One of the initial offerings on the VC's new arcade service is Gaplus, a little-known followup to Namco's classic shooter Galaga. Sadly, Gaplus falls short of the standards set by its' predecessor, but is nonetheless an interesting entry to check out for the hard-core shooter fans out there.

Like Galaga, your mission here is to mow down waves of alien invaders, but there are a couple of notable twists to the gameplay. The first is the fact that you can now move your ship freely around the lower half of the screen -- something which you'll need to do often, as the aliens here have more complex attack patterns than in Galaga. And instead of the simple "doubleship" power-up mechanic, players are able to use a tractor beam to pull in aliens and use their firepower alongside their own ship.

Though these tweaks do add to the overall gameplay, Gaplus' high difficulty curve will put off more causal players, who would probably be better off downloading Galaga '90. But for those players out there looking for a challenge in the shooting realm and want to check out a bit of gaming history in the process, Gaplus will fit the bill nicely.