Cosmo Gang the Video is a fixed shooter arcade game

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

 that was released by Namco

Namco

is a Japanese corporation best known as a former video game developer and publisher. Following a merger with Bandai in September 2005, the two companies' game production assets were spun off into Namco Bandai Games on March 31, 2006. Namco Ltd. was re-established to continue domestic operation of...

 in 1991 for the arcade and 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (Super NES). There also was a release on the Wii

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

 Virtual Console

Virtual console

A virtual console – also known as a virtual terminal – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some operating systems such as UnixWare, Linux, and BSD, in which the system console of the computer can be used to switch between...

 in Japan on August 4, 2009.

The game uses characters from a popular redemption game

Redemption game

Redemption games are typically arcade games of skill that reward the player proportionally to their score in the game. The reward most often comes in the form of tickets, with more tickets being awarded for higher scores. These tickets can then be redeemed at a central location for prizes...

 released in the previous year. While the game is mostly in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

, the characters in the game speak in Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

. Unlimited number of credits can be used as long as the system is not turned off. The choice of font for the game is considered to be the same font used in both Galaga and Space Invaders.

Gameplay

The game starts out very much like Galaga

Galaga

is a fixed shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan and published by Midway in North America in 1981. It is the sequel to Galaxian, released in 1979. The gameplay of Galaga puts the player in control of a space ship which is situated on the bottom of the screen...

: enemies (Cosmo Gangers) enter the screen, join an attack formation and swoop down on your ships as you try to kill them for points and, in this game, powerups. 2 players can also play simultaneously. There is also an element of Gaplus

Gaplus

, far more commonly known as Galaga 3 , is a fixed shooter arcade game that was released by Namco in 1984. It runs on Namco Phozon hardware and was only known as Gaplus in Japan...

where there is a Cosmo Ganger at the top of the screen with a powerup who is capable of taking 2 hits before he is killed and he drops the powerup onto whichever player's ship killed him. But as you get further in the game, it becomes less and less like Galaga (Cosmo Gangers shooting big lasers, Cosmo Gangers breathing fire, etc.) There is even an end-of-game boss (Don Cosmo) with 4 life bars to get through.