The timely $7.99 sale clinched the five stars!

Id been wanting to have Namcos official Galaga games on my iPad for a while, but the price required access all the games just seemed annoying high. Then after Id spent a whole lot of time and money on some other game apps with addictive in-app purchases, I decided today (2011-12-01): "what the heck, Galaga wont seem like such a high price to pay after all." To my great surprise and pleasure, it so happened that Namco was running a sale of ALL FOUR game buy-ins together for the same price of $7.99! I couldnt enter my iTunes password quickly enough.

UPDATE 1: so far, I have tested Galaxian and Galaga 88 30th Anniversary; Ill leave Gaplus for later as it wasnt part of my "upbringing.". I thought there would be some sort of option to play the games in their original incarnations, in addition to their modernized versions with overdriven colors and extra equipment. Guess not. I noted that among the control options, B-Type - where you tap on the game screen to fire and you drag beneath the game screen to move - works really very well. In this mode, the ship movement speed matches your swipe speed, so the faster your finger moves, the faster your ship cross the screen as well. This isnt how the original worked in the arcades, but I feel it does work on iPad. I also like how the shot meter shows how much ammo remains for your weapon and that you cant just rapid-fire endlessly, so a little strategy helps. One neat feature is that you can earn gaming points and use them to "buy" ship upgrades such as More Bullets or Faster Reload which last during an entire game. Great! I dont actually have to spend iTunes credits.

I will report back and modify my review as necessary to reflect my experience with the other games. But so far, Im having fun. And I really am glad to have caught the sale.

 kdon5O5 about Galaga 30th Collection, v1.0.1