Galactic Beacon Brigade for Windows

Fly a spaceship and get a surprise

In Galactic Beacon Brigade, you can indulge in a few minutes of nostalgic gameplay with this short action game. In this indie game developed by TomSmizzle, you hop in a little spaceship, activate a few beacons, and claim a special prize.

Challenging but short and unlosable

Galactic Beacon Brigade is a brief, physics-based free game by TomSmizzle that looks promising but feels incomplete.

If you feel like wasting five to ten minutes on an old-school game with odd physics and weird gameplay, Galactic Beacon Brigade has you covered. You can use the W, A, S, and D or arrow keys to move your spaceship. The goal is to try to activate all the beacons by flying in between pulsing points.

Although you’ll spend most of your time comically bouncing across the screen, failing the mission is impossible. There are no enemies or fail conditions, so the worst thing you’ll need to contend with is trying to steer the ship.

It’s the ending that makes the game so disappointing. Before revealing its true nature, Galactic Beacon Brigade temporarily promises to be an amazing tribute to classic retro space games. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

At least you do get a surprise once you finish the game. Once you’ve managed to activate all the beacons, the lines will solidify to reveal a hidden image. While it’s not much of a reward, you should get at least a chuckle out of it.

Where can you run this program?

You can download and play Galactic Beacon Brigade on devices running Windows 7 and up.

Is there a better alternative?

Yes. If you want to play a fun, retro space game, you can check out other games such as Asteroids, Galaxian, or Space Invaders. If you prefer pinballing around the screen for ten minutes for little reward, play GBB.

Our take

Aside from a brief, frustrated laugh at the end, there’s little about GBB that’s worth experiencing. The gameplay, graphics, and single sound effect are very nostalgic, but that makes the surprising ending just more disappointing.

Should you download it?

No. There’s no story, achievements, or fail conditions in Galactic Beacon Brigade. It sort of feels like TomSmizzle never actually finished developing it. At best, it’s a forgettable, short timewaster.