Xbox 360 Arcade enjoyers might have fond memories of Geometry Wars, a series of excellent top-down bullet hell shooters that's since made its way to other platforms. Now it's back! Kind of. One ę¾³ę“²å¹øčæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„čÆ¢:Steam Next Fest demo unofficially emulates the series' blinding neon stylź¦Æe āand inserts it into the Vampire Survivors formula.
Geometry Survivors looks almost identicalš° to my hazy XBLA memories, with the same claw-shaped ships and slow-moving projectiles slogging across a plain black bacź¦Ækground. This time, you don't have control over your shooting and instead of chasing increasingly higher scores, you're only trying to survive for five minutes.
As is genre tradition, our meager little ship also has access to upgrades when you grab enough shiny blue resources thatā enemies drop. ā¦There isn't anything too revolutionary in this roster of abilities, with the usual boomerangs, area-of-effect projectiles, and auto-shooting bullets included. Though there's also a currency that carries over in between runs, so maybe some game-changing upgrades are waiting in the final game.
I enjoyed my time with Geometry Survivors, as a more precise version of Vampire Survivor's moreish loop. Ships are so precise and thinly drawn that it's actually thrilling to loop in between enemies and narrowly avoid the spināning blades of dāeath that spawn.
I'm sad to say that apart from the visual design, playing Geometry Survivors felt a little too familiar in a subgenre that's seen countless entrants recently. Maybe following its spiritual predecessor more closely - perhaps giving us control over our projectiles' direction - is a good route to take. For now, though, games like last year's Cursorblade (ę¾³ę“²å¹øčæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„čÆ¢:also a Steam Next Fest highlight) are still the best takes on the formula thšat I've seen.
As for the real Geometry Wars, series rights were once with ę¾³ę“²å¹øčæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„čÆ¢:Microsoft before going over to Vivendi, which then merged with Activision to become Activision Blizzard. And as you might have heard, Microsoft recently ę¾³ę“²å¹øčæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„čÆ¢:acquired that publisher and then ę¾³ę“²å¹øčæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„čÆ¢:laid off almost 2,000 employees. A full circle momešnt for Geometry Wars, I guess.
Other ę¾³ę“²å¹øčæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„čÆ¢:Steam Next Fest highlights include a ę¾³ę“²å¹øčæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„čÆ¢:letter-writing sequel, a ę¾³ę“²å¹øčæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„čÆ¢:lofi life sim, and a ę¾³ę“²å¹øčæ5å¼å„å·ē åå²ę„čÆ¢:psychedelic Metroidvania.
