Galaxian

The initial attack is thwarted, but the battle isn't over. They'll be back, stronger than ever. Next time, you'll be manning the command ship, again waiting courageously to defend the planet and defeat the Galaxian fleet. Use your accurate aim and quick reflexes, as well as strategy and forethought. A foolish move could cost you the battle and the planet.

--From the Colecovision Galaxian instruction manual.

Overview:
Similar to Galaga, Galaxian was another of those arcade shooters where you're being attacked by aliens who keep their ships in these tight formations that are easy for you to shoot at. Sounds silly. Still, it is pretty challenging for all its simplicity. When those little buggers get moving, they're difficult to stamp out.

Galaxian is a bright and colorful game. The red ones (Hornets) are a bit difficult to distinguish from the purple ones (Emissaries), who look more pink than purple to me. The yellow Flagships make a different noise when you explode them, and it is a very rewarding sound indeed. The sound effects are quirky and silly sounding to me, but there is a nice explosion whenever you or your enemies blow up. Your laser cannons sound a bit pathetic, but it's very similar to MIB's "Noisy Cricket," I guess, since one hit and BOOM! the whole enemy ship blows up. Of course, one hit will blow up your whole ship too. While they appear to be advanced enough in this game scenario to have come up with 'laser cannons', they never bothered to come up with a shield. Oh well.

This game is very hard to put down. Killing Galaxians may very well become one of your new favorite pastimes.

Directions:
Shoot as many of the forty-six ships as you can without getting hit yourself. The different colors of ships will behave differently. Yellow Flagship Commanders always attack with two red Hornets (unless you've destroyed the hornets), giving them a wider attack range and making them more dangerous.

Remember, it takes a while for your shots to reach the enemy, so it takes a bit of timing, but once you've hit one try to drift with them and keep steadily firing as fast as you can. If you don't take out the yellow ones first, they'll bail when you put heat on by taking out the hornets near them. They'll show up again in the next round, but there can only be up to four flagships at the top.

As you're trying to take them out column by column (or row by row if you prefer), enemies will break off and come after you, shooting all the while. These shots can be difficult to see, and running into them or the enemy ship will result in your losing a ship. More and more of them come flying at you, faster and faster the further you progress. Eventually you could have fifteen attacking at once!! After you have killed off most of the army and only have a few left, the enemies that break off to attack you will no longer go back to their original positions. They become much harder to hit at this point.