Nerds and geeks of a certain age fondly remember Macross/Robotech, Star Blazers and other spectacle-filled, emotionally overwrought animated space operas from the 1980s. These Japanese series remain touchstones for a generation and some folks miss them quite a bit. Jake Kazdal is one of those people and the game designer decided to make a game paying homage to those old shows. It’s called Galak-Z: The Dimensional.
I tried out the game this weekend at PAX Prime and can say it’s beautiful. And hard. As you’ll see in the interview above with Kazdal, Galak-Z infuses its side-scroller shooter gameplay with modern elements like advanced AI and stealth mechanics. If you’re not shooting when flying through the cold void of space, you can sneak up on enemy patrols. And those same attackers will try to flank and surround you in combat, too.
You’ll want to play Galak-Z like a typical shoot-em-up: just blasting your way through anything that moves. But it demands quite a bit more strategy than that and that challenge — along with its retrolicious throwback feel — make for a pretty enjoyable experience. Look for it to hit PS4 and other platforms next year.
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5 responses to “If You Grew Up In The ’80s, Your Soul Cries Out For This Space Shooter”
:O I want!!!!
I dream of the day I can fly first-person in the cockpit of a Valkyrie, and unleash rocket-hell on a mass of zentraedi pods. Until then, this may do….
I’m happy with third person, Battlecry is still one of my favorite games… The music was good, it played well, and the story was good. I wish they’d make a HD re-release, or start localising the Japanese macross games (just give it english menus and subtitles…)
The closest you can get is either import one of the many Macross games from Japan or play Strike Suit Zero which has nice missile swarms.
Robotech Battlecry on the GameCube had some epic moments in it (also some awful awful checkpoint ‘out-of-bounds’ rubbish). I would definitely recommend though.
My souls still cries out for R-Type. Bangai-O filled the void for a while, but this must be mine!
Aah the macross missile massacre… How I miss thee
The only reason I have a 360 is for shmups. I really hope Sony can bring the shmup scene back to its consoles. Really looking forward to giving GALAK-Z a go!