Despite its status as a launch title for the Xbox 360 on the Xbox Live Arcade of all places, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved may just be the greatest XBLA game ever made. Actually scrap that; it is the greatest XBLA game ever made and even after years of trying no game has surpassed it and taken its place on top of that mountain.
Everything about Geometry Wars fits and works together to create perhaps the purest shooter experience ever created. You have one mode and a leaderboard in which you earn your place global or on your friends list, go! It may seem bare but its focused, splitting the leaderboards across multiple game types loses that united allure and quest to the top. You can’t say “make way for the king because the champ is here” when your only on top of one board and are bottom of all the rest.
The purity carries over to the gameplay as there’s nothing to think about other than blasting enemies and survival, no bonus score boosting pick ups or weapon enhancements appear for you to collect; instead everything is earn based on your score. Every 10,000 points or so your weapon will automatically upgrade and you gain an extra live and smart bomb every time you cross a significant points milestone. The smart bombs as the name suggests are a bomb which clears the screen and essential for when things get hectic which trust me when I say they do.
Finally the game features a techno soundtrack that builds and fits perfectly with the graphic style and pace of the game. Notice a familiar theme throughout this review; Geometry Wars is a pure, raw arcade shooter and its all the better for it.
Its Retro Evolved people! This is some next level shit that you have to play.