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 Wii remote lacks dual analogue sticks, so you'll need to settle with a different control scheme. You can use either the Wii Remote and Nunchuck, or the Classic Controller. The Wii Remote and Nunchuck is actually quite accurate, and I prefer it over the 360 controller or the Classic Controller. Basically, you'll point where you want to shoot with the Wiimote, and hit A to shoot, while you move around with the control stick. An laser sight and reticle help you keep your aim, which helps because it definitely wouldn't be easy randomly pointing the remote at the screen. If you're just coming off standard controls, this scheme may take some time to get used to, but it overall proves to be more accurate. For those who want to stick to a more traditional scheme, the Classic Controller is for you.
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.
And you're not travelling alone. 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, either in Retro Evolved, or the main campaign. There's also a score attack which has both players on a map competing for points.
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 download a full version of Retro Evolved to your DS, which will stay there until you shut off the game.
The Wii version offers the same crazy bright graphical style as the 360 game. There are colours and crazy particle and distorting effects everywhere. The graphics overall look a bit more shiny or glowy than the 360 game, which gives the game an overall brighter look. 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.
