Galaga Legions DX

Galaga Legions DX
Xbox Live Arcade cover art
DeveloperNamco Bandai Games
PublisherNamco Bandai Games
DirectorTadashi Iguchi
ProducerToshiko Tamura
ComposerAkihiko Ishikawa
SeriesGalaxian
PlatformsXbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows Phone
Release
June 29, 2011
  • Xbox 360
    • WW: June 29, 2011
    PlayStation 3
    • JP/NA: August 4, 2011
    • EU: August 10, 2011
    Windows Phone
    • WW: August 28, 2012
GenresTwin-stick shooter, bullet hell
ModeSingle-player

Galaga Legions DX is a 2011 twin-stick shooter video game developed and published by Namco Bandai Games for the Xbox 360 (via Xbox Live Arcade) and PlayStation 3 (via PlayStation Network). It is the sequel to Galaga Legions (2008), and the fourteenth entry in the Galaxian series. The player controls the AEf-7 "Blowneedle" starship in its efforts to wipe out the Galaga forces before they destroy all of mankind. The objective is to clear each of the game's nine stages in the quickest time possible by destroying waves of enemies. The Blowneedle has a pair of satellites that can be pointed at enemies to shoot them down. New additions have been made to the core gameplay, such as a "slowdown" effect when the player is about to collide with an enemy.

The game was developed by the same team behind Pac-Man Championship Edition DX, headed by director Tadashi Iguchi and producer Toshiko Tamura. Iguchi thought the original Legions tried too hard to be original and only appealed to a niche audience, deciding to make the game appeal towards more casual players with simple controls and a focus on frantic gameplay. The team focused heavily on high-score battles as a callback to video game tournaments from the early 1980s, and to appeal towards both veterans and newcomers to the Galaxian series. It was the second and last game released under the Namco Generations label (which was discontinued in 2012), and was made to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the original Galaga arcade game.

Upon release, Galaga Legions DX received mostly favorable reviews from critics. Reviewers praised the game's graphics, frantic gameplay and improvements made over its predecessor, although some criticized its lack of content and said it was less well-refined than the first game. A Windows Phone version of the game was released in 2012. The Xbox 360 version was made available on the Xbox One in 2016 as part of the system's backwards compatibility lineup. It was the only other game released under the Namco Generations label, as it was discontinued a year after the game's release in 2012.