Talk:Gaplus

Gaplus Phalanx

Someone please add information about Gaplus Phalanx- the sequel to Gaplus and the Let's! TV play classic series.

Link removal

I've removed links that I believe violate style guidelines. A link to Japan, for example, doesn't help a reader understand this article about Gaplus more fully. Superbeecat 00:36, 28 June 2007 (UTC)

Fair use rationale for Image:Gaplus bonus.png

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BetacommandBot (talk) 19:50, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Easter Egg

I really don't think there should be an easter egg section. It's not good form in any game article, right? In any case, I'll put it here if someone wants to try and fit it in somewhere. -- An easter egg exists in the game that lets a player obtain the upgraded ship on the first parsec, without resorting to the difficult shooting star method outlined above. This is achieved as follows. When the game begins, the player allows all enemy ships to "form ranks" without destroying any of them. When the shooting star appears, the player immediately shoots the bottom alien second from the left. Then the special flag will appear. The player does not collect the flag immediately (which awards a bonus life). Instead, they must wait for the King (carrying the tractor beam powerup) to attack, then crash their ship into him. (They must crash into the King, and not the powerup.) All remaining ships are immediately upgraded to the "triple shot" version. The player can then collect the flag to restore the lost life. If the flag is not obtained, and left into the next level, another flag will appear. By simply letting them gather on parsec 2 too, only instead of shooting the bottom left one, shoot the bottom second to right alien. As an additional quirk, in two player mode the second player's ships are also upgraded; that player can then use the same technique (excluding crashing into the King) to obtain an additional life, giving them an advantage in the game. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Herzog (talk • contribs) 22:22, 12 October 2009 (UTC)

Assessment

This article in its current state doesn't even satisfy the C-class criteria, as it has no references (WP:V) and is thus filled with original research (WP:NOR). Describing the gameplay should be easy if you can find websites or magazines that have covered the game. The prose is pretty messy, though, and does not clearly describe how the game plays. Some examples from the text:

• Just to start, I'd recommend ditching the bulleted lists and just putting that stuff in paragraph form.
• it is possible to shoot 60 bullets per screen; the most any Galaga related game has. What does this mean?

The Hyper ship (three shots at a time) plus three bugs on each side (each normally shooting two shots at a time) and then any necessary powerups to increase the number of shots. Sixty bullets total may also include enemy shots at the player's ship? Four shots at a time also spread each time a diamond-shaped star appears and then explodes (the shots must be dodged or quickly shot). I've only made gameplay progress as far as Parsec 15. (Enemy graphics change at Parsec 10 and game speed also starts to increase.)

• the player can get a ship with new graphics that can have three shots on screen instead of two. What does this mean, especially when comparing it to the previous statement? Do you have ammo, but will the game only let you shoot so many shots in succession?

The standard number of shots for a normal ship is two at a time, just like original Galaga (not four shots as seen in Galaga Anniversary Edition). The required secret reveals a Hypership with a different appearance (also shown in attract mode) and three shots maximum at a time.

• The challenging stages are very different from the original. Original what?

Different from the original Galaga. Instead of trying to defeat all Challenging Stage enemies for a perfect bonus, they are srategically shot to be bounced over and over again to gradually accumulate a bonus. (They eventually get faster to the point where some are not able to be bounced and fall out the bottom of the screen, and the remaining ones still able to be bounced have a maximum number of bounces before they exit out the side of the screen.) Three formations per Challenging Stage.

• In describing the Queen Gaplus, you've said what she does before defining what she is.

There is only one obvious Queen bug on each Parsec (sometimes referred to as a King bug). Sometimes it does not carry a powerup item and instead has a piece of a bonus ship. Sometimes it has neither a powerup nor a piece of a bonus ship. Shoot the Queen bug twice to collect the item it is carrying. (The first shot turns the middle part blue, the second shot destroys it.)

• What the powerups do is not clearly enough described: The red powerup captures enemies with a tractor beam where each one provides another shot. Where does the tractor beam come from? I assume you catch these powerups as they reach the bottom of the screen, so does the tractor beam sit there? Each one what? And don't use the word where, because you're not describing a place.

Catch the required powerup by shooting the Queen bug, the powerup drops onto the player ship that is frozen in place (with invulnerability while the powerup is falling), and the tractor beam emits from the player's ship for a limited amount of time.

• The purple powerup changes the screen to a vertical orientation. How does this affect the gameplay? Did the original game not use a vertical screen?

This might be the slow reverse effect powerup description. Instead of the starfield scrolling down the screen as a background, it slowly scrolls upward for a slow motion effect. (This is in contrast to a faster reverse scroll that occurs during the Parsec following a Challenging Stage.)

• All of these powerups may be stacked on top of one another They're not "physically" stacked in the game; their powers overlap, so clarify that.

• In general, trivia is discouraged on Wikipedia (WP:TRIVIA), and indeed, the things mentioned are too trivial to be worth writing about.
• It is assumed that the name Gaplus is short for Galaga Plus. By who?
• While I don't know what policy describes it, a lot of opinionated words are used. For example:

• Oddly enough, while Gaplus is also known as Galaga 3, there was no official "Galaga 2".
• Interestingly, as long as the machine is not turned off,

Your first task in improving this article should be to find reliable sources (WP:RS) to back up the descriptions of the gameplay. Any generalizations about the game's difficulty or market rarity should be removed unless you can back it up with an authoritative statement. I'd recommend removing most of the trivia, except maybe the bit about there being no Galaga 2. Finally, do some research on the game's impact, reception, and legacy. What do critics have to say about it? Has the game won any awards? --gakon5 (talk) 00:42, 13 October 2009 (UTC)

This game is rare enough that a limited number of arcade machines exist and aside from the possibility of external machine ROM emulation, is only known to be available for home consoles in Namco Museum Volume 2 for the Sony PlayStation (PSOne). A sufficiently long play video source would be required since the attract mode only shows up to the tractor beam powerup that captures enemy bugs and adds them as player ship firepower. (The attract mode does also show a portion of the mechanics required for the Challenging Stage.)