Acclaim, Acclaim… once the darlings of American third-party publishing houses, they fell into disrepute in the mid-’90s by increasingly releasing games that simply weren’t the best of Saturn — or “best of” any other console for that matter. But there were exceptions, and Taito’s Galactic Attack (a.k.a. Layer Section in Japan and RayForce in the arcades) is definitely a gem in the Acclaim rough.
Galactic Attack is an overhead auto-scrolling shmup of the highest quality. The art style, music, and sound effects are all top-notch. The visuals deserve perhaps the most praise — large, colorful sprites, tons of enemies on screen, and a fast-paced bullet-hell environment means that your eyes will always be delighted, even if your poor thumbs aren’t.
The game is presented in both Saturn-arranged 4:3 and arcade-original 3:4 tate mode, satisfying both core Saturn gamers and arcade purists. Level design is superb, with the reverse of the usual space shooter — you begin in outer space and gradually make your way deeper and deeper into the planet to confront the game’s end boss. The game’s (ac)claim to fame is that there are two layers to attack (see what I did there?) — the same layer that your ship flies in and a section below your vessel. Your regular shots can only hit enemies on your layer, whereas a crosshair in front of you can target layers beneath you with homing missiles. In practice, you can often target and destroy enemies in lower layers when they are less of a threat and reduce the number of ships you have to fight when they come up to your layer.
The game features eight levels of intense shooting action and is for one or two players, sharing the game’s measly four credits. It’s tough, but in a good way. Strange that one of the system’s best shmups should come to us courtesy of Acclaim, but here we are. Galactic Attack is most worthy of your time and is definitely a #BestOfSaturnGold title.
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