Anyone who played Geometry Wars Evolved on the Xbox 360 will know just how addictive it is, in fact it wouldn’t be over the top to suggest that it is one of the better titles released on the 360’s Arcade service to date. So when it was revealed that a new version of the game, Geometry Wars: Galaxies was coming to the Wii, I for one was very pleased.
Geometry Wars Galaxies takes a tried and tested formula and brings along something new, for starters, gone are the dual analogue sticks to be replaced with the Wii Remote and Nunchuck combination, also new is the fact that you now have a huge amount of Galaxies to choose from, each with their own level design.
Rather than just the rectangular arena that fans of the game will be used to, levels have been evolved and now come in all shape and sizes, each with their own unique twist, for example some have blocks that act as walls for the player, but allow enemies through, while others have mine layer drones, causing you to avoid certain areas, the enemies are also incredibly difficult to get past and include things such as Black Holes, Meteors and Wormholes.
One of the first things you will notice when playing the game is that you now have a little sidekick who helps you take down the enemy, this battle drone gains experience for every enemy it kills and you have to believe me when I say that it comes in very handy. Your drone can also be upgraded by purchasing new behaviors such as defend, snipe, sweep etc in the Drone menu, these purchases are funded using Geoms which are collected when enemies are destroyed, collecting Geoms also increases your multiplier and allows you to unlock new Galaxies.
If you have never played Geometry Wars before then getting used to the controls may be easier than it would for veterans, the Nunchuck guides your ship, while pointing at the screen with your Wii-Mote guides your fire, destroying enemies with one hand while dodging them with the other certainly takes some getting used to, but the control system does work well, it just feels unusual that’s all. A big bonus to the games controls is that if you just can’t get used to them, you can also use the classic controller, which it has to be said works extremely well.
Galaxies certainly packs quite a bit onto the disc, first off the main game has 67 levels in total giving even the best players quite a challenge, add to this the inclusion of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, online leaderboards, the Wii/DS sharing options, which allows you to unlock new levels if you have the DS version and if not, allows you to download Retro Evolved to your DS for play on the move and then there is the multiplayer options.
The multiplayer allows you to play Co-op with friend or against a friend, this is extremely good fun and adds a bit of a competitive edge to the already crowded screen, multiplayer is included for both Geometry Wars: Galaxies and Retro Evolved and uses the same structure as the single payer mode.
Graphically the game is generally the same as previous versions, of course the HD gloss of the 360 version is gone, but Galaxies doesn’t suffer too much for this. The colours are still as bright as I remember and no matter how packed the screen is with enemies the action doesn’t seem to suffer much for it.
Geometry Wars: Galaxies is an extremely addictive game and addition of online leaderboards only adds to that, for the money there is quite a bit packed onto the disc, sure it may not be everyone’s type of game, but if want a non-stop action game in your console then you know were to look.
