Galaxian incorporated new technology into its dedicated arcade system board, the Namco Galaxian board. It was designed to build and improve upon the formula of Taito's game Space Invaders, which revolutionized the gaming industry upon its release a year earlier. The game was developed by Namco in 1979, and released in Japan that year. A plain and repetitive starfield scrolls in the background. The player defeats one swarm, only to have it replaced by another more aggressive and challenging swarm in the next stage. The ship can only have one shot on screen at a time. Swarm after swarm of alien armies attack the player's ship that moves left and right at the bottom of the wraparound screen. It also features a crude theme song and more prominent background 'music.' These elements combine to create a look and feel that would set the standard for arcade games in the 1980s such as Pac-Man. Although not the first color video game, Galaxian took RGB color graphics a step further with multi-colored animated sprites and explosions, different colored fonts for the score and high score, the scrolling starfield, and graphic icons that show the number of lives left and how many stages the player had completed. Galaxian was very successful for Namco and introduced several 'firsts'. The game's plot consists of a title screen that displayed the message 'WE ARE THE GALAXIANS / MISSION: DESTROY ALIENS'. This made it the first game to feature enemies with individual personalities.

In contrast to Space Invaders, Galaxian added an element of drama by having the aliens periodically make kamikaze-like dives at the player's ship, the Galaxip. As in the earlier game, Galaxian features a horde of attacking aliens that exchanged shots with the player. Galaxian expanded on the formula pioneered by Space Invaders.

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