Welcome to Geometry Wars!  Most probably one of the most nauseating and visually pleasing experiences mixed into one since the beginning of time!  The game is a simple arcade shooter but to put a better perspective on it, it’s basically Asteroids but on crack and any other happy drug which can be found these days!  Bizarre creations and Sierra have teamed up to push this franchise even further, Geometry Wars : Galaxies plants itself into the Nintendo Wii & Ds section of space where hopefully it will forever grow!  But does it really grow or should it just burn out! 

To begin with Geometry Wars started on the 360 live market place where thousands of players at a time would give their trigger happy fingers a lash at this crazy bundle of fun!  Nothing’s changed now it’s on the Wii & Ds!  The rules are simple, you begin as a little white ship in the middle of a battle arena!  You can fire in a 360* rotation so no one is safe from you, you can also move around the battlefield!  But what makes it tricky is from every side of you shapes and other weird contraptions will spawn to feast on your white pixel ship!  You get points for shooting these guys down, as you collect their Geoms you gain multipliers to increase your score even more!  I would go into more depth on the objective of this game but that's simply it!  Shoot your way through barricades of colourful enemies while racking up a high score to achieve the bronze, silver and gold medals to advance onto the next stage! 

You can play galaxy mode in which it’s your duty to go from galaxy to galaxy racking up high scores to progress!  As you go you will encounter varied tasks and obstacles to overcome!  Geometry Wars Galaxies will try anything to hinder your advancement!  Even altering the level design and level perspective which was quite fun at the time!  You will also meet a variety of enemies to battle against!  You begin with your basic diamond and x shaped enemies which simply float towards you, then as you progress you will meet purple squares which will break up into smaller enemies when destroyed and green enemies which will avoid your shots at all cost!  You will also encounter advanced enemies such as black holes which will burst once powered enough unleashing a havoc of smaller enemies also my personal favourite!  Snakes!  Space snakes which can only be killed by shooting the head of the snake!  There’s plenty others but I will find myself writing an essay explaining each one!  You’re not alone!  I have to mention little drones which will fly beside your craft which will aid you in your fight!  Before mission start you can choose which drone to have, each one varies!  Some defend you, some will attack for you others can also be quite helpful by collecting all of the geoms on the map for you!  Geoms can later be used to unlock more levels and better drones!

Game play offers quite a lot to make it a varied experience!  As you rack up your score every so often you will unlock a weapon power up!  You have your basic standard fire rate and then two other special attack modes!  The one attack mode is pretty much rapid fire and will arc out into four shots across the map!  Great for dealing with large swarms of enemies and some of the littler enemies!  The other weapon mode is an intense blast of high powered hits which will distort the battle arena when fired!  Ideal for taking out the bigger of enemies but at the end of the day not really as useful due to its slow fire rate!  Once you die you won’t lose these powerups how ever the power up changes randomly so you never know when you will be without your favourite fire mode!  Another alternative way to destroy these creatures of light is with the bombs!  Bombs are earned through scoring high scores and can be used at any time!  Once unleashed it will clear the battlefield in a fantastic display of supernova graphics which will surely make your jaw drop that little bit more!  It’s all very fun and great to look at its also quite easy once you get the hang of it!  Extra lives are given as you reach certain score points which will help you along your way!  

Graphics and Audio blend really well, the graphics are ideal due to the fact even on the 360 version it wasn’t that great a demand!  It’s simply a bunch of shapes and a grid layout as a background!  It’s all very creative as the arena will distort and some enemies will attack in such ways to confuse you and manipulate the surroundings around you!  Even though the overall display of the game is very basic it is still very pleasing on the eyes and can be most impressive when you plough your way through hundreds of enemies at a time!  The audio works well as you have some quiet fast beat ambient tracks playing in the background!  Some tracks have a progressive melody to them to make the experience that little bit more exciting!  Geometry Wars has a very arcade feel which I think is that they aimed at!  In this perspective they succeeded!  *Thumbs up*

Now you may be asking what’s the difference between the Nintendo Wii & DS version!  Well let’s look at it... Even though both versions work really well and are equally as enjoyable the DS version had its perks which overpowered the Wii Version!  When playing on the Wii the graphics are insanely better and the game was smooth to play but some controller issues let it down!  You will find as you get further into the game your arms will get weak which will result in your target slowly dropping off the screen and in that second of distraction you will probably find yourself dead!  The DS version doesn’t have all of the special effects but still doesn’t look that bad!  You can also use your stylus to control where you shoot which works out really well!  Definitely a fun game for gamers on the go!  You can play online or in multiplayer mode so you and another buddy can team up to conquer space against these crazy little demons of beauty.  You can also share your scores on online leader boards to get a competitive spirit flowing, but that’s pretty much it for the multiplayer feature! 

So there we have it!  One of the most intense arcade experiences of this year is here!  Geometry Wars : Galaxies is definitely an improvement from the original 360 experience!  But don’t be expecting any ground breaking advancements in this sequel it’s just simply added a lot of new fun features for you to play with!  If you purchase this game, even though you won’t be playing it religiously, but you will find yourself playing on it for half an hour at a time just for kicks!  Even though it’s an arcade based game and offers no real story mode, this game is worth the £19.99 price tag which it carries in most UK stores!