Geometry Wars Galaxies

Chris Kruger

Wii

Geometry wars quickly became a classic. One of those rare games that is instantly playable, and very addictive. First appearing as a mini-game hidden within Project Gotham Racing 2, it's popularity led to it becoming a product in it's own right. People where borrowing and buying Project Gotham Racing 2 just to play Geometry Wars.

The game then appeared on Xbox Live arcade for the 360 - retro-fans went crazy, addictions where formed.

A quick recap for those unfamiliar with the concept behind Geometry Wars; you control a little horseshoe-shaped ship, locked in an arena facing waves of triangles, squares, worms and parallelograms all vectoring in on your behind. You mow them down with increasingly powerful weapons. Repeat. The spray of colours, retro sound effects and gameplay make for a complelling game.

Geometry Wars Galaxies is the Geometry Wars game realised for Nintendo fans and is availbable on the Wii and DS.

Geometry Wars has transmogrified onto the Wii very nicely. The familar format has been mostly kept. On the Wii the Nunchuck strick is used to maneuver the ship to avoid the vector graphic enemies. The pointer is used to aim, and firing is done with the "A" button. If you're getting overwhelmed or just in a tight spot you can clear the screen by using one your limited bombs, activated using the "Z" button.

If you first sampled the game in it's 360 incarnation you might find things work better for you with the Classic Control scheme. This is easily selectable from the configuration menu.

Where Geometry Wars Galaxies does differ from the original is mostly in the varienty of spacescapes. There are some 60 spacescapes, each a "galaxy". Each spacescape has it's background planets and potentially different enemies. There is also a small treasure collecting component. Destroyed enemies leave behind goodies that you can pick up. The little yellow goodies is some kind of collectable teasure which will allow you to unlock new planets and purchase new ships.

There is an excellent component to Geometry Wars: Galaxies. You can play with a friend, although it's not possible to do this online, just your traditional side by side multiplayer mode. There is the usual co-operative and competitive modes.

There is a small online component, you can upload your scores to an online leaderboard. Always a winner for the ultra competitive types.

If you own both the DS and Wii version of the game, they can connect. This allows you to play a galaxy named Lamba, which is extremely difficult.

A little sweetener - Geometry Wars Retro Evolved comes bundled with the Wii version, using the Wii wireless you can share the game which can then be played.

There is enough in this game for new player and veterans of the previous incarnations of Geometry Wars to keep interested and considering the games simplicity and adictiveness it probably belongs in every Wii owner's games library. It does usually sell for a little less than your average full sized game lowering one's resistance to purchase.

9/10