There’s a clip making the rounds at present of former Activision Blizzard CEO — and all-around online game fandom boogeyman — Bobby Kotick recalling a failed acquisition and fumbling the small print. On a video podcast for enterprise capital agency Kleiner Perkins, that includes former EA exec Bing Gordon, Kotick confessed: “We truly had a foul acquisition. The corporate that was, um … in Manchester, that did the driving recreation for Xbox, and it was known as, um …”
You possibly can watch the entire thing right here, across the 8-minute mark. So yeah, not an excellent look. However once I’m [checks Wikipedia] 62 years previous, I think I could not bear in mind one thing I did once I was [checks calculator app] 44 years previous, which is mainly how previous I’m now and I’m feeling a method about it. Will I bear in mind penning this submit? Who is aware of. However what I do bear in mind is Weird Creations’ absolute showstopper of a recreation — one which my household nonetheless performs to today.
No, not Blur — all respect to the Blur heads on the market — and no, not “the driving recreation for Xbox,” although respect to the Undertaking Gotham Racing followers as properly. I’m in fact speaking about Geometry Wars, the sport that helped set up a brand new type of console recreation on Microsoft’s muscular sophomore effort and, in so doing, turned arguably the Xbox 360’s finest launch title.
Initially included inside Undertaking Gotham Racing 2 on the unique Xbox, Geometry Wars is an easy twin-stick shooter: left stick controls the ship, and proper stick fires. That’s it! In one among my first jobs as a online game journalist (RIP Joystiq), I lined the Xbox 360 launch within the days main as much as its November 2005 launch, and Geometry Wars: Retro Developed – because the high-definition Xbox Stay Arcade model was known as — instantly impressed. I wrote, “If [Project Gotham Racing 3] isn’t the spotlight of the 360 launch, Bizzarre’s different creation absolutely is!”
Within the weeks and months that adopted, the remainder of the Joystiq employees and I watched the worldwide leaderboards with some mixture of marvel and shock. They scored what now? The novelty of this sort of retro recreation being performed on a high-def recreation console with the web baked into its very material was the smallest of hints as to what was to come back for video video games, however it was a potent dose. We reported out excessive scores (congrats Striker and xTHeDoGgx) and challenged one another on the buddies leaderboards.
And now, Geometry Wars: Retro Developed stays a household favourite on the Steam Deck, the place its bite-sized periods coupled with some wholesome father-son competitors have jogged my memory how sturdy this recreation’s components is, virtually twenty years later. So even in the event you don’t bear in mind the title of the studio, or the town it was based mostly in — Liverpool, by the way in which — you must bear in mind Geometry Wars. Activision did shut Weird Creations in 2011, following the launch of racing title Blur, and after some varied strikes, a handful of that crew has reconstituted itself at Lucid Video games, who managed to launch Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions in 2014, marking the franchise’s first PlayStation launch.
And in the event you haven’t performed it, I’ve excellent news for you! You possibly can nonetheless buy the unique on the Xbox retailer for a similar $4.99 it price in 2005, or on Steam the place it’s at present going for $1.99 – that’s lower than a gasoline station espresso! In the event you’re extra of a PlayStation particular person, you’ll be able to snag Geometry Wars 3 for $14.99 which is mainly the worth of a very fancy espresso these days (don’t fact-check me).
I’m curious if any of you share my fondness for this recreation; let me know beneath. See you on the leaderboards. 👀
