GBAtemp book game club sees a new week happening and thus has a new edition. The book game probably says it all but for the sake of those skim reading the idea is each edition a game (or a couple) gets selected and then those that wish to join in with the feature can play it (or if they have played it in the past go from that) and say what they thought about it as a whole, an aspect of it or if they want do a full review.
Various things go into making a selection many of which we are leaving that vague but we do wish to say this is not intended to be a top ? games list as those are everywhere and just going by them you would probably have a good time but also stand to miss out on a lot. Games in the top ? games lists (be it in general, by genre or some such) can certainly feature in this series (our selection today certainly features in a few) but a selection could also be made for a nice mechanic, being a new take on a genre/one rarely done on a platform, something new entirely, being important for a company or industry as a whole, have a great score (musical score- again review scores are usually skipped over) or something along those lines.
Our selection process is not set in stone and although we certainly like good games as much as the next people we are not adverse to making a selection if it should demonstrate a nice mechanic, have a great score (soundtrack- review scores are things we tend to ignore), some great sections, try something new, try something rarely attempted on a platform or in general or otherwise be important to a series, company or industry as a whole. Basically we did not want to make another top ? games list (refined by genre or not).
Even that can get a bit stale though so there are occasionally other criteria and features like not being published in North America (we have just come off a small run of such titles), something that is not available for much (you can find several good games for the DS where shipping, despite being reasonable, is the bulk of the price, something rare courtesy of a small run or being released early on and on the features front we might do a compare and contrast (many genres and games have similar but subtly different titles the "best" of which can boil entirely down to opinion), pose a challenge (there are quite a few titles which played a certain way change how the game is viewed)
There is no restriction on the consoles we make selections from but for now and the foreseeable future they will come from the consoles GBAtemp traditionally covered (GBA, DS and Wii) but between huge libraries of rom hacks, homebrew, commercial releases and other code (demos, betas, leaked versions, unpublished titles and such) we do not envisage any barrel scraping for a long time yet.
#38- Geometry Wars- Galaxies (NDS and Wii)
Our run of European titles is taking a break for a while to instead indulge in a bullet hell (of sorts) shooter in Geometry Wars- Galaxies. Taking the somewhat less popular minigame (the "original" was part of Project Gotham Racing 2 on the original xbox although a tweaked version and a sequel are available on the 360's xbox live arcade) to full franchise route is Geometry Wars- Galaxies from Bizarre Creations (best known for the Project Gotham series but they did do a couple of other titles) which is available for both the DS and Wii (indeed they can link up to unlock things- one Wii save to help with that). As mentioned the game itself is a bullet hell game or sorts set on a small field of play (think asteroids) that you have to survive in for as long as you can as things get harder. Throw in some varied enemy types, fast paced gameplay and some light upgrades that can carry through the game and we hold you have a recipe for a sore wrist (do note on the DS you can switch to buttons once the game starts if you want) but a good time getting there. Oh multiplayer co-op exists for both versions.
Gameplay video (frame rate is far far smoother in the game itself)
A youtube wii review that covers a lot of the wii game[/p]
GBAtemp release thread[/p]
My wrist is pulsing but I must keep playing or do you prefer your shooters to come in another form. As with most times we link up this sort of game we also feel the need to link up the game of the week/retro reviews desk DS homebrew favourite Meteroa[/p]
gbagotw should get you other links in this series
