Twin stick shooters are ten a penny now on XBLIG, three months ago I was extremely poor at Geometry Wars and had never even played the sequel. So I had a touch of the fear when the Geometry Wars inspired Echoes+ was up for review, has my months of training on various twin stick shooters paid off? There’s only one way to find out.
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Echoes+ is Geometry Wars inspired but it also takes some from the classic Asteroids game, shooting large asteroids which break into smaller chunks which must be shot again until there is nothing left. That would be too easy though thanks to the twin stick controls and easily manoeuvrable space ship used in Echoes+, waves have been introduced in which a new enemy type is added each time. Instead of lives you have an energy bar which is depleted when you collide with an enemy.
The action is very fast paced and you rarely get time to recompose yourself as the enemies are always incoming. Your basic enemies are the asteroids which provide much of the cannon fodder in the game, additional waves introduce new enemy types such as the saucer from the original asteroids, shooting stars, asteroid belts, planets and black holes. Each enemy type have their own characteristics and AI, the variation is good and they provide a great challenge.
Echoes+ has four Power ups that improve your chances of staying alive. The Energy Boost increases your energy percentage, Shield gives you a shield for an amount of time, Smart Bomb gives you a vital extra bomb to use when needed and finally Weapon increases your firepower. There are also three additional power ups which help increase your score with a score Multiplier and two which increase your score.
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There are six different game modes to choose from in Echoes+. Echoes mode is the main mode and follows the above wave system in which you must try and get to the end. Time Attack gives you unlimited energy with a three minute time limit to score as many points as possible, colliding with enemies will reduce your score. Survivor is a straight forward survive as long as possible mode and Classic Mode is a step back in time to green screen graphics in a clone of the original Asteroids.
The final two game modes are almost like mini games, Meteor Storm sees you fight against waves of meteors coming from the four sides of the screen which increase in regularity. Asteroid Belt puts you up against the asteroid belt enemy which chases you around the screen, each wave increases the length and number of snakes. The various game modes all work great and really add value to the game.
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Presentation in Echoes+ is done well, you have a C64 style title screen which goes into an easy to follow menu where you can set up your game. Instructions are clearly explained and are well presented, there’s also a little retro screensaver if you don’t touch the controller for a minute or two. The all important High Score tables are available to view for each mode and difficulty, a nice touch is that during the game you are briefly informed in the background when you beat a score on the table.
The graphics are your typical Geometry Wars neon vector style and they look just as good as any other game in the genre. It can get a little cluttered and hard to see what you are doing in the later waves, but this is expected. The music is in my opinion done very well with some up beat dance/techno music, it works perfectly with the fast paced nature of the game. Sounds effects are used well, although they can be hard to hear over the music, a quick visit to the Options menu to change the volumes will sort that out if it is a problem.
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A worthy mention is that there are 25 in game awards to unlock which are known collectively as the Zoo Trials. Each ‘Zoot’ can be unlocked on the four difficulty modes so you will be spending an hell of a long time to get them all unlocked on the Insane difficulty. The Zoots are distributed among the game modes which is a good idea as it gives an incentive to play all the modes if you want to unlock them all. Many of the Zoot names are puns on classic games and computers which was quite fun to work out the original reference.
Echoes+ is a very polished game packed full of game modes and awards to unlock which will give you hours of action packed fun. The difficulty levels make this an ideal starting game for someone new to the genre, or a seasoned gamer with the harder difficulties enabled. This is a worthy alternative to Geometry Wars and it costs just 240 :MSPoints:, it gets two thumbs up from me.
You can find more information as well as the trial and full version of the game on the Marketplace.
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