I'm being one thousand percent serious, here. It's got tons of iconic ships between Gyaraga, Galaxip, and the alt header from Gaplus, the enemie ships like Zako and Goei. The whole plot is literally just "Aliens vs us because they hate us."

Galaxian is the first entry, and it's a superior knockoff of the original Space Invaders that they made before Pac-Man. Wasn't the most iconic, but paved the way for:

Galaga: "Demons of Death", as the NES port called it. Gave us the classic jingle and everything that we associate with it.

Gaplus (or Galaga 3 (there was no Galaga 2)). A really odd entry in the franchise. Among other things, you can use the tractor beam to do to the foes what the Boss Galagas did to you in the last game: use then as weapons. They become your "double ships" this time.

Galaga '88 (also released as Galaga '90 on the Turbografx) gives Galaga multiple endings and added difficultly. It's a personal nostalgia trip favorite.

Galaga Arrangement (Arcade): The Best Galaga hands down. They got everything right. Too bad it's been so sparsely release on anything since the GameCube generation.

Galaga Wars: Mobile Game. A rather high-quality one, as well. You've got the Galaga ship Galaxip from Galaxian, you've got the Solvalou from Xevious, you've got PAC-MAN... and thirteen levels to clear. Each ship you have counts as a life, and there's no cool down for how often you can play, meaning you can get all the daily collectibles with skill alone. I almost 100%ed it a couple years ago, had a blast. Might revisit it after beating Galaga Arrangement about 100 more times.

There's also other entries I know less about, like Galaxian 3 (there was no Galaxian 2), Galaga: Destination Earth, Galaga Arrangement (PSP), Galaga Legions...

Almost forgot, Galaga Remix! Namco Museum Megamix brought us a party game version of Galaga that's 3D and first-person. The music in it is almost as good as the arcade Arrangement soundtrack.

Developer: King of the Jungle

Experience Played:

🌱 Original Game (PlayStation, Windows)

Completion Status:

✔ Primary Campaign Complete! (Albeit with a lot of savestate manipulation)

Viv's Thoughts:

I admit that, since I was little, I've had a bit of a soft spot for this arcade reimagining, at least in concept. With stages that dynamically change perspectives (mainly top-down, side-scrolling, and behind-the-back) as you progress through each wave with mission objectives and fun 3D setpieces sprinkled throughout, this looks on its surface like an intriguing evolution of an influential classic, but some counterintuitive design choices make this one kind of overstay its welcome; not least of which being the poor implementation of the on-rails behind-the back segments, an inundation of bullet sponge-y and fidgety rear-shielded enemies as the game wears on, lack of autofire which made my thumbs really sore after a while due to the constant mashing of the fire button, and a general lack of iteration on the core formula when one could have just as easily accessed the original Galaxian, Galaga, and Gaplus on the same console through the Namco Museum compilations which had released multiple years earlier, to say nothing of the myriad other options for quality shoot 'em ups available at the time (I'm hardly familiar with with the genre at all, personally, and yet even I'm keenly aware of this).