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Geometry Wars: Galaxies
Author: Brian Ehlert

Even after running through the Geometry Wars: Galaxies demo on more than one occasion, it only left me begging for more. While Galaxies may look like just another Geometry Wars with Wii controls on the surface, digging a little deeper reveals that this game is much more than a traditional sequel.

For those who have not experienced Geometry Wars on Xbox or Xbox 360, you fly a ship using the left thumbstick and shoot in any direction using the right thumbstick, defeating wave after wave of enemies. In times of desperation, a bomb can be dispatched to destroy everything on the screen. That is where Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved ends, and Galaxies begins.

Not surprisingly, Galaxies has changed the control scheme to work with the Wii controller. The ship is controlled with the Nunchuk, and pointing the Wii Remote on the screen shows a red crosshair that indicates where players will be shooting. The B button controls the ship's weapon while pressing A will release the bomb. The controls took a little getting used to for a veteran Geometry Wars player, which resulted from having to concentrate on the position of the red crosshair and the ship simultaneously. It didn't take long before it was second nature, and while I wasn't quite as accurate with the Wii Remote, I improved quickly. I imagine that after an hour or so I would meet, if not exceed, the level of play from past titles. If not, Sierra Entertainment did confirm the game will work with the Classic Controller.

Another big change to Galaxies is the addition of drone behaviors. Before entering a level, players can select a behavior for their drone - a tiny and invincible helper ship - to exhibit. If you simply want additional firepower, you can select "Attack" and your drone will shoot in the same direction as your ship. Selecting "Defend" causes your drone to fly behind your ship and shoot in the opposite direction. If you have your drone "Sweep", it will orbit your ship and absorb the damage. "Ram" works similarly, except the drone will ram enemies that come too close. "Snipe" has your drone picking out the most dangerous enemy on the screen and attacking it directly, while "Bait" sees the drone acting as a distraction in order to lure the waves of enemies away. Also, players can select "Turret" to deploy the drone to a separate location where it can attack in all directions.

Most of the behaviors are locked and must be purchased with collected Geoms. The Geoms are released upon destroying enemies, although players can set to the drone to "Collect" behavior if they don't want to worry about grabbing them. Each one of the behaviors has its own experience meter that fills up when the drone is used. The behavior will gain a level with enough experience, which will upgrade the abilities of the drone to make it faster, shoot farther, cover greater distances, etc. Each individual behavior can be maxed out, but only one can be used at a time.

While the early 'traditional' levels provide a good learning ground for new players, fans of the series will want to check out the new levels for their variety of twists that greatly alter the experience. For example, the first new level in the demo was called Blackhole. The center of the level contains a blackhole that changes the gravitational pull, meaning players need to constantly monitor their position so they don't get sucked in.

The other level I had a chance to play was called Flipper, which features large blocks that resemble Tetris pieces. These blocks are constantly changing shape, creating a maze for players to navigate. To add to the challenge, enemies are not affected by the blocks and will fly right through. Flipper also demonstrated the strategy in choosing the appropriate drone behavior to assist in the level. In players choose snipe, for instance, the drone will be able to fire through the blocks and attack the targets they cannot.

If all of that were not enough, Galaxies features new enemies, online scoreboards, and multiplayer. Still not enough? How about featuring the full version of Retro Evolved and unlockable content when connecting the Wii and DS versions? The developers even made it possible for Wii version owners to download the full DS game to their handheld, so you can play the game for as long as the system remains powered on. All that for only $39.99 this November.

As it was only a demo, I wasn't able to try the other controllers, the multiplayer or the remaining levels. However, the game is visually stunning, and took me a while to remember this version wasn't in high-definition. Previous versions of Geometry Wars featured one single level that had seemingly endless replay value, but Galaxies has just added many new levels, drone behaviors, and multiplayer. Needless to say, this game appears to be a bright star worth watching out for.

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