A Mini Game Collection For Serious Gamers
Firstly, I reassure you this is no watered down kids game. This is Geometry Wars we all know and love from XBLA, that includes its difficulty level and additive gameplay, and then some.
One of the main issues with the XBLA game was how difficult it was to get multipliers. Now you can get multipliers of x150! And yet this does not break the game.
The developers may have added new content, changed the multipliers, and added new enemies, but none of this breaks the game. The developers have managed to take an existing formula and improved upon it creating a game better than it's more famous XBLA original.
The only way this game does not live up to the XBLA title is in the graphics. They may have been some of the simplest graphics on the 360, but they were some of the most effective and it's a shame that this was lost in this version. On the Wii, the shapes just are not as clear, not as defined and I can't but feel that this does detract from the game. Whilst this may be an inconvenience, the game more than makes up for it in other areas.
one noticeable area is the time it takes to load a level. The game has seamless loads throughout. This fact coupled with how short (or long, depending on how good you are) and varied the levels are puts this as a ideal mini game, something you can pick up for minutes at a time but also a game you can put a hours worth of playing into.
Two key new features for the game is the geoms and the drone. Firstly, the geoms act as the multipliers in the game as well as the currency. Each enemy drops these, the bigger the enemy the bigger the geom, though it is only ever worth an extra x1 multiplier. These geoms can be spent to unlock new planets, as well as new drones. The drone is an interesting addition to the game, giving the player a hand in many different ways. You get a standard drone which will shoot randomly when you shoot, but you can unlock different ones which can do different things such as a turret, a snipe, a collector of geoms, and more. Each of these drones can be levelled up improving it's abilities and effectiveness. Whilst all levels can be played with any drone, as the game progresses, you may find that some drones are more effective than others.
Unfortunately, this game is terrible with the Wii mote. It may not be broken but it's not far off. I highly recommend playing this game with the classic controller. This is based of a game designed for two analogue sticks and even now it shows. When using the Wii mote you get a lazer line of where the ship fires and in the other hand you use the nun-chuck which is tolerable for easy situations with few enemies, but useless when faced with the more complicated frantic levels.
In all, it is a highly enjoyment collection of mini games, and a perfectly balanced stand alone game. One which is available for around £20 and one which should be in every Wii collection. In a period where serious games are missing, Geometry Wars Galaxies offers a cheap solution until Smash Brothers and No More Hero's comes out which will still be enjoyable and playable in many months to come