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App Army Assembles - How does Galaxy Stack shape up?

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| Galaxy Stack
App Army Assembles - How does Galaxy Stack shape up?

Our community gets shooting and stacking

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Mixing Tetris and Space Invaders sounds like a pretty good recipe, but in the end it never really stacked up - our review of Galaxy Stack found it to be a tad underwhelming, despite a pretty decent concept.

But what do we know? We're just some fools running a website about mobile games. So we decided to give our community of mobile gaming fanatics, the App Army, their hands on the game as well.

You can read their reviews below, but we know what you really want - your own chance of getting the best and latest games for absolutely naught beyond giving us a review.

Well you can! Just join our App Army over on Facebook (make sure to answer the short questions given to you!) and each week you'll have a shot at playing a big game of that week.

And better yet, you can chat about mobile games with other fans of the platform, make some friends, and get some wonderful, stimulating conversation in your life.

Sound good? Then go join the App Army! And come right back to read the reviews of Galaxy Stack!

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Paul Manchester - iPhone SE

I really wanted to spend more time with this game but it was over before it started. For me, as simple and rewarding as the controls and mechanics were, there just isn’t enough to warrant long high score chasing sessions.

I was disappointed that they didn’t make more of the stacking element of the game, which I think could have added so much more to the game. Hopefully this is a starting point and they can build on this for a cracking sequel!

As it is though, short, simple and just not enough to it.

Click Here To View The List »

Mark Abukoff - iPhone XS

I enjoyed this game purely for the retro experience. It looks good, the controls are simple, and it’s fairly challenging, which is a good sign.

But here’s the thing - I played probably a combined half hour trying to get to the first boss, and maybe it’s just me, but I couldn’t get there. I lasted (according to the game) for eleven minutes once, though it seemed like less than eleven minutes to be honest, and still I didn’t seem to be anywhere close to the boss.

So playing any more isn’t really a priority. Not to say I won’t, but it’s on the shortlist for deletion if I get to cleaning up unused apps. It does look good and it’s fun, and I think that the stacking element has potential, though it’s flawed right now.

All in all, I’d be happy if this was a free or 99 cent purchase. But at twice that, I’m afraid I can’t recommend.

Matt King

I came into this game expecting Space Invaders meets Tetris. What I got was Cheap Knock-Off Invaders meets one of those TV programmes about hoarders.

What happens is one or two ships slowly fly towards you shooting. If you kill them they fall to the bottom. The idea is to make the biggest pile you can. As the pile gets higher it scrolls out of the way somewhat so you still have most of the screen to play with.

No completing lines or any other Tetris ideas you might be expecting. Just very slow invaders and having to dodge their dead ships.

This could have been an interesting mash-up, it's not, it's dull.

Michael Purdy - iPhone 6S Plus

I really wanted to like this game. It had a good first impression, the graphics are an appealing twist on old arcade shooters, music is nice.

I like the concept of mixing Space Invaders with a puzzle game. But there doesn't seem to be much puzzle elements, just stacking as high as you can. I feel like it's missing something. Ultimately, I just wasn't motivated to continue..

Also the controls didn't feel right to me. Like it wasn't optimized well for a touch screen.

Steve Clarke

Galaxy Stack is a game missing a mechanic. As others have said, you shoot ships and stack them as high as you can until the boss appears. It's initially quite fun but you're soon left with the feeling the game lacks depth.

Something as simple as stacking 3 ships of the same colour giving a bonus or making those three ships disappear would add a much-needed extra dimension to this title. As it stands it’s a rather shallow experience I’d struggle to recommend.

Funem

This is going to be a strange review. Usually I like Crescent Moon Games, and you can tell by those opening words, the next word is going to be… but…

Usually I like Crescent Moon Games but this is possibly the first time I would have to say that this game does nothing for me. For nearly all the reviews I do on here, I initially play the game for about 30 minutes or more depending on how it pulls me in with that one more go feeling or needing to push on and see what else it has to offer, then I play is a few more times over the course of the next few days.

With Galaxy Stack I will have to be honest, I played it for about 40 minutes, defeated all the bosses and the game then just became a high score chaser.

The game is basically, shoot, or don't shoot ships so that when it falls to the bottom of the screen it stacks on all the other ships. The object is to stack the highest you can and shoot a boss that appears far too early in the level to make it a challenge.

The game has nothing that makes you want to come back to it, it’s just too bland and nondescript to care about, and for possibly the first time, after the initial play through I forgot all about it. That’s never happened for any other game I have reviewed on her or anywhere else.

