Now scheduled for release on January 18, the newly-expanded versions of the Xbox Live Arcade classic feature more than 60 planets on which to shoot and evade hostile shapes. Uniquely, both versions also support the ability to wirelessly beam the full version of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved to a Nintendo DS portable.
It's worth noting that these delays only affect the European releases; the Wii and DS versions in North America are still scheduled for release on November 20th and 27th, respectively. Sorry, Europe. We'll let you know how it is.
Independent UK developer Bizarre Creations of Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars fame is now the property of Activision following an acquisition announcement this morning, making the studio one of Activision's wholly owned subsidiaries. The move by Activision follows last year's purchase of Guitar Hero publisher Red Octane, and while financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, Activision notes that its first Bizarre Creations game will not be released until sometime following fiscal 2009.
That said, Bizarre Creations will still release its visceral shooter The Clubas an indie for publisher Sega this February for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The upcoming Project Gotham Racing 4 will be the studio's final game for Microsoft.
While it's always somewhat disheartening to see once independent developers sapped up like this, in some ways it's inevitable, especially given the high costs associated with console game development. Still, according to a blog post on Bizarre Creations' website, Activision's ownership will be "hands off," leaving creative control in the studio's capable hands, for now at least. In addition, the post adds that the company will have "absolutely no redundancies," no doubt causing a sigh of relief from those in the trenches.
A demo from Bizarre Creations' Project Gotham Racing 4 should be hitting Xbox Live soon, according to the developer (via Eurogamer). In addition to five playable vehicles (cars and bikes) that presumably will be in the full game, there will be an Arcade mode exclusive to the demo set in Macau, featuring exclusive challenges. We're a bit perplexed about the exclusive content. If it's good, why not include it in the full game. Conversely, if the content is not good, or not on par with the full game, why use it to promote the title?
A time trial for Nurburgring Snow will also be in the demo. Project Gotham Racing 4 (with Geometry Wars: Waves) is due out October 2 in North America.
As you probably expected, as you fire up your copy of Project Gotham Racing 4, lurking inside will be a new evolution of the Geometry Warsseries called Geometry Wars: Waves. This new video offers a sneak peek of what you can expect and as you can see, it's definitely Geometry Wars.
The enemies are obviously acting different (coming at you in waves, appropriately enough), but we don't see much change from the XBLA version other than that. The graphics look a little snazzier, but that could just be out imagination. So, no, it's not going to something you'll pay full price to get your hands on, but it looks like a nice perk if you were planning on picking up PGR 4 anyway.
Speaking to Pro-G at the Leipzig Games Convention, Bizarre Creations has revealed that a new Geometry Wars game will be featured in October's Project Gotham Racing 4. Dubbed "Geometry Wars: Waves," the shape shooter will be an exclusive Project Gotham bonus and unlike Retro Evolved, won't be sold on Xbox Live Arcade. That makes for an excellent bonus for racing fans, but a $60 investment for those just hoping to exact revenge on the sneaky green square.
Not to worry though, as Bizarre also stated that Waves is based on Retro Evolved and not a "true" sequel as such. Alternatively, you can be sucked in by the gravity wells of Geometry Wars: Galaxies, out this Fall on DS and Wii.
When you decide to use what is arguably the most well-known song ("Particle Man") by what is inarguably the greatest band ever (They Might Be Giants) in your game's trailer, you've got to be hoping for a healthy dose of geek cred. A new promo for Geometry Wars Galaxiesalmost gets it right before failing tragically in one regard: They forget to use They Might Be Giants.
It's sad, really. A great marriage of product and song, marred by an overly-Devo, accordion-free rendition of the tune. Sorry, advertisers: No John and John, no sale. This does make us wonder, though: Is Geometry Wars Galaxies secretly a metaphor for the Holy Trinity?
The multi-directional shooter hasn't enjoyed this much acceptance since we willingly blew hundreds of quarters on Smash TV back in the day. Of course, the shooters of today sport better (see: fair) design and we have Geometry Wars to hold up as the gold standard. Our waggling cohorts over at Wii Fanboy already took a stab at the bizarre trailer for Geometry Wars Galaxies, but there's so much more going on at the moment.
