E3: Galaga 30th Anniversary hits iOS with free Galaxian

You can download Galaga 30th Anniversary for free today, and you should — if only for the amazing trailer that it opens with.

I got to play it for a bit this week, and yep: it’s Galaga. The app gives you Galaxian G 30th Edition for free, and you earn “Galaga points” with every game you play that let you upgrade your ship. The game comes with achievements, leaderboards, a “retro filter,” and three different control schemes to fit your touch-control tastes. Each control scheme works pretty well, but it’s nice to have choice.

Ships fly down from the usual alien ship grid at the top of the screen, and solo aliens or groups of aliens will swoop down to the bottom of the screen. The closer to the bottom you shoot them down, the more points you score. You’re also rated on shot accuracy and your gun has a type of overheat meter, so you have to pay attention to how often you shoot.

Using in-app purchases, you can buy the 30th Anniversay Editions of Gaplus, and Galaga for $2.99 each, Galaga ’88 for $3.99, or $7.99 for all three. I wasn’t able to try those games out myself, and at that price I’m pretty sure I’m never going to. You do get Galaxian for free though, so there’s that.