When I remembered I had to write a review, I played it again but my feelings haven’t changed. I think the game could do with a rewrite. The concept is there, but the play area is too small, graphics need to shrink down and have more space for things to happen, the bosses need to be later in the levels, and there needs to be more to unlock to make you want to come back, like themes, more ships, harder levels.

To be brutally honest, it reminds me of one of those games that comes free with a programming language to show you what simple games you can make, or a Java game from the early days of mobiles. I hate to be hard on a game because someone took time to make it, but I think they should have taken more time and got more feedback and put more content into it.

Roman Valerio - iPad Air

My conclusion after playing Galaxy Stack for 25 minutes is this "the most absurd and pointless game I've seen in years". And I swear that I gave it a second chance, which is by no means my MO.

I guess the idea was to merge all too familiar gameplays of Space Invaders and Tetris, but as I've sadly learned from my high school chemistry lessons that combining two well-known elements does not always give you best results.

Here you have a very limited field of play and thus almost no space to maneuver. All the ships you unlock look almost indiscernible. The stacking part is just there to be as at least they could make it more challenging by having us stack the same colored ships or spacecrafts of one type.

And on top of all that, the game is heavily pixelated, which was probably meant to make it look retro cool or maybe help hide its numerous flaws.

At times I read somewhere, that we, the mobile gamers, should be more supportive of indie devs and deprive ourselves of takeaway coffee in favor of their slapdash "visionary masterpieces". In this case I'd have to say no.

Oksana Ryan - iPad Pro

I love Tetris and Space Invaders and to have a combination of the two in one game seemed perfect, but the gameplay fell way short of expectation. There is little challenge to the game except to better your own score, time after time, after time. I’m afraid I soon got bored with it.

To be fair, the graphics and soundtrack were good, but the rest just didn’t deliver. I haven’t a lot more to say except that there is a gem of a concept here but it needs to go back to the drawing board and have a massive gameplay upgrade.

Rohit Bhatia - OnePlus 6T

I was expecting something else from this. Never disliked a CM game - this game changed that. Visuals are cool, I like that, but the game has nothing to offer. It's a high score chaser, I was expecting expecting some kind of quest system or colour matching of Tetris but oh God!!

I feel bad even saying this but I would not recommend this at all. It's simple high score chaser with new ships, that's all to the game.

Naail Zahid - Nokia 7 Plus/Xperia XZ3

First of all, this game is nothing like I expected. I went in thinking it's another mindless shooter, but I quickly realised that it's more like a tower stacking game fused together with twinbee from the arcades of yesteryear. It's also a nice call back to games like tetris attack as pieces (ships) start moving faster and faster as you reach higher. Also, there's boss battles!

The problem is I just described everything the game has to offer in this paragraph. That's it, it's a battle to the top to get a high score and that's the gist of it. You can unlock some new ships and it kind of changes the play style a bit but the overall game is the same. Shoot to the top and see how high you can score.

It's a fun little toilet time passer but anyone expecting a lot of depth is in for disappointment. Soundtrack is kinda catchy tho, and it plays well on budget devices.

Ed Davis - iPhone XR

An interesting take on what appears to be an amalgamation of Tetris and Space Invaders. The concept is simple enough: shoot some spaceships and stack them as high as possible. That’s it. There is a very basic unlock system which takes no time at all to complete. This leads the game to being a score chaser. This is ok if you are competitive in that way but for those looking for an engaging and varied game, you probably won’t get much out of it.

Quincy Jones - iPhone 8 Plus

I love retro games but this felt like a pointless merge of two games the turned into a complete snorefest in my opinion. Sound's good, retro looks good, game itself not worth playing.

Maybe people that chase high scores might enjoy it but for me 15 minutes of my life were wasted.

Dries Pretorius - iPad Air

One of the things I enjoy most about mobile gaming is how the technical limitations of the platform demands innovation. Many indie titles emerging on the platform are demonstrations of how exciting a well-worn genre can be when approached from a new direction, or how, with a little daring and innovation two genres can fuse to create something fresh and unique.

I feel that the real problem with Galaxy Stack is that it fails in its scope. There is nothing under the initial layers of a first impression - you wait in vain for the next layer to unfold which would change the way you play.

I couldn’t help but wonder at how much more interesting the gameplay would be if there was a colour matching mechanic at least. Galaxy Stack has, between its generic roots, so much more potential than it realizes.

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Ric Cowley
Ric Cowley
Ric was somehow the Editor of Pocket Gamer, having started out as an intern in 2015. He hopes to take over the world the same way.