Anyone who has ever touched an Xbox 360 or a copy of Project Gotham Racing probably knows what Geometry Wars is, but for those who don’t, its a pure shoot-em-up quest to survive as long as possible and score as high as possible by destroying wave after wave of ever-increasing swarms of enemies. Move fast, score big and feel proud.

You control a ship in a small area firing and moving around like a ferret up a guy’s shirt, dodging out of the way of your enemies to avoid death, it’s a constant battle but a damn enjoyable one. The controls are simple enough, you probably already have them figured out, D-pad for movement, shoulder buttons for bombs (which clear the screen of enemies) and touch screen for shooting. It’s not perfect but I think it’s the best control scheme possible on the DS. Touch screen aiming is great, fast and responsive, which gives the opportunity for some precise aiming. The D-pad however isn’t great for movement and it can sometimes be difficult to get the right angle you’re looking for.

If you can get past the fiddly D-pad (personally I can) you hit some really addictive game play. Not only does it feel great to beat your own scores (in a very similar way that it does in games like Tetris or Elite Beat Agents) and get that gold medal you’ve been working for, but it feels even better when you use the Nintendo Wifi and upload your scores. Uploading is relatively easy and painless (or as painless as it can be with Nintendo Wifi) pick the level you wish to upload your score on and then click upload. It’ll take a little time to connect and sync your score with the boards, but its well within the time it takes to boil a kettle. I uploaded my own and pleasantly found I was within the top 100 round the planet. There it was within a second, the desire to get higher and higher up the leader board.

I feel I must point out that the game isn’t just a straight port of the Xbox 360 arcade hit (however the original is included as an extra), instead it feels like more of an extension of the game. It follows the same pattern (run around and kill lots for points) while adding enough to the mix to stay fresh. Within the main game there are 60 Galaxies each with their own design, rules and an enemy including ones unlocked by connecting the Wii and DS versions together, which I think is a neat addition. Genomes are one of the smarter and more useful additions to the game and work as a sort of currency, allowing the player not only to open up some of the 60 Galaxies (most of which start off locked to allow for a learning curve), but also during levels gain multipliers to get better scores, gain lives and bombs to use. Another addition are the drones, when selecting a stage you choose a drone to help you on the way. These vary from simply attack, defend, turret, collect and so on, they gain XP as you fight and become stronger and more useful. It gives another reason to keep playing on ‘that level’ or say “now I’ve leveled my turret I may be able to get gold on that level” and to some extent give you some strategy on every level. For instance, if you are finding it a challenge on a stage with too many enemies use the attack or turret drones. If you find a level you can handle use the collector drone to farm some Genomes.Not only does Geometry Wars: Galaxies offer a large single player, which was obviously the developers focus, it also has a multiplayer variant which has a lot of choice. First off, I’ll admit that finding the multiplayer is a little confusing. Say you want to show your friend how cool the game is, normally you would go to multiplayer, and then host to share it with the people who don’t have a copy. But this isn’t the case, you have to go to connectivity and game share and send a copy of the game to a friend. This is a blessing and a pain as it takes a while to send a fully fledged version of the original Geometry Wars over Wifi, but once you’re done this not only can your friend play Co-op (where you share the same lives, bombs and score), Simultaneous (where you take turns and have your own life, bombs and score for those who are getting angry as their partner dies) and Versus mode where one player is placed as the ship while the other spawns enemies to try and kill them. Finally, if they feel like it they can try playing themselves if they just want to try the single player out. The single player of Geometry Wars feels like you’ve been there before but feels fresh enough to keep your attention. It’s a game you play for 10 minutes here and there and can have a few fun rounds with a mate on over your lunch break. The addition of 60 different levels or ‘galaxies’ is enough to keep it fresh and the online leader boards are as addictive as competing with friend’s scores in the original Xbox 360 version.

Closing Comments
Galaxies is an appealing fun game. It isn’t trying anything new, but it certainly is a great portable arcade game for the average person or hardcore gamer. The controls aren’t perfect, the multiplayer is a little confusing and when you’re in the thick of the action you can get some terribly bad lag, which is something that you definitely don’t need. But the game keeps you interested in improving your score. For those looking for a pick up and play game and are looking at getting this, shop around. At the time of writing, a lot of retailers have it priced around the £20 mark. A must have for fans of the Xbox 360 version and definitely one of the best in its genre.

Score 8.1
+ Lengthy single player
+ Online scoreboards
+ Healthy multiplayer
+ Contains the original Geometry Wars: Evolved
- Lag can be a problem
- Minor control problems