Titanion

3 Kenta Cho does Galaga
It’s amazing how just changing one aspect of a game can change the whole thing for the better – or the worse.

Take Titanion, which is basically Galaga in reverse. Instead of the opposing space bugs threatening to capture your ship, and you having to either fight against said ship or try to recapture it, thereby scoring an advantage in firepower, you instead use a tractor beam to capture the opposing… abstract enemy shape-things, and use their firepower. In theory, this is a great idea, but it does sort of take away from a lot of the strategy that made Galaga so appealing. Furthermore, the sheer number of enemies you can capure can tear through almost anything in moments, rendering the game much quicker and – to be frank – much easier.

This isn’t to say that Titanion’s a bad game. I don’t think that ABA has put out anything that can be truly called “bad”. It’s just not as challenging or polished as the game it takes its inspiration from.

If anything, the third game mode is the saving grace of this title. The Provocation Beam and the bullet multiplier system are excellent mechanics, and will make the modern bullet hell shmup-fan a lot more comfortable.

Still not as good as rRootage, but worth a playthrough for fans of the genre.