First Posted: 1/18/2015

I really enjoy twin stick shooters and there are very few on the market that have the quality of the “Geometry Wars” series. The new entry in the series “Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions” is the most-finally honed in the series and is one of the most frantically fast and colorful games I have played in a while. If you are prone to seizures you might want to stay away from this game. Each level is bursting with color and the massive amount of enemies on the screen can sometimes border on the absurd.

“GW3: Dimensions” expands on the conventions of the series in many ways. First, there is an added dimension, adding 3D game boards. The levels of the previous games were on a 2D plane. Now the game boards are shaped like circles, cubes, and even cylinders. This changes the game because you can navigate around the back of the screen to avoid attacks. This doesn’t make it any easier, the difficulty can be very punishing if you don’t have really fast reflexes. In some ways the other dimension makes it harder because bad guys can appear on the other side of the board and they might be in a place you can’t see until it’s too late. You will see the ‘game over’ screen pretty often but if you keep practicing you will get good enough to top your friends scores which can be a very gratifying feeling.

Similar to the older Wii version there is a game mode called “Adventure”, which is a series of levels that consist of multiple waves of enemies. To get your score to a certain level and survive long enough to reach the end of the level where, for the first time in the series, you have to take down a boss. These bosses are huge ships and the battles can get very hectic and strenuous. When you complete a level you get a star ranking and can use the stars to unlock later levels in the game. You must get better in order to complete levels to get stars to progress. Sometimes it does get frustrating when you have to go back and replay levels over and over to get more stars so you can continue.

Besides the adventure mode there are some new modes that are pretty exciting. In the first mode, the enemies explode when you kill them. It makes the battles much tougher. Another mode, “Sniper mode,” gives you a limited amount of bullets. One of the most bizarre new game types is “Pacifism” which challenges you to survive the level without firing a single shot. One of the most interesting new game modes is the “King Classic” where you can only fire your weapon in certain parts of the game board, this can be very challenging but it does make you think about how you are going to tackle different situations. There isn’t much online gameplay, but there is an online co-op game mode where up to four players can join together and take down levels to get even higher scores then normal. Co-op is fun but the bulk of your time will be the single player game mastering all of the different levels and collecting all the stars.

Overall “Geometry Wars: Dimension” is a great arcade-like, twin stick shooter. It’s fast and frantic and a fun little downloadable game to play especially on portable platforms like the Vita. But it does look and sound fantastic on the new generation PS4, and Xbox One. If you like arcade style games you will love this game, but don’t expect it to be easy it is one of the most challenging games I have played in a while but I loved every minute of it.