Geometry Wars remains a favorite Xbox Live Arcade game because it is not only easy to play but it becomes more challenging with each enemy destroyed. It is this highly addictive gameplay that makes it perfect for the portable gaming space. Many people may wonder how the developers can justify the price increase; it is around $5 on Xbox Live but $30 for the Nintendo DS. The answer to that question is the amount of depth that this game now contains.

In the original game players are in open space and they must destroy as many enemies as they can without dying. To aid players they are given a couple of lives, bombs, and a never-ending supply of bullets to destroy any enemy threat. Galaxies takes a more structured approach. Instead of one big level to play in, players will go through various worlds killing off enemy threats, and as each world is beaten the difficulty level goes up.

Once the game is loaded players will notice there are several modes to choose from. The first is the single-player campaign mode called Galaxies. The next mode is entitled Retro Evolved, which is the exact same game that can be played on Live Arcade. The last mode is multiplayer, and once a connection has been established, there are several game modes to choose from. The first game type is a co-op game where two players battle together sharing the same lives, weapons, and score. In verses mode one player controls the ship and the other player dishes out enemies trying to destroy them. The last mode is called simultaneous where each player is given their own ships with the purpose of seeing who can get the highest score.

There are two features that are exclusive to the Galaxies mode: Drones and Geoms. The drone is an AI craft that will help players fight the onslaught of enemies. Drones can be fitted with various behavior types, and each helps players with a certain task. The initial behavior is to attack all enemies, but soon players will have the ability to purchase snipers, act as bait, and other behaviors that will make players wonder how they ever played the game without using a drone. The more players use a certain behavior the more powerful it will become.

Geoms act as the in-game currency that allows players to upgrade their drones or buy access to new solar systems. In addition, Geoms also act as the score multiplier, which puts a new twist on the game. In order to get higher scores players need to obtain score multipliers, but in order to get them, they will have to risk leaving their location to try to collect them. Sometimes it becomes really challenging as they end up in the middle of a spawn point, but having change really makes the gameplay more frantic and addictive.

The biggest adjustment to this game is getting accustomed to the new control scheme, especially if players have played on Xbox Live. On the Xbox players use the dual analog to steer the ship and shoot the enemies on the screen. Since the DS doesn’t have an analog stick an alternative control system was devised. There are several different control schemes the developers made for this game, but the best one is to use the d-pad to move the ship around and the touch screen to shoot the enemies. The main problem with this setup is after playing the game for a while, players hands might start to cramp up.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies looks pretty good on the Nintendo DS. The game does not pop out as much as it does on other systems, but it still looks really nice. The developers used a good color palate to make everything standout really well. The game also has very nice particle effects that help compensate for the lack of HD graphics. The only real issue with this game is when there are numerous enemies on the screen, players will encounter slowdown, but it doesn’t happen often enough in the game to become annoying or too distracting.

The more things change the more they remain the same. This holds true because just like previous versions of this game, the soundtrack players will hear is full of generic techno music. While this music might annoy certain players, it never gets to the point where it is overly annoying. The sound effects are decent for this game, but ever so often the audio will seemly “turn off” for a moment when the fighting gets really hectic. Having the sound effects and music disappear can be distracting, but the frantic gameplay prevents players from caring about it too much when it does.

Another nice addition to this game is that it also can connect to the Nintendo Wii. If players own both the Wii Version and the Nintendo DS version of Geometry Wars: Galaxies, an extra world will be unlocked in both games for players to enjoy.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies is rated for everyone.

Gameplay: 8.0
Geometry Wars: Galaxies is perfect for on-the-go gamers. The only flaw is that this game is made for a dual analog setup, while the touch screen works, it just is not as smooth of an experience.

Graphics: 7.6
It is hard to be fair to the graphical section of this game due to the fact that many players might have already played this game in all of its HD glory on the Xbox 360. Even though this is the case, it really does a decent job with the Nintendo DS hardware. The only issue with this game is the slowdown that will occur when there are numerous enemies on the screen.

Sound: 7.0
The generic techno music that has been in the previous games returns and provides a decent experience.

Difficulty: Medium
This game is easy to get into, but the further the game goes the more challenging it becomes.

Concept: 8.0
The game really benefits now that it is in a more structured environment. The developers also succeeded by adding in loads of bonus features including the Xbox Live version of the game: Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved.

Multiplayer N/A
At the time of this review I was unable to test the multiplayer aspects of this game.

Overall: 7.8
Geometry Wars is a highly addictive title that has captivated many Xbox 360 gamers for a long time. The Nintendo DS version is even better because it allows gamers to get their fix anywhere. The only two issues are the control scheme is not as good and many gamers might not be able to justify the higher price. All of the new features really justify the price tag.