Saturday, November 19, 2011

Top 50 Video Games: Number 27



Stats of Import

Platform: Xbox 360
Absurdly Specific Genre: Shapes and Colors Fighting Each Other
Difficulty: I'll go with 7.
Beaten: I've beaten most of the various challenges and gotten decent scores in the modes, but there's no real way to 'beat' it.


I've always loved twin stick shooters. From the early days where I spent about 15 dollars worth of my parents' quarters trying to get past the first boss of Smash TV in a truck stop when I was 9, everything about the twin stick shooter appeals to me. Therefore, the first Geometry Wars was right up my alley. It was fast paced, it had excellent graphics, and a bunch of cool enemies (not to mention a really great theme song). It didn't have varied gameplay, but really, it had just about everything I'd ask for from a twin stick.

Not pictured: boredom
...and then the second game came out and made the first one completely obsolete.

It had better graphics, faster pace, and even more cool enemies. It also had several additional game modes. Sequence is the one that I keep going back to (trying to beat each stage in ever more-efficient ways), but Pacifism, King of the Hill, and Wave are all a lot of fun, too. Bizarre took the already great formula and made it truly awesome.

I understand Bizarre's reluctance to return to the Geometry Wars franchise. Truthfully, I think it's a wise move. I can't think of how they'd beat this one.

Other Notable Games in the Series: The first Geometry Wars (Retro Evolved) would made the list in the high 40's. It was awesome, but the second game up the ante in every conceivable way. There was a DS game that I played once that seemed pretty fun, but I was only able to play it for about 15 minutes at the time, and never ended up buying it.

4 comments:

  1. There's a PSN equivalent to this that I've considered many a time but have never gotten. I figure if I've got any seizures in me, this sort of game would bring them out.

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  2. Shapes and Colors Fighting Each Other

    Go Colors, beat those bastard Shapes!

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  3. @ DG: The shapes had it coming.

    @Spooky: My niece absolutely loved this game as an infant. She was transfixed by all of the bright lights and crazy noises. For the first year, whenever she'd throw a fit whenever she was at our house, I'd play this, and she'd settle right down.

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  4. Well, now I don't know what to believe.

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