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The announcement that a sequel to Geometry Wars was coming to the Wii has already caused a ripple of excitement in the gaming community that is fast gaining momentum. For fans of the game, the idea of a new version is scintillating, and the fact that their beloved shooter is to make the leap from being an Xbox LIVE Arcade gem to a fully fledged shelf-hogging boxed copy is proof they were right all along; Geometry Wars is great, and goes way beyond the remit of a cheaply downloadable, budget-sized game.
Nintendo fans too will be feeling a warm, smug feeling, as the Wii pinches LIVE Arcade’s most unlikely killer app. But before anyone gets too excited and begins heralding the return of twitch gaming, or the rise of the underdog over major studio output, consider this: Geometry Wars is a twin-stick shooter.
Part of the game’s success is due to its control method, which sees you using the left stick of the Xbox 360 pad to steer you craft, while the right stick directs a relentless stream of fluorescent firepower. This system is not only simple and instinctive, but efficient and responsive. As you dart about Geometry Wars’ grid based levels, it lets you get out of the tightest spots, or demonstrate your flair for sniping rapidly moving targets as they dance about you at a distance.
It would be fair to give credit to this fluidity of control for the popularity of Geometry Wars and, to an extent, the revival of the grid shooter, a sub-genre that already dominates Sony’s PSN download service. With thumb twiddling at the very core of the genre it is clear that everyone who is stirring themselves up with anticipation will be interested in one thing over any other when it comes to Geometry Wars Galaxies: just how will Geometry Wars work with the Wii controllers? The answer to that question is the control system many will likely guess at first, before casting it aside as unworkable.
Thankfully Kuju, who have been working on the game with input from Geometry Wars’ creators Bizarre, are not so fickle, and have created a control system that really does appear to have equalled the original’s precision and ease of use.
Predictably, the Nunchuck analogue stick steers the craft, leaving the innovation to the aiming, which uses the pointer function of the Wii-mote. But rather than demanding that the player targets each enemy ship with a cursor, which would turn the game into some dizzying nightmare version of Duck Hunt, the pointer instead simply guides the direction of your cascade of electric death. Putting it in naïve military terms, if you point to 3 o’clock on the screen, your cannon will fire in that direction. Move your aim round to the other side of the screen, and your volley of shots sweeps round in that direction. To make things even clearer, a sleek red laser sight constantly highlights which direction your turret is facing.
By the look of things, it seems that using the Wii-mote offers an even more reactive control set-up than the 360 controller. It will of course take plenty of hands-on time to confirm this absolutely, but flick the pointer left and right, or rotate it in a tiny circle, and it unleashes a violent shower of neon dots that can be directed with such speed that both randomly scattering shots and accurately targeting enemies in opposite directions seems incredibly quick.
But if Kuju are to succeed with Geometry Wars Galaxies, they need to offer far more than a new control system, however well it works. This means they have to negate the tightrope-thin line that divides innovation and messing with a delicate formula that has little room for improvement. While Wii fans will want enough new content to taunt the Xbox hardcore, Geometry Wars devotees will not be happy if their obsession is tinkered with too heavily.
Kuju’s solution is to stir up the structure of the game with elements Bizarre couldn’t squeeze into Retro Evolved, whilst leaving the game’s core mechanics largely intact. A new single-player campaign, which sees levels arranged as planets set in various solar systems, divides games into different types and difficulties.
Grids are now varied in shape and size, and feature new enemies and effects. The most significant addition to the player’s star fighter is the drone system. Drones, or small ally ships that ride the wake of your main craft, are an old standard of scrolling shooters, but new to the Geometry Wars series. During games a collectable currency called Geoms is left after some explosions. These can be used to purchase and upgrade drones with certain abilities, such as those focussed on defence, to those which concentrate on gathering more Geoms.
Along with the single-player missions, several multiplayer modes have been added, including a hot seat score challenge, where players pass around a controller, and co-op, simultaneous and versus games. All of these are supported by online leader boards, which have become an essential element of modern 2D shooters as a motivation for players to push themselves and compete for rankings.
With a DS version confirmed in conjunction with the Wii release, there is still plenty to be announced with regard to linked content, but the developers informed Pro-G that there would be substantial gains for owners of both formats. The Wii version comes with a free soft download of Retro Evolved for the DS, which is a complete game, but needs to be installed again if the handheld is switched off.
With the addition of new grid shapes, multiplayer, Geoms, drones, and fresh enemies such as the Mutator, which has no offensive capabilities of its own but can transform other geometric foes into far more dangerous opponents, there is plenty here that could upset Geometry Wars’ delicate balance. However, based on my time with the game, it looks just as exciting, furious and irresistible as any of the previous Geometry Wars releases from Bizarre. Shooter fans everywhere should wait with bated breath and twitching thumbs, for what looks like the biggest shooter release since Every Extend Extra.
