Reviewed: February 13, 2006
Reviewed by: Blake Kenny
Publisher
Bizarre Creations
Developer
Bizarre Creations
Released: November 22, 2005
Genre: Shooter
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
9
7
7
10
9.0
Supported Features:
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Just read my bio and you’ll see that one of the first games I ever recall playing was the arcade version of Asteroids when I was a boy, while I was admittedly crappy at the arcade version, never getting comfortable with using buttons to rotate my spaceship; I was a god with the Atari 2600 port. I played that game religiously and became so proficient at the game that I was able to wrap the score. I absolutely loved the game and to this day, I remember it fondly.
Geometry Wars originally appeared within the confines of Project Gotham 2 on the original Xbox. Tucked away in the corner of the game’s car garage was an arcade machine that was actually playable. A game within the game you could say. While far from stellar, it was still a cool little diversion from all that car racing and offered some flashy visuals that instantly reminded me of my beloved Asteroids. While not exactly the same as the arcade classic, the similarities were undeniable.
With the release of Project Gotham Racing 3, we once again find arcade machines with our garage. The original Geometry Wars is back, positioned nicely beside a new vision of the game, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.
While the game can be played as much as you like within PGR3’s garage, true fans of the game will find it available on Xbox 360’s Marketplace via Xbox Live. For a mere 400 Microsoft credits (about $5) you can play the game until your hearts content. Why buy it when you can just play it within PGR3? Well, several reasons, for one, you might not own PGR3 and may have no intentions of getting it. Second, not only does the game have leaderboards so you can see how you rank against other players and friends, but you can also earn those oh-so-desirable achievement points.
As I stated earlier, the game fundamentally has much in common with Asteroids. You man a spaceship that gets bombarded from every angle by loads of brightly colored enemies. Each of your various targets behave differently depending on the circumstances. From enemies that fly straight for you, to enemies the break apart into even smaller enemies when you hit them with your laser fire. Some of the objects even retreat from you when fired upon, then lunge for you when you turn your back to them.
There are even objects similar to black holes the swallow up everything around them and blow apart when they’ve consumed too much. The only sure way to survive is to destroy them before this has a chance to occur.
Fortunately the game equips you with smart bombs that destroy everything on screen when thing get really hairy and with a good enough score, additional smart bombs and spaceships are rewarded to the player. In addition, you can get score multipliers than help you rack up the points even faster. While you start of with a rather basic laser weapon, this upgrades overtime to rabid fire weapons and other familiar guns like a spread shot.
Controlling the game is quite simple. The left analog stick controls your direction of flight and travel, while the right stick controls your direction of fire. This is quite easy to use and very practical, as it allows you to fire back at enemies while you are backing away from them. With the simple press of the right trigger you can blast off one of your smart bombs.
Graphically the game is quite basic, as neither your ship nor the enemies have any depth to them what-so-ever. They’re simply shapes and outlines. Still, don’t let this fool you, as Geometry Wars has the ability to dazzle you with amazing light and color. It’s like flying through the worlds most spectacular fireworks display.
Particles and explosions are everywhere, and sometimes the screen gets so thick with action that it can become difficult to keep track of the location of your own ship. Needless to say, it’s hard to ever find the time to blink while you play it. It’s a simple looking game and at the same time it’s oddly breathtaking and beautiful.
The sound in the game is about as basic as the graphics. Provided it a catchy little techno tune that surprisingly never seems to get old. Probably because you’ll be so involved in the game itself that you won’t even notice it. Still, should you none the less manage to tire of this tune; you can load in some music of your own and blow away the enemy to Tchycovsky or Metallica, whatever works for you.
The sound effects are simplistic, but suite the gameplay perfectly. Laser fire is generic, but other sounds like the exploding black holes are whatnot are above average. There's little room for complaint here.
For basically $5 bucks, you can’t go wrong downloading Geometry Wars. If you imagined yourself standing in front of an arcade machine, you’d easily throw down 5 dollars in quarters before you managed to tear yourself away from this one. In this case, one flat rate allows you to play it until your thumbs are raw and your eyes bleed. Well worth the price of admission and easily the best Xbox Live Arcade offering so far. Retro gaming fun at it’s best.
We’ve all seen the resurgence of classic gaming in recent years. Those TV game gizmo’s you plug in to play Pac-Man, Galaga and other classics are everywhere, as retro videogame seem to be a very “in” thing right now. While Geometry Wars isn’t a classic game in the strictest sense of the word, it does in many ways borrow the idea of classic fun. Give it a try, the game is a blast to play, not to mention very addictive.