Pac-Man & Galaga 3DS is better with the 3D off

Galaga is turning 30 years old this year and to celebrate, Namco Bandai is putting out Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions for the 3DS. Pac-Man Tilt is a sidescrolling platformer while Galaga 3D Impact is a first-person 3D space shooter. Probably the last thing you were expecting for both those games, right?

Well here’s something else I wasn’t expecting: I hated the 3D effect for Galaga 3D Impact.

Pac-Man & Galaga Dimensions (3DS)
Developer: Namco Bandai Games
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games
To be released: 2011

First let’s talk about Pac-Man Tilt, which doesn’t even have a 3D feature but for good reasons. You play as Pac-Man (duh) as you run through various levels. In order to reach certain areas in the level, you’ll need to tilt the entire 3DS left or right in order to gain moment for Pac-Man or the platform he’s standing on to get through obstacles. So you can see why 3D would be a problem.

I’ve never been a fan of any Pac-Man game that sees him with arms and legs (Pac-Man World, anyone?) and this one was no different. Doesn’t help that I’ve never liked accelerometer controlled games.

Oddly though, I did enjoy Galaga Dimensions so long as I turned the 3D off. The game is a 3D first-person shooter much like Star Wars Arcade or the end credits in Super Smash Bros. Melee. Waves of alien insects come at you and you have to kill them all with either your lasers or missiles. 

Sounds like a good concept until you realize that the controls require that you have to move your entire upper body, not just the 3DS, in order to look around. It’s kind of insane how you have to control the game and I would never want to play it in a public setting because of it. It’s because of these controls that I can’t stand the 3D for it either. I felt like I going cross-eyed just because of it in fact.

For you Galaga die-hards out there, I made sure to ask if they included the two spaceship trick where you let the alien ship capture one of your ships and then recover it on the next life. Sadly, they aren’t including it. Not that you really need it as you have rapid fire lasers, but it would have been a nice throwback for nostalgia.