Geometry Wars is such an amazing game. While Magicka recently replaced TF2 as my go-to casual game on the PC, nothing has replaced Geometry Wars as my go-to casual game for the console. I thought I’d share three little stories about my experience with the game.
- When I was a child, I tried the original twin-stick shooter: Robotron. At the time, the game was completely foreign to me. A game with shooting, but no buttons? Characters that materialize by some…sort of…reverse explosion? This is madness!I bring this up because I saw a similar reaction to Geometry Wars on the face of one of my son’s friends. I had trouble with the idea that you could move in one direction and shoot in another. The lack of a button is often foreign to young action gamers.
I can only hope, though that the exposure to the game gives him memories similar to those that Robotron gave me. Having the “I get it” moment after years of play is a wonderful feeling.
- Though I called it “casual” above, I don’t know that I could call it casual in the way that I’ve been playing it lately. Every time I sit down to play, I feel this burning need to beat one of the scores directly above my own. Recently, my silent nemesis has been JamEnslaver. I say “silent nemesis” because I’m certain he has had no idea that his score has been the source of my rage. For over a month, I’ve come closer and closer to breaking his scores on DEADLINE and EVOLVED.I beat his scores in the last week. My new silent nemesis is SmokestormX.
- When I was at the Penny Arcade Expo, Dracomaster brought his XBox360 up to the room. Knowing that he had the highest score on my friends list by a HUGE margin, I jokingly mentioned “This is great! I want to see how you get that high score.” I deservedly received the snarky response from one of the other noobtoobers, “Of course, he’s going to be able to do it on demand.”While they were joking, It turns out that he did, in fact, show me how he got the high score. As I watched him play, I noticed several things about his approach to the game that I had never considered before.
For example, I was so enamoured by the ability to move in one direction and shoot in the other that I didn’t realize how horrible of an approach it was. As I watched Draco play, I realized that he consistently shot in the direction that he was moving, cutting a path for his movements. Further, he seemed to ignore the growing blob of blue, green, and purple shapes that chased him around the screen. I realized that those shapes don’t matter as long as they don’t catch up. If you’re doing your job correctly, they never will.
Geometry Wars is an amazing game. I encourage you to give it a try.
