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Take two games into the shower?
By Fuseball
Back when twin-stick shooters were a long lost and abandoned branchline of videogaming, the original Geometry Wars showed that “retro” designs could be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Almost buried within the dingy garage of Project Gotham Racing 2, for a while it was gaming’s most treasured easter egg. Then the Retro Evolved iteration went on to be Xbox Live Arcade’s poster child; in those early days as much a reason to own a shiny new 360 as any of the big budget launch titles.
A couple of years on and 360 owners were fobbed off with the lazy sketch of a game that was Geometry Wars Waves within PGR4, as sure a sign as you could want that the series inspiration had all but evaporated. Instead it was announced that the franchise was to continue on Nintendo’s DS and Wii platforms, and in doing so partly abandoning the series twin-stick credentials. I wasn’t hopeful.
On the surface both games are ostensibly the same. Both share an identical galaxy and planet hub structure. The individual stages have the same shape and enemies. In fact the only discernable difference in terms of structure are slight variations in the medal target scores.
Geometry
The medals system is a straight lift from the PGR series, although sadly they don’t really serve any purpose other than to give you a score to aim at. Instead progress is earned through the collection of Geoms, the in-game currency. These are tiny yellow shapes that are left behind whenever you shoot an enemy. Collecting them not only adds them to your total balance, but also increases your scoring multiplier. In practice, collecting Geoms is too easy. In no time at all you’ll have earned enough to open up every galaxy and planet. It’s unfortunate that progress through such an elegant game structure is rendered such a weak challenge. Beyond a handful of helper drones there’s a scarcity of anything further on which to spend your rapidly accruing wealth. Compare this to the vast array of items available in something like Meteos, or the glorious selection of post-completion unlockables in Rez, and Galaxies feels decidedly half-baked.
At least a little more thought has been put into the helper drones. Offering a range of attacking and defensive behaviours, once purchased they can be trained up simply by being used. As they gain experience they get better at their respective roles. It’s the one element of the game that doesn’t go for the quick win and actually rewards a bit of skill and patience.
The most obvious difference between Wii and DS versions are the controls. A Classic Controller is the only viable option for the Wii, albeit with some reservations due to the 8-way ridges of the analogue sticks making the game less fluid and more frustrating than its Xbox predecessors. The DS, however, makes astute use of the stylus for aiming, resulting in a control system that is surprisingly accurate and responsive.
Wars
Despite, or maybe because of, the additional processing oomph and visual fireworks offered by the Wii, the DS unexpectedly delivers the more finely honed gameplay. Geometry Wars Retro Evolved was not a game without problems. It bludgeoned the player with sheer overload of enemy numbers rather than get creative with difficulty, resulting in a ceaseless fog of obstacles to be carved through. There was no respite, no structure, no ebb and flow to the action. Every game would descend into the player tracing the same tired loops around the screen. It was lazy game design that sadly the Wii version of Galaxies feels no need to resolve. But more by necessity than design, one feels, the DS has had to address these overload issues to make the game possible on the hardware. The enemies come at you in fractionally clearer waves, and that split second of breathing space is all the player needs to make tactical changes and shifts in direction. Unable to deluge the player quite as before, the game becomes surprisingly reminiscent of old-school arcade shooters running at the very limits of their hardware, a harsh but ultimately fair fight. A very very good thing.
All this definitely make the DS version easier than the Wii, but that difficulty feels better judged and more natural. The DS always offers the prospect of a better score next time, making the player feel that it was their mistakes that cost them, rather than the brick wall difficulty of the Wii halting progress. By way of proof, I wanted to re-play every level on the DS until I achieved the gold medal score. On the Wii I was satisfied with even a bronze, and with little desire to go back.
The DS version offers perfect bite-sized gaming chunks. Most games of Galaxies last no more than a few minutes, ideal for a handheld. It’s not without flaws; vague sound design, a weakly defined game progression and lack of unlockables; but the combination of keenly judged difficulty and sublime controls make it my most played DS title since Meteos. If only the Wii version had taken a lesson from it. By accident or design, sometimes less is indeed a whole lot more.
February 2008
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