Games for Lunch: Geometry Wars: Galaxies

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0:00 The original Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was the reason I bought an Xbox 360. Well, not the sole reason, but it probably put me over the top. Anyway, here's hoping the experience transfers well to the small screens.

0:01 Some nice techno music plays over a title screen with a picture of a spiral galaxy (appropriately enough). Retro Evolved is an option, so I try that out in order to get a feel for the controls with a game type I know.

0:02 Immediately, I notice things are slower-paced than the Xbox 360 version. I mean a lot slower. Not just the frame rate, but the enemies that used to quickly attack are now lackadaisically lurching towards me. Not a good sign.

0:05 150K points before my first death. Not only are the enemies slower, but they seem less prevalent than the original. Hypothesis: The DS is not powerful enough to handle too many enemies at once.

0:06 I shouldn't be so negative -- I do like the touch-screen aiming controls. The on-screen display makes it really intuitive to change where you're shooting, and the d-pad movement is exact enough. Pretty intuitive.

0:07 The only enemies that even come close to touching me are the red kamikaze ships that deflect my shots. Y'know why? Because they're actually fast, unlike all the other enemies!

0:10 Those red things are annoying. Not just because they're fast, but because I can't see them coming on the small screen of the DS. I lose my last life ... time to move on to the part of the game that was actually designed for this system.

0:11 I get to choose my "drone behavior" from a grand total of one options. All the rest are locked.

0:12 Already this is pretty weird. There are enemies outside that playfield that I can see but not shoot. Killed enemies drop little yellow power-ups (which I initially think are enemies), and I'm already up to an 18x multiplier -- much higher than the original game's 10x limit. What's the point of a multiplier if it gets so high so quickly? I do like the remixed music, though.

0:14 Multiplier watch: 104x.

0:15 I can't tell what this drone is doing, if anything. Am I supposed to activate it or something? Multiplier: 150x -- this seems to be the limit, but I'm still picking up power-ups, even though I don't know what they do. I really don't like having to collect these things. In the original, I could shoot anything that moves. Now I have to shoot some things that move and collect others. Throws off my rhythm.

0:16 My first death. I've already gotten enough points to earn a gold medal on the level so ... I guess I can quit? Or do I have to keep facing this slow-moving barrage until I lose all my lives?

0:18 Despite the game throwing enemies at me nonstop, I really don't feel that threatened. The enemies are slow and easy to take out. Hopefully this will pick up as the game goes on.

0:20 I do find myself missing the Xbox 360's analog movement control. It's hard to make fine maneuvers round the black-hole enemies.

0:22 I lose my last life with two smart bombs left -- always frustrating. Those little yellow things were apparently called "geoms," which can be used to unlock more drones, levels, etc. I got 18,000 from the enemies but 90,000 more for getting a gold medal.