About Galaga
Galaga arrived from Namco in 1981 as the follow-up to Galaxian, and it fixed the one thing that made every earlier space shooter feel static: the enemies stopped waiting in a grid. They fly on in formation from off-screen, loop through the play area, and only then settle into their ranks — and they keep peeling off to dive at you for the rest of the wave.
Its signature idea is the capture. A boss Galaga fires a tractor beam; if it takes your ship, you lose a life. Shoot that boss while it is holding your fighter and the captured ship joins you, giving a double-width fighter with twice the firepower.
How to play
- Move your fighter left and right along the bottom of the screen and shoot the aliens as they arrive and attack.
- Clear every alien in the wave to move on. Enemies that have already landed in formation will still dive at you individually.
- Watch for the green boss Galaga's tractor beam. Getting caught costs a life, but rescuing the captured ship doubles your firepower.
- Every few stages is a Challenging Stage: a fixed pattern of aliens that never shoot back. Hit all forty for a large bonus.
Controls
- Left and Right arrows
- Move the fighter.
- Space bar / Z
- Fire.
- Touch
- Drag to move, tap to fire.
Tips
- You can only have two shots on screen at once. Fire deliberately — spamming the button wastes your second bullet on empty sky.
- Shoot the aliens while they are still flying in. A wave killed during its entry never reaches formation and never dives at you.
- The double fighter is worth the risk. If a boss grabs your ship and you still have lives in reserve, hunting that boss down pays for itself.
- The double fighter is also twice as wide, so it is twice as easy to hit. Play it more cautiously than a single ship.
- On Challenging Stages, stop dodging and start tracking. Nothing can hurt you there, and a perfect forty gives 10,000 points.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get the double ship in Galaga?
Let a boss Galaga capture your fighter with its tractor beam, then shoot that boss on a later pass while it still carries your ship. The freed fighter docks alongside you.
What are the Challenging Stages?
Bonus rounds that appear roughly every three stages. The aliens fly set patterns and never fire. Hitting all forty awards a 10,000-point bonus.
Is Galaga harder than Space Invaders?
It is faster and less predictable. Space Invaders gives you a slowly descending block; Galaga sends individual enemies on curved dive paths that change every wave.
Do I need to install anything?
No. The game runs in the browser above.