Galaga 3

A direct sequel to Galaga. The objective is to score as many points as possible by defeating successive waves of enemies in levels called "Parsecs". Its core gameplay is very similar to Galaga: Enemies fly onto the screen in rows and join a formation near the top, then begin attacking the player's ship with kamikaze-like dives. The ship can move left and right, as well as vertically. Bonus lives are earned at certain score intervals, and can also be gained by collecting ship parts dropped by some enemies, as well as collecting Rally-X bonus flags from shooting stars. The player loses a life when struck by an enemy or one of their shots; the game ends when all lives are lost.

Certain enemies drop upgrades that include a tractor beam which the player can use to capture enemies, a large drill that can destroy many enemies at once, powerups that temporarily slow down enemies or nullify their shots, and parts to create a new ship that awards an extra life when completed. Some stages begin with the star field reversing direction, with harder and faster waves of enemies appearing before resuming a normal formation.

The game features bonus "Challenging Stages" just as Galaga did. However, instead of defeating a certain number of enemies, the objective of the challenging stage is to juggle enemies by hitting them as many times as possible. Each hit grants a dot (represented by a bee) in a word or phrase, with extra hits adding to horizontal lines above and below the word. Spelling the entire word or phrase will earn a bonus related to that phrase, and each hit scores bonus points at the end of the round.