Saturday, April 5, 2008

Geometry Wars Galaxies

Developer: Bizarre Creations
Publisher: Sierra
Release Date: Nov. 27, 2007
Systems: Nintendo DS (reviewed), Wii
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web Site

In a nutshell: A flawed pocket universe

0:00 The original Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was the reason I bought an Xbox 360. Well, not the sole reason, but it probably put me over the top. Anyway, here's hoping the experience transfers well to the small screens.

0:01 Some nice techno music plays over a title screen with a picture of a spiral galaxy (appropriately enough). Retro Evolved is an option, so I try that out in order to get a feel for the controls with a game type I know.

0:02 Immediately, I notice things are slower-paced than the Xbox 360 version. I mean a lot slower. Not just the frame rate, but the enemies that used to quickly attack are now lackadaisically lurching towards me. Not a good sign.

0:05 150K points before my first death. Not only are the enemies slower, but they seem less prevalent than the original. Hypothesis: The DS is not powerful enough to handle too many enemies at once.

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Developer: Bizarre Creations
Publisher: Sierra
Release Date: Nov. 27, 2007
Systems: Nintendo DS (reviewed), Wii
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web Site"

Why is this information not listed on the CrispyGamer posting of the full reviews? It's nice to know what platform you've played on, sometimes the same game is available on many platforms, and they can be very, very different...

Anonymous said...

I own the Wii version but I haven't been able to play it because I don't have a Classic Controller. Damn shame.

Nintendo Maniac 64 said...

IMO, the Wii version fixes the speed problems, and can DEFINITELY have more enemies on-screen.

Also, the screen is obviously bigger. Note, with the classic controller, the octagon outline-thing can be annoying since the analog stick doesn't go around smoothly and drifts towards those indents. So much so that I actually took it apart and filed it down so that it's round like on a 360 pad XD