What originally amounted to an add-on experience to Bizarre's Project Gotham Racing series has now become a standalone game package for both the Nintendo DS and Wii. The game, for those who haven't played any of the previous iterations, is based on flying a claw-like structure around an arena shooting pellets at a variety of enemies. Although the game doesn't sound overly original, the way in which it is presented and put together makes it an incredibly tight and exciting experience.
The problem many people had with a boxed retail version of this game was value. It was free in PGR2, and a slightly more fleshed out version was only $5 on the Xbox Live Arcade. This is where I am actually incredibly impressed; after sinking in around 4-5 hours of time into this game, in no way do I feel like the package is lacking in content.
In the Xbox 360 Retro Evolved version, you are only able to fight in one arena, with a small handful of enemy types. In Galaxies, you'll find somewhere around 60 different play arenas (called "planets"), a bunch of new enemy types, an adventure mode, new gameplay twists and game sharing options. In no way did they skimp out on features in this packaged product.
But what does all of this mean if the gameplay doesn't deliver? In my opinion, this is one of the most ingenious uses of the DS system yet, and it seems to be completely tailor made for handhelds. The control scheme for this game involves steering around the arenas with the D-Pad and shooting with your stylus. As this game is completely high score based, being able to control the game with the stylus allows for much quicker twitch reactions.
One of the big things added to the gameplay side of Galaxies is the ability to send out drones. Drones are essentially AI-driven allies that can complete a variety of tasks for you, depending on what you need. Some of the available options are Collector (Collects points left behind enemies after you kill them), Sniper (Essentially takes slow, precise shots at enemies) and Turret (Sets up a turret and goes around in circles to destroy the enemy units) just to name a few. The more you use a specific type of drone, the more they get upgraded to improve their abilities.
The audio/visual presentation is about what you'd expect out of a simple 2D shooter, and although it doesn't have the added effects of the Arcade version, it gets the job done. The sound effects and music are quite simple, and the graphics don't exactly push the system to it's breaking point, but you can't really expect much better out of a game of this type.
All in all, I'm impressed. Upon first hearing of the concept to make what was once a free extra in a game to a full fledged retail product, I was skeptical at best. But this game really surpassed my initial expectations. It has intuitively advanced on its original concept to make an enjoyable and deep DS game for long trips. For those that are interested in playing a high score-driven, fast-paced shooter with controls accentuating the positives of the system, I can't recommend Galaxies enough.
Positives:
+Strong controls make good use of the DS stylus
+ Drones = Awesome
+ Plenty of original planet designs
Negatives:
- Audio/Visual design isn't too grabbing
- So much multiplayer potential goes untapped