Is the frantic shooter getting tired? (Geometry Wars: Galaxies (Wii))

Name: 27darren

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Product:	Geometry Wars: Galaxies (Wii)
Date:	30/04/08 (87 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Classic Geometry Wars, Some interesting new feautres

Disadvantages: Fiddly controls under pressure, Too expensive

Sometimes the simple games are the best, and Geometry Wars is exactly that. However, with so many different incarnations being released over many formats, is the game staying true to its arcade shooter roots? There are many different versions of Geometry Wars including versions featuring on Xbox live marketplace, mobile phones and PC. But the newest editions have recently come out on Wii and DS entitled Geometry Wars: Galaxies. In case you have never heard of Geometry Wars, let's start from the beginning.

What is Geometry Wars?
Geometry Wars has no plot or characters making it feature heavily on getting high scores. It is a simple, yet addictive arcade blaster. You are a small ship in the middle of the screen, in, what will become a very busy box. All of a sudden enemies will spawn from corners, of course, as you shoot more the amount increases, and they spawn faster and faster. Your ship can do three things, shoot, move, and plant bombs. That's it really, of course in this Wii edition there are level variations to try and lengthen the arcade gameplay.

Graphics
The fact about Geometry Wars is that a few minutes into the game, you will struggle to see your ship in an overflowing fountain of colours and your eyes may begin to melt. This sounding like a bad thing, it is actually one of the famous characteristics of the game, and adds challenge to the frantic gameplay. It all looks lovely, with the different colours and patterns on the screen, but at the same time, it isn't trying to recreate real life characters or do anything special, and so the graphics are what you would expect from an arcade shooter. That said, they do carry a futuristic style that suits the game perfectly and adds to the overall experience.

Gameplay/Lifespan
As mentioned earlier, only being able to move, shoot and drop bombs makes things sound like a simple affair. The more enemies you kill the better your lasers will become, but the best way to get out of a tricky situation, is to use your bombs. Put simply, these destroy any enemies anywhere on your screen. This provides a brief breather, before the enemies swamp you all over again. You have to be careful when using these however, because you always have a limited number, adding some tactics to the proceedings. However, it is a simple game with simple gameplay, which all works very well. That said, it really can get hard very quickly, so newcomers to the game or genre may want to find something else to ease them in. For die-hard fans of the series however, it is just what they would expect, except one or two small changes that is. The first one of these is the level design. Whereas in the PC and Xbox live versions you would be in the same rectangular box, starting with the same sequence of enemies and trying to blast your way to stardom on the high score boards, here there is some variation. This comes on the form of different planets which are varied to include new concepts such as, triangle arenas and split up arenas. Of course, these may sound like very minor changes that would have hardly any effect on the gameplay, however only fans of the series will appreciate what these changes mean. It is a nice way to add a bit more length to the game's life. The second change is the addition of a drone to fight alongside you. Some of you may be thinking "What?", but don't worry it's no bad thing. Your drone starts off pretty rubbish, but you can buy different behaviours for them while building them up, to make it a worthy companion. In terms of gameplay, due to the steep difficulty curve, it is a case of fans will enjoy the challenge while newcomers may struggle with it and confine it to gather dust in their games cabinet.

Controls
On the whole, a pretty positive review so far then. However, that's all about to change... The Wii remote is used to aim your ships laser by pointing it at the screen which is represented by an on screen cursor. The nunchuk's analogue stick is used to move your ship around the battlefield. Is it the perfect Wii control system then? Not so lucky. The main flaw of these controls is the inaccuracy of the remote's pointer under pressure. You may drop a few f-bombs when an enemy slips past your cursor and collides into your ship when you were sure you had destroyed it first. While the nunchuk does its job the game is crying out for an option to use the classic or Gamecube controller. Yet again we see a game where Wii controls are implemented for the sake of it being a Wii game, when they would have worked much better without. Still the game is playable, just infinitely harder under pressure, which is the part you'll need to do well in if you want to top those online leader boards.

Wi-Fi Compatibility?
As you will know by now the game is wi-fi compatible, featuring online leaderboards so you can boast your scores worldwide. However the Xbox version also has this feature so it really depends on which console you own to which version you get.

The Price
Control issues aside this should score pretty highly, but unfortunately it depends on how cheaply you can find this game for Wii. You see, retailing at a budget price, for a Wii game, of £20 in most shops may seem like a good deal, but don't be fooled. The simple fact is, the Xbox live version and PC versions are much much cheaper. The Xbox version originally costing a couple of quid and the PC version costing $3.95 (roughly £2.00) on steam, almost makes the Wii game totally redundant.

Conclusion
So, are the flaws in this game enough to put off newbies and fans of the series alike? Well, the price is a strong indicator of which version to buy, but the Wii version does have one exclusive up its sleeve.

Firstly, rather surprisingly, the Wii version boasts the online leaderboards which the PC version does not, however the Xbox version does. Also, the Wii version has the gameplay tweaks (level variation and helper drone) which may make fans of the series want to try out this slightly different approach. If you are a fan of the series looking for something new, this is for you. Whether the small changes justify a £20 price tag is an individual decision however. One thing is for sure though, if you are a newcomer to the series, you are much better off getting hold of the Xbox or PC version, simply to save yourself your hard earned cash.

In terms of Wii games it is pretty unique right now, and if you only have a Wii console, then depending on your preference, you may want to try this out. It is a solid shooter with gorgeous visuals and addictive gameplay, but it falls short in the face of the competition, which offers mostly the same for much less.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Summary: A faithful addition to the Geometry Wars series, but may be cheaper elsewhere