Geometry Wars: Galaxies

Geometry Wars resurrected the multi-directional shooter genre when it first appeared as a mini-game in the Project Gotham Racing series. The title eventually became popular enough to garner a spin-off called Retro Evolved, a downloadable game on Xbox Live and Windows. The franchise now comes to Wii in the form of Geometry Wars: Galaxies, providing an experience tailored to Nintendo's unique console.

Geometry Wars takes the dodge-and-fire gameplay of arcade classic Robotron, but replaces the robot swarm with cool geometric shapes called Geoms. The player controls a small C-shaped ship, which must avoid contact with the multitude of shapes converging on its position. Through a combination of dodging and shooting, players have to survive the onslaught while boosting their score in an attempt to earn bronze, silver, or gold medals. An apparent new gameplay feature is an autonomous drone that aids the player using a number of assignable behaviors.

Geoms.....

The other most obvious change here is the control scheme. Multi-directional shooters typically employ dual analog sticks: one for movement, the other for firing direction. The Wii version instead uses the Nunchuk's analog stick for movement and the Wii Remote pointer for targeting. Getting a feel for the game and the various enemies that gamers will face will take only a few tries, but learning to find the shooting reticule through all the fireworks may take some practice. Once that hurdle is crossed, gamers will find the control scheme to be tight and responsive. Although those more in-tune with their inner thumbs may choose the dual analog sticks of the optional Classic Controller, many players will likely find the the Wii Remote/Nunchuk combo to be more natural.

Geometry Wars is extremely simple graphically, but still quite appealing. The game area is a grid of lines with a boundary of various shapes and sizes. The lines on the grid continuously warp and ripple as a result of the drone's firing, destruction of the various Geoms, or the pull of enormous gravity wells. The screen will often be filled with so many objects and effects that a player can easily lose the ship in midst of the light show. Galaxies' includes upbeat music and nice special sounds for the various actions on the screen. Although this would be perfect game for a custom soundtrack option, the developers did not include that feature.

....lots and lots of Geoms.

Other game options include multiplayer for two-person cooperative play, as well as the full version of Xbox Live's Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Galaxies is also the first game since Pokemon Battle Revolution to feature Wii to DS connectivity; not only can Retro Evolved be sent from the Wii to the DS, but the DS version of Galaxies will unlock a bonus level in the Wii version.

Come back for Stage 2 as we dive deeper into the realm of Geoms and drones.