Awright.
Despite the cartoony depictions of these...
frogs, I think they're frogs?
We'll go with frogs.
Despite the cartoony depictions of these frogs, there's something more hardcore at work here.
It just...
well, it happens to be covered in cartoon frogs.
But I've seen this choreography before.
I've seen these movements, these patterns.
The sprites may be different but the game is most definitely the same.
Don't insult my intelligence, Cosmo Gang The Video.
I see you for what you really are.
Ladies and gents, courtesy of our dear friend Felicity in Worcestershire, I give you: BABY'S
FIRST GALAGA.
Which, given that this is a Namco product, isn't really that far off.
It feels like Galaga, it plays like Galaga for the most part, but the visuals, including...
y'know, I think they're insects now.
We'll go with insects.
The visuals, including these insects, are lifted from a popular ticket-redemption game...
AKA those things I walk past at Dave & Busters as I'm about to get my groove on at the Pump
it Up machine.
And Namco have, on occasion, given them their own chances to shine on the home consoles...
although it's usually either a knock-off of Pac Attack or a knockoff of Galaga.
Still, even fake-Galaga can be a damn good time (as the Kacho has shown us), and this
version certainly tries to mix things up a bit by including a number of wrinkles, like...
um... wild west gunslinging?
Where you're trying to push these insect... frog... things back away from the clearly-marked
bags of money.
I thought Challenging Stages in Galaga were supposed to be about smashing every enemy
ship, not, y'know, beating back... these guys.
But ultimately the differences lie in a much simpler learning curve and a preponderance
of power-ups and potent... um... shots.
Man.
I WISHED punches worked there.
But no.
You move from side to side, slalom incoming shots, and shoot upward so as to deliver vengeance
upon these...
um...
frog-insect things.
Maybe they're ants?
I guess that'd still be insects, though.
It's certainly got a world more color than the dismal starfield that contained this style
of gameplay, and there's a non-trivial amount of vocal work for these...
man.
ARE THEY INSECTS OR ARE THEY FROGS OR WHAT?
That's the only really bad thing I can say about Cosmo Gang, I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE
HELL THESE THINGS ARE.
I guess I'll just continue to shoot them, collect their delicious bouncing power-ups,
and then shoot more of them.
There you have it: Cosmo Gang.
It's Galaga for people who weren't around for actual arcades and can't really understand
what the fuss was about.
On the one hand, it's kinda sad, on the other, I'm glad to see that those ideas manage to
live on, even if it's all kinda... easycakes.
At least you're not plunking quarter after quarter into a monolithic device; that was
a lot of money back now.
But now you can enjoy all the action at home...
well, with any number of domestically-available versions of Galaga, OR this strange Japanese
derivation that keeps things looking shiny, even as you're spraying insect ant frog guts
all over the place.