Geometry done right.
From a mini game to a full fledged release, Geometry Wars started as a simple game found within Project Gotham Racing 2 for the Xbox, and has since then been released on Xbox Live Arcade and PC for a small price. Now it's hit the Nintendo's seventh generation console and handheld, the Wii and the DS under the title Geometry Wars: Galaxies, but does it offer enough to justify the price?
The premise of the game is simple. You'll control a ship-shaped... shape, and shoot enemy, well, shapes. You'll fly around inside what pretty much is a... shape, shooting the other shapes that come at you. The enemy shapes spawn from all over the place, and each different shape behaves differently. A propeller shaped enemy will fly aimlessly around, circles will act as black holes sucking everything up, and a triangle tailed snake will wiggle around the stage, along with plenty other shapes, making for a pretty good enemy variety. You'll have infinite ammo, and a small amount of bombs to completely clear the screen if things ever get too hectic.
Unlike an Xbox 360, the DS lacks dual analogue sticks, so you'll need to settle with a different control scheme. You'll have to settle with either using the D-Pad and face buttons to move and shoot, or the D-Pad to move and stylus to shoot. The D-Pad and stylus is actually very accurate, and it's not as cramp inducing as say, Metroid Prime Hunters or Call of Duty 4. Both control options have left and right handed options, so any lefties won't have to fear for their hands with this one.
But what exactly does the game to to justify it's price? So far, it's sounding exactly the same as Retro Evolved, but with different controls. I doubt anyone is all for paying $30 for a $5 game, but hear this: Retro Involved is included in Galaxies as a very small side mode. The main attraction is a full fledged campaign mode, with dozens of galaxies to travel to, each shaped differently, with different obstacles inside. It starts off simple enough, even moreso than Retro Evolved. The first level is a simple small rectangle. Keep on playing, and the level designs change. You'll wind up in all sorts of levels of different shapes and sizes, and encounter things like moving squares that act as walls, an annoying little circle dropping mines everywhere, or a black hole sucking up everything around it.
You won't get anywhere just blasting through though. As you play, you'll collect Geomes, the games currency. Collecting Geomes during a match will increase your multiplier for the match, but once you finish a match, you can spend Geomes to open new galaxies and planets, and get back to blasting some more shapes.
You're not traveling alone though. Helping you along the way is your trusty Drone, sort of. It'll take a while for it to truly be of some use, as you'll need to level it up by using it a lot. There are a number of different drones to use throughout the game, each helping in something like Attacking, Defending, and other patterns and behaviors that'll help you out along the way, so long as you keep on working with that Drone. Also, you'll need to purchase them like you do galaxies and planets, so make sure you save up those Geomes. The difficulty certainly ramps up well, and later in the game you'll definitely be bombarded by those evil shapes to no end, so putting those Drones to good use helps.
There's tons of reason to replay the game. You can see how well your shape blasting skills match up to other players using the online leaderboards. You can also play multiplayer Co-Op, which has you working together shooting stuff, Vs., which has one player creating enemies for the other to shoot, and Simultaneous, which is pretty much a score attack. All of these modes can be played single or multi-card.
There's also a bit of Wii to DS and DS to DS connectivity. If you hook up the Wii and the DS games, you'll unlock a new galaxy to play on. You can also send a full version of Retro Evolved to a friend with a DS.
The DS version certainly loses some of the flair that it's Wii counterpart and Retro Evolved has, yet it still manages to keep much of the crazy particle effects that give the series it's unique style. The distorting grid is gone, but you can be sure that random lights and shapes will be all over the place when things get hectic. Unfortunately, there can be some slowdown, but not too much that it gets really annoying. The game also has an upbeat techno soundtrack that works fits well with the game, and some of them are pretty catchy.
Geometry Wars: Galaxies is a fun, addictive game. Anyone who's a fan of the original should pick it up. If you just like plain fun, shooting stuff, or have something against shapes, this game is for you.
