Battlemouth

When the Xbox 360 launched, there were only a few games it launched with. Every premium system came with Hexic HD. The first title available as part of the then new and revolutionary Xbox Live Arcade. Shortly after, a few titles became available for XBLA, games like hardwood board games and a little Gem called Geometry Wars Retro Evolved, a new full version of a game that had debuted as a minigame in Project Gotham Racing 2.

The premise is simple, and is best described as, “keep shooting.” You’re a little ship on a grid, and you have to shoot and avoid as many geometrical shapes as you can. Diamonds chase after you, squares shy away from bullets, and snakes block your escape. It’s such a simple and perfect game, that eventually, playing it became an art form, and at five dollars or 400 MS Points it was a steal.

Last Wednesday marked the release of it’s first true sequel, Geometry Wars Evolved² , and in every way it is even better than the first. The game now includes six different modes ranging from deadline, which is a three minute battle akin to the original Geometry Wars’ style, to Evolved which puts you against spawns of baddies like the original XBLA game, to Sequence which plays like Geometry Wars Galaxies for the Wii and Nintendo DS.

In addition you have three new modes: Waves (from PGR4), which is where a new baddie, the triangle, moves in waves across the grid, Pacifist (a variation on an GWRE Achievement), where you use new gravity gates to destroy diamonds chasing after you, and King, where you are limited to only three areas of the map you can shoot from at a given time. Add in a local multiplayer component, and you have a game with even more replay value than it’s predecessor.

A few tweaks have been made to the gameplay, namely the super-tiny drones are gone, Experienced players will no longer be able to survive indefinitely off of regular free lives or bombs as the requirements now go up on order of magnitude, and gone are weapon upgrades, replaced with a single more balanced gun. The switch to a new multiplier system also requires a slightly different approach, offering you a choice of survival or higher scores faster.

Despite changes, the nature of the game, the idea that you’re a single ship with the world’s worst crowd control job, remains intact. Geometry Wars is a game that has a certain transcendental nature to it, to become better at it you realize patterns and behaviors, and only those fearless enough to charge head first into large groups of enemies survive.

On the surface GWE², like GWRE, is a fun shooter, with it’s heart in leaderboard play, but underneath of the shooting lies a commentary on control and the reaction of forces on one another. Playing the game well requires not just skills, like reaction time and accuracy, but an understanding of the rules of the grid, like the way gravity plays a role, and knowing how and when to attac. Still, the best players react instinctively to new threats and engage accordingly.

Evolved 2 adds more depth and balance to a stellar original with tweaks and new game modes, and the upgrade is certainly worth your time and money. I find the best part is that if the Evolved playstyle didn’t really work out for you, modes like King and Pacifism will certainly give you a place to shine, as they require a different way of thinking, and a different reaction.

This is the best XBLA title since Lumines or the original Evolved. This title is peerless. If you like this type of game (or even if you don’t), you shouldn’t let it’s lack of online multiplayer hold you back, because it’s the only thing worth complaining about. This is an awesome game and a pure experience, everyone needs to play this.