Forget Retro Evolved, this is Retro Perfected: dazzling, mind-blowing and more addictive than ever.
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved was the original and best Xbox game, spawning a thousand imitators and causing countless epileptic seizures worldwide. Rarely have three pounds been better spent than trying to best your friends' high scores (and in my case, failing) for nights on end. The Wii and DS sequel Geometry Wars: Galaxies was an enjoyable game for sure, although the bizarre (sorry) control scheme and excessive repetition diluted the game's winning formula. Luckily Retro Evolved 2 is a stunning return to form, building on the successes of Evolved and raising the bar for twitch shooters ever higher.
While Evolved technically included two modes of play, in practice no one bothered much with the Retro version. Whether that's because the Evolved mode was so good, or Retro was so crap, is a matter of opinion; the main point is that Evolved 2 includes a whopping six game modes and they are uniformly excellent. Deadline is a tense time-limited affair with unlimited lives, serving as the perfect introduction for cack-handed newcomers to the franchise. In King, you can only attack enemies from continually shifting safe zones. I found myself playing this the least because I'm totally rubbish at it, but I'm sure it will find its followers.
Evolved mode provides the most compelling reason for purchase. An enhanced version of the original game mode in Evolved, the main draw here is the addition of geoms. These little yellow crystals soon become your best friends, as each geom you collect adds to your multiplier. The longer you can survive, the more exponentially your score rises. This is a vast improvement over the old, much more punishing scoring system of Evolved. Obviously, I say this because I've gone from the bottom of my Friends list to the top in high scores, so the new scoring method must be more accurate and compelling. Geoms permeate all of the game's stages making for an exciting new twist on the gameplay and adding some much needed strategy beyond "keep moving in a circle and shoot everything that's not you".
Three more modes round off the package: Pacifism is a truly nail-biting experience in which you can't shoot at enemies and must pass through tripwire gates to blow up the ever advancing hordes of deadly blue diamonds. This sounds like the most ridiculous description of a game ever, so you should probably just try it out for yourself. Waves mode returns from Project Gotham Racing 4 and is as ruthless as ever, forcing you to rely on skill rather than dropping off smart bombs to clear the playfield. Sequence provides a fitting conclusion to the game. In it, you face a gauntlet of twenty stages that start off as challenging and gradually become impossible. To clear Sequence takes a level of patience I have not yet attained, but it certainly is fun. All in all, a simple update of Evolved would have sufficed and gamers are truly spoiled for choice here. Evolved 2 offers options for even the most fickle and inept of gamers, something I never imagined I'd be saying about it.
Bizarre haven't stopped at improving the gameplay, either. I used to think that Evolved was an attractive title until I played this- basically, if Retro Evolved was like attending a rave in the world of Tron, then Retro Evolved 2 is an LSD-fuelled explosion at a fireworks factory in the middle of a supernova. There is enough neon here to fill a year's worth of glow sticks- assuming they're high-definition glow sticks, of course. Retro Evolved 2 should be played on a giant TV screen, as big as you can afford until the distant future when television signals are burned directly onto the retina. That said, if you play the game as much as I do, it probably is already.
Fun is at the heart of Retro Evolved 2- simple, uncomplicated entertainment that is truly suitable for everyone. It's so much fun you find yourself drawn away from other titles just for another go at Waves, which turns into another five goes, which turns into you removing Oblivion from the DVD drive so that the Xbox starts up faster and you can spend more time playing Geometry Wars. It's that good. Forget Retro Evolved, this is Retro Perfected; a shining example of the kind of experience Xbox Live Arcade is built for and a title that will still be as addictive as ever six months on.