Fun for a arcade game!
Quite simply, I can explain this entire game in six words: You shoot shapes in a grid. That's it. I know it doesn't sound like a winning formula, but it is. You see, there are no levels, there are only waves of enemies that pop out from any random part on the screen. The more enemies you kill, the higher your score gets. The thing is that even though it starts out fairly easy, at 10,000 points you upgrade your lasers to one of two weapons, the "shotgun laser" or the "machine gun laser" as I call them. Soon, more and more enemies pop onto the screen until eventually you reach the point where the entire screen is filled with hundreds of shapes. By now, anybody that's watching you play is wondering how the heck you can even see your ship. Like the Gamespot review says, you almost reach a state of Geometry Wars xen.
But enough about the awesomeness, how about a little more of the specifics? First of all, every shape dies in one shot and they explode into a marrage of fireworks which looks really cool. Also, every shape has a different characteristic that seperates it from the rest. For example, the green squares try to fly away when you shoot at them, while the big snake shapes can only be shot in their blue head. There are 7 different enemies (not counting the black holes, which I'll get to in a minute) you need to watch out for, and they're all pretty interesting. Although my least favorite are the stupid fast red guys who come out of nowhere and can only be shot in the back. Most of the time that I die, it's because of them. But there's also another obstacle to watch out for, the black holes (well, they're actually red). They suck in every ship around them, and unless you shoot them multiple times, they'll explode into a bunch of blue particles that home in on you.
Okay, let's talk about an issue that bothers a lot of people. This game is hard. Not FEAR on the hardest mode hard, this is old-school hard. Then why did I give it a "Just Right" in difficulty then? Because it only gets harder by increasing your score. Towards the higher scores, sure it gets amazingly difficult, but at the beginning it's not that tough.
The graphics are really nice for being 2-D. The colorful enemies coupled along with the extreme explosions make this game a feast for the eyes. The sounds are pretty cool, especially the sound that black holes make when they explode. And the only one-minute song that's played over and over is pretty good, but this game is much better if you find the right music to have blasting on your 360 while you're blasting away at enemies. Dream Theater is a great soundtrack for Geometry Wars, or anything that's fast for that matter.
Is there anything bad in this game? Not really, unless you despise simplistic games. But to me, the simplicity is one of the reasons why it's so great. This is one of those games that you'll always be playing from time time, because you're not bogged down by anything except for a truly fun and engrossing experience.
By the way, I forgot to mention that you move with the left analog and shoot by pushing the right in any direction. You also get bombs that kill every enemy on the screen.