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.
