After playing through most of the launch line up, I then wanted to check out what all the buzz was about regarding Xbox Live Marketplace and the ‘micropayment’ system that they’ve set up.

You see on the Marketplace, you can download game demos for free (which are usually time-locked) and then unlock the games for a specific number of “Microsoft Points.” You have to purchase the Microsoft Points in pre-determined amounts, which never match up with the number of points you need. Geometry Wars costs 400 points, but you’ll have to buy at least 500 points from the store. Use the other 100 for a new gamer photo.

Anyway, Geometry Wars ‘evolved’ from a hidden game on Project Gotham Racing 2. The game evokes memories of Robotron: 2084 with it’s very simple controls. The left stick moves your ship around and the right stick fires your weapon. You are given a limited amount of smart bombs which destroy everything on screen.

There really isn’t a whole lot of choice in the game – you can pick the ‘evolved’ version or the ‘retro’ version. The retro version puts the entire playing field on the screen at once, while the evolved version only has a portion of the screen on at once and adds much flashier graphics.

Your enemies are various geometric shapes (hey, now I know where they got the name) and each enemy has different charactistics. Some are like Asteroids or Mine Storm – shoot one, and it splits into little ones. Others seem to have magnets where they just follow your ship until you are destroyed.

The evolved mode is the better place to me. The sound track fits the game perfectly and if there’s ever a game that may cause epileptic seizures, this would be it. Don’t get me wrong, it looks beautiful..but all the trails from the enemies plus the explosions make it easy for your ship to get lost in the shuffle.

Gameplay itself is fast and furious. It’s just shoot or be shot. Every time you clear 10,000 points you get a weapon upgrade. At 75,000 points you get a new life and at 100,000 you receive a new smart bomb. As you shoot your enemies, your multiplier increases. As your multiplier increases you get more points…however when you lose a life, your multiplier is reset to one and you have to start all over again.

The full game supports Xbox Leaderboards and the achievement system. Don’t be looking for 200 point achievements – the gamer points are paltry compared to the challenges you have to hit. For example, achieving 100,000 points gets you a whopping five gamerpoints.

It’s a shame there couldn’t be a multiplayer for this game as it might have been fun, but for 400 Microsoft points, what do you expect. It’s a great little pick up and play game that you can play with a little time to kill. It’s also a great game when trying to hit those special acheievements from Xbox Live, although the payoff isn’t that great. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve played this game more than some of the launch titles. Even if you’re not going to drop the money, it’s definitely worth giving the demo a try!