcade. All of 'em. If you've been reading the impressions on Joystiq, you'll know that this a reason to be excited. For the record, the XBLA games being shown by Microsoft are:

We expected Microsoft to show off some cool XBLA games at E3, but we weren't expecting four to six weeks of win.

E308 hands-on: Galaga Legions

by Richard Mitchell { Jul 17th 2008 at 6:15PM }

click to embiggen

There's really no way to get around this, so here it is: Galaga Legions might as well be called Galaga Championship Edition. It's made by the same Namco team that made Pac-Man Championship Edition and it achieves the same success: reinventing an arcade classic and making it relevant again. At the same time, it is definitely still Galaga in much the same way that Pac-Man CE is still Pac-Man. It's new, it's classic, it's pretty. Period.

Continued →

E308: DS Fanboy enters the Retro Game Challenge

by David Hinkle { Jul 17th 2008 at 2:15PM }

Holy crap is this the most awesome DS game! Seriously, when JC was talking up the title, I trusted the man's judgment, but he couldn't possibly prepare me for how utterly great the DS game is. And when I met up with the folks at Marvelous here at E3 to try out their titles, I had no idea that they were going to have to physically pull me away from Retro Game Challenge.

Lucky for me, I have a good grip. So I get plenty of play time with what is sure to be one of my favorite DS games this year.

Gallery: Game Center CX: Arino's Challenge

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Galaga: Legions goes to XBLA, from Pac-Man CE team

by Andrew Yoon { Jul 14th 2008 at 1:41PM }

Who knew Pac-Man: Championship Edition would be so good? The surprise XBLA hit has inspired yet another modern Namco remake, Galaga: Legions. Legions will arrive exclusively on XBLA, and will come from the same team that brought us Pac-Man: CE. Expect the same kind of visual redesign and addictive retro gameplay. With this and Space Invaders Extreme (DS/PSP), the retro shooter is back in full force.

Portal: Still Alive, Lips, Uno Rush, Galaga Legions to be announced at Microsoft Press Conference

by Mike Schramm { Jul 14th 2008 at 1:24PM }

Gamerscore Blog has leaked Microsoft's announcements in their video RSS feed -- below is a list of games we'll see at the press conference today:

Fable 2
Gears of War 2
Guitar Hero World Tour
Rockband 2
Lips
Uno Rush
Galaga Legions
Portal: Still Alive

So looks like a sequel/sidequel to Portal is in the works for Xbox 360, as is another Uno game, and a Galaga sequel. More news to come, including what we can get out of the video that accompanies the leaked post.

Thanks, William D.!

USK lists 'Galaga Legions' for Xbox 360

by Jason Dobson { May 30th 2008 at 4:00AM }

If you're like us, the arcade shooter Galaga is probably sitting on your Xbox 360's hard drive gathering virtual dust. Even so, that doesn't mean Namco-Bandai won't jump at the chance to try squeeze a few more Microsoft Points out of the old girl. Now, according to a posting by the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbskontrolle (USK), the German version of the ESRB, it looks like the publisher could be doing just that with a new title called Galaga Legions.

We know next to nothing about the game beyond the fact that it's a shooter, but that hasn't stopped speculation that Namco-Bandai, the publisher behind cherished arcade re-imagining Pac-Man: CE, could be giving the same treatment to another classic quarter muncher. The notion makes us giddy -- our hard drives can always use more quality games. It's the fodder for future delisting that we can do without.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

Coming to XBLA: Galaga Legions

by Terrence Stasse { May 29th 2008 at 2:00AM }

The classic top-down shooter Galaga is already on the Live Arcade is one form, and as this news attests, we'll definitely be seeing it again in another form. Published by Namco-Bandai (who also did Pac-Man: CE for XBLA), it has been speculated that this new Galaga Legions will be a well-done revamp in the vein of Namco-Bandai's previous effort.

Given all the news surrounding the relevancy of titles for the Live Arcade, is a possible revamp of a 1981 old-school arcade title that is already on XBLA in another form a good decision for MS? While it is true that the XBLA version of the original isn't up for delisting, it isn't exactly the star of the service. What do you think readers? Does Galaga Legions sound interesting?

[Via xblah]