Everyday Shooter is the indie wonder work of Jon Mak and is best described as the love child of Rez and Every Extend Extra: both of which were also musically inspired shooters by the Gooch. Where Everyday Shooter will be gracing the PlayStation Network, Mutant Storm Empire is a sequel to the XBLA launch title. The original was a fantastic, albeit, overlooked shooter and we're dying to get this sequel in our hands with its co-operative play and hugely expanded level design.
Neither of these shooters have a solid release date at the moment and while we expected to be playing Mutant Storm Empire soon, it's suspiciously missing from Microsoft's latest release list.
Despite what developers Kuju tell us, we don't think fans of previous Geometry Wars games will necessarily enjoy Galaxies for the Wii. Though it may have been more enjoyable with the classic controller, our playtime with the Wii remote and nunchuk proved needlessly hard to use.
Movement is done with then nunchuk's joystick, and the direction of your fire is determined by where you point on screen and is shown via a thin red line shooting out of your ship. Given the sheer necessity to be accurate in more difficult phases, having to deal with Wii remote's imprecise pointing proves detrimental.
Compensating for the control issues is your little drone buddy that will team up with you against the Shapes of Evil. By collecting geoms, the game's currency dropped by the bad guys, you can upgrade your drone. We couldn't get a descriptive answer as to what upgrades will be available, but a representative gave us the example of buying an upgrade that tells the drone to target a specific type of foe.
Remember when you paid $5 for this game on Xbox Live Arcade? Or maybe just $2.50? You ready to drop $40? Sure, you'll get the level structure and wireless downloading features -- and a sidekick drone! But isn't Galaxies better suited for Wii Ware? At least visually, Geometry Wars Galaxies appears to be a worthy sequel to the Xbox 360 money-maker. Apparently, Wii really does produce results that are "very close" to Xbox 360 ... an Xbox 360 XBLA game.
The handsome devils over at Gamespot recently spent some time with early builds of Geometry Wars: Galaxies on both the DS and the Wii, and walked away happy with what they saw, even in the games' nascent stages. According to their preview, both versions feature a level structure, with solar systems divided into planets, and each planet being one playable level. Both the DS and Wii version will also include the full content from Xbox 360's Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved, but Gamespot reports that that content amounts to one planet, in proportion to everything else offered in the game.
Other juicy details include cooperative multiplayer, and wireless sharing of a multiplayer DS demo of the game. The DS version can actually share a full copy of Retro Evolved wirelessly with other DSs, but perhaps what's more exciting is that the Wii version can do the exact same thing, making Galaxies the first game we know of to offer Wii-to-DS wireless downloading.
The preview also gives some detail on control schemes. The Wii version has players using the nunchuk to move the ship, with the Wii remote functioning as a cursor to indicate the direction being fired in. The DS version, on the other hand, uses the d-pad to move the ship, and the stylus to aim and fire. Gamespot has also included video coverage of the Wii version, so we'd encourage you to head over and check it out. Both versions are due out sometime later this year, but impatient folks can still find Retro Evolved on Xbox Live Arcade, or Geometry Wars XPon Steam.
Those hoping to engage in wanton shape genocide without a console's involvement can now look towards Valve's online game distribution service, Steam, now hosting a Windows XP version of Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. Developed by Bizarre Creations and considered by many to be the Xbox 360's first must-have game, Geometry Wars is being offered at an introductory price of $2.50, half that of its 2005 "supposed to be free" launch price. The game will be shifted to $3.95 starting June 22.
If Steam isn't your thing either, perhaps this holiday season's Geometry Wars: Galaxies on the Wii and DS will be enough to enlist you in the fight against circles and diamonds. Failing that, we'll have to conclude that you're one of them -- a total square.
According to Gamasutra's Simon Carless, the independent scene is facing an uphill battle when developing for consoles, specifically in the realm of digital distribution. Carless argues that the difficulty in bringing a title across all platforms, both for technological and business reasons.
