Did you know anyone in school that liked maths, ignoring the kids with too many spots, or those that opted to do maths because they were good at it? You’re answer is likely to be ‘probably not’. I can’t understand why most go on to study maths further because of the very enthusiastic idealism that they were “good at it”. I mean, I’ve pretty much got walking down to a fine art, but I wouldn’t want to make a career out of it! It is with this, somewhat obscure tangent of a ramble that I approach Geometry Wars: Galaxies as a good thing. A war on geometry with a dash of physics thrown in for good measure? About time.

This version of Geometry Wars is for the Wii and DS, although this little series of titles appears to have also made the jump out of the Project Gotham Racing garage arcade machine and onto the Xbox Live Arcade and PC in time too. Although at the end of the day, the Wii version’s really pretty in its own right. They’ve enhanced the maths factor graphically with a mesh that stretches across the playing field. Every time you fire it affects the mesh on the screen, and so when a Black Hole comes along and starts sucking everything in, the mesh goes with it; a kind of ‘Fabric of space’ if you will. Not to mention just how polished they’ve made an equivalent 8-bit game look!

Ok, so getting down to it. What’s the game all about? It’s effectively a top-down shooter, where the player must survive for as long as possible against swarms of ever-increasing magnitude. You’re aim is to achieve certain high-scores to earn medals for each of these worlds. In doing so, you’ll collect cash, which you can use to purchase new behavioural patterns for your sidekick and open new locations (one of which can only be unlocked if you hook up your DS to the Wii). The trick of it is that as you destroy an oncoming enemy they’ll drop cash, which also acts as a multiplier for each kill. You can get a maximum multiplier of 150, which is how you end up with the big scores. You’ll keep that until you die, which occurs if you bump into anything you’re not supposed to. Of course, you get access to a failsafe uber weapon that’ll wipe out anything on the screen, however you’ll only get 3 for the most part (the amount can vary between planets) so you’ll have to use them wisely.

Your little handy sidekick has a variety of behavioural patterns that can help depending on the level you face. For example, one of the little guy’s behaviours is to stand still, rotating on the spot and firing. As that ‘Turret’ mode levels up he’ll get quicker at doing it, fire more bullets – but that’s a rubbish behaviour if the world you’re in has tiny corridors to navigate. Seeing as you don’t have a preview, you’ll just have to delve in and find out for yourself.

As far as the Wii version goes, you control the ship using the nunchuck and it’s turret using the Wii-mote. While at first this might feel a bit odd, you soon get used to it. There’s a little marker that shows you where you’re actually pointing your controller or alternatively just follow the laser that points in the direction your firing. You can use whatever works for you.

Other that slightly repetitive music, this game is bloody addictive. I know that Matt has his little grumbles about too much clutter on the screen at once, but my general argument is that I think that was their aim. To make it fast-paced and manic, keeping you on your toes. And, at the end of the day, you never really lose anything; even if you aren’t good at a particular level; you’ll still get some cash and hopefully some XP for your sidekick. So what the hell, why not give it a go? It’s a budget release title that you can pick up and put down when you fancy, and it’ll have you coming back for more!