Apple Galaxian

The Good
Namco’s Galaxian is a very popular shooter which made its way across many home systems. Although these versions try to be as faithful to the original arcade version as possible, in my opinion, Brøderbund’s version, called Alien Rain, is far superior. Against a scrolling star background, you are fighting a group of aliens that swoop down at you. Your ship at the bottom of the screen is capable of moving left or right to avoid any projectiles they hurl down at you.

What I like most of the game are the aliens themselves. They are quite colorful, and they actually look like flowers to me if I look close enough. They turn upside-down before swooping down at you, and their kamikaze attacks consists of severe zig-zag patterns you can easily avoid by moving in the opposite direction to them. The points you are awarded for killing the aliens differ depending on how far up on the screen they are. You get 300 points for shooting the top-most alien while it goes in for the attack. Also, the longer you survive in the game, the more lives you get.

Sound-wise, the sonics are basically the same as Galaxian, with a sound going down in pitch when the aliens are performing their kamikaze attacks. I love how fart sounds are heard when they drop projectiles at you. It is good that Brøderbund gives users the option of playing the game with the keyboard if they don’t have a joystick handy, and the way the game doesn’t require you to restrict your playing hand to only one side of the keyboard.

The Bad
Star Craft, the Japanese developers of the game, sent a clear message that Alien Rain is not to be played by people who suffer epileptic seizures; there are unnecessary flashes on the title screen, and these flashes speed up over time.

The Bottom Line
Alien Rain is an excellent, colorful shooter that is very faithful to Namco's original hit, both in terms of gameplay and sound. It is also addictive; once you run out of all your lives, there is that sudden urge to play again. If you wanted to play the game back in the day, you needed to get an Apple ][, as Brøderbund had this thing against releasing shooters for more than one system.