Other than some retro titles (e.g. Joust), a very small number of downloadable title are appearing on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. Capcom's Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is one of the few exceptions, and Capcom's Christian Svensson said it required "considerable coordination" to get the titles on both consoles, which indicates to us that less established independent houses would have insurmountable difficulty.
Carless notes that Sony's collection, retro games aside, are predominantly first party (though we should note that flOw went to Sony because they actively sought out the independent title). Nintendo has always talked about bringing original games to the Wii, and there have been murmurings of a Game Channel, but so far all the only tangible indication of a non-Virtual Console title is Impossible Mission.
Carless' analogy to the film industry (three separate formats for theatre chains), though admittedly ham-fisted, does not account for industry history. It may be unfair to the independent developer, but there hasn't been a time when gaming was controlled by a single format. Sure, development teams are now much larger and require a bigger budget, but that hasn't stopped smaller teams from succeeding with Geometry Wars, Ragdoll Kung-Fu, and Alien Hominid (pictured). The state of indie games isn't ideal, but it seems to be getting better. We say keep on fighting, Simon.
We were taken aback (in a good way) when news trickled in that the Xbox Live hit Geometry Wars was making its way to the Wii and DS. CVG and GameSpot were surprised, so they got in touch with Roger Carpenter, senior producer for Geometry Wars: Galaxies, to get the scoop on the announcement.
The first big question on our minds: how will dual analog controls translate to the stylus/Wiimote? Carpenter says not to worry. Early tests with the remote/nunchuk combination were very promising, and n00bs managed to rack up respectable scores with ease. We're assuming the analog stick will move the ship and a hearty Wii remote jerk will fire the weapon. And touch screen control should be a snap: move with the d-pad, fire by tapping the screen.
The next item of interest is the announced single-player campaign mode, something we would have never imagined for the coin-munching arcade style of Geometry Wars. Carpenter promises a more "varied and structured game" complete with galaxies, solar systems, and planets ripe for exploration. You'll need to plan battle tactics and scrounge up currency as well.
Along with the robust single-player mode, Galaxies will also offer online multiplayer modes for both games. Look for the titles to hit sometime this holiday season.
Humanity's vendetta against simple (and notably evil) geometric shapes is set to continue its expansion beyond the humble beginnings as a bonus in Project Gotham Racing. Xbox Live Arcade, Vista and mobile phones now find themselves joined in the war by the Wii and DS, at least if the July issue of Nintendo Power is to be believed. A blurb in the magazine (via Buttonbasher) asserts that Geometry Wars: Galaxies will be arriving on both Nintendo platforms thanks to the efforts of "the dev team responsible for Battalion Wars."
That would imply the involvement of the UK's Kuju Entertainment, which is apparently hard at work grafting "an extensive single-player campaign" onto the game's frantic combat. Of course, we fully expect a gripping and operatic storyline to go with it, something along the lines of an intergalactic mathemagician attempting to tri-strangulate vital supply route coordinates. Alas, our expectations are oft set too high. A multiplayer mode and prior versions of Geometry Wars are also said to be included in both packages, expected to materialize this Fall.
It probably wouldn't be absurd to expect a new Geometry Wars game alongside Bizarre's Project Gotham Racing 4 either.
In a recent interview with IGN, Ben Ward of Bizarre Creations said Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was intended to be a free gift to hardcore gamers. They eventually realized they couldn't pull it off, so they went with the bare minimum price Microsoft would allow: 400 points.
As we all know, Bizarre later attacked the free Geometry Wars clone for the PC, Grid Wars, claiming it "impacted the sales" of their game. Why so uptight when they wanted their game to be free in the first place? We understand that operating a business requires you to protect your intellectual property, but if the intention was to give it away, clones shouldn't be an issue. Either the Grid Wars fiasco was Microsoft-induced or these latest comments are nothing more than PR-speak. Something doesn't quite add up.
According to Gamasutra's Simon Carless, the independent scene is facing an uphill battle when developing for consoles, specifically in the realm of digital distribution. Carless argues that the difficulty in bringing a title across all platforms, both for technological and business reasons.
