GEOMETRY WARS GALAXIES (a J!-ENT first glance Nintendo Wii video game review)

October 12, 2008 by Dennis Amith

“Easily addicting and definitely brings back that old school style of gameplay but bringing it to the modern era. Although the XBOX 360 games has achievements, the Nintendo Wii version is just as fun with single or multi-player and most of all, you can buy it from various stores for only $5″

BUY THIS GAME |

TITLE: GEOMETRY WARS GALAXIES

COMPANY: Sierra

DEVELOPER:KUJU/Bizzare Creations

ESRB RATING: E for Everone.

Retro-Remixed Action!

Classic arcade fans-prepare for re-entry. The planet’s purest arcade shooter returns with more enemies, bigger power-ups and a brand-new Battle Drone to help you tear through the first-ever Gemetry Wars campaign mode.

Set a course to more than 60 planets with new and classic gameplay modes to master
All-new multiplayer modes deliver twice the chaos
Earn bragging rights with extensive online leaderboards
Includes the hit title Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved!

I have to admit that I have not jumped onto the “GEOMETRY WARS” bandwagon as my fellow friends. They talk about this game on how addicting it was but you know, I played the game when it was featured on “Project Gotham 4″ and I played it again when it came out for XBOX Live ala “Geometry Wars Evolved”.

I played it for an hour and thought to myself that it was fun but there is no way I want to relive my Atari 2600 days and play hours upon hours of a game just to get the best points.

Well, not too long ago, during my video game bargain shopping days of checking out clearances, I saw that “GEOMETRY WARS GALAXIES” for the Nintendo Wii was on sale for $5. Personally, I want to increase the number of games in my collection for the Wii and since everyone loves this game so much, why not give it a try.

One thing that I found appealing was that this game had a campaign mode, so although it has the “score” to beat and you can get the best in points, now you can play and earn Geoms by destroying enemies. The more Geoms acquired, the more planets and modes to unlock.

GAMEPLAY:

I haven’t done all that great in the game. I’m not sure if there are levels to beat. All I do know is that you control your ship with the Wiimote and nunchaku, shoot down enemies which release geoms. The geoms, depending on the size that you get, can enable offensive or defensive measures. Offensive by adding extra firepower or defensive by having a drone protecting your ship. Then there is drones that collect geoms and eventually leveling up your ship.

Of course, part of the fun is that similar to a game like asteroids, there are many things on screen and sometimes it’s hard to navigate. But there are so many different types of enemies, some that have A.I. that react defensively to your ship and literally your screen is swarmed by enemies that are in various geometric shapes.

But what I like about this game is the ability to earn geoms and the more you earn, the more planets and levels in those galaxies that you can open up. And the various different stages are quite interesting and see the various enemies waiting for you.

So, if you are in it for the campaign mode or if you are in it to top the leadership boards, the game does offer a lot.

CONTROLS:

My concern was using the Nintendo Wii wiimote and nunchaku to play this game. I really couldn’t picture in my mind how the controls would be but fortunately I can say that it’s easy. The nunchaku is used to move your ship around. The wiimote is used to control your ships line of site and where you are going to attack.

By moving left or right or barely up and down, you cycle your line of site moves in a circular motion.

All in all, controls are easy once you spend a little time learning it. If there is anything difficult is for those who are not really good when it comes to eye and hand coordination. Especially when the screen becomes full of enemies.

GRAPHICS:

The graphics are basically geometric shapes but there are really cool lighting effects in this game. So, definitely makes it quite crazy when all these enemies are swarming all over your screen.

AUDIO:

The audio is OK, I was expecting some hardcore music in a Luminous type of fashion but overall it’s ok. Nothing that stands out in the stages that I played but perhaps that’s a good thing because I don’t want the music to be too strong or too loud in a game that requires quite a bit of your focus.

I’m quite late in jumping on the “GEOMETRY WARS” bandwagon but you know, this game was quite fun and I didn’t want to stop.

I was hoping it was not a similar experience to my Atari 2600 days of playing games like “Asteroids” or “Tempest” just to play for high scores or to flip a game because frankly, I’m not a gamer that has that much time to play many hours on a game. So, that is why I tend to avoid games that are all about high scoring.

Outside of campaign mode, there are several modes such as “cooperative mode” (two players), “simultaneous mode” (two players going against each other for the best score), multiplayer mode and also the ability to communicate with someone that has the DS version of the game to unlock an additional galaxy.

Also, the game comes with the “Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved” as well! So, you really get your money’s worth with this game (especially for what I paid for it).

For the price of $5 (K-Mart clearance) and for the fun that I had playing this game, even though I played several hours so far, it’s definitely addicting. I was very satisfied and I still want to play more.

Granted, I don’t know if I want to spend more than $20 on a game like this but I definitely had a lot of fun playing it!