I love to discover a new rogue that fuses a couple of different ideas together, and Geometry Survivor is one such game. As the name implies, this is a fusion of Geometry Wars-inspired action with roguish mechanics, and the blend sounds like it could work.
The headline is that Geometry Survivor is heading to PC Steam, Switch, Playstation 4|5, and Xbox platforms at some point in Q1, 2024. That’s a pretty broad two-and-a-half month window to gaze at.
There’s not a whole bunch to say about the game at this stage as the picture below speaks for itself (although keep reading below the fold for a bit of background on Geometry Wars if you’d like a little history). Here are the highlights from the announcement:
Geometry Survivor, which is being developed by a three-man indie team called Brain Seal, features “one-hand gameplay, automatic weapon firing, diverse weapon combinations per run, credit-based permanent upgrades, a variety of enemy types with distinct AI, retro 80s-style visuals and music.”
How Geometry Wars inspired Geometry Survivor
I don’t often drop a bit of additional reading like this, but I think the background of this game is actually super interesting.
Geometry Wars, the game which Survivor draws inspiration from, started life as a mini-game, and in rather novel circumstances. You wouldn’t immediately think to include a vibrant arcade shooter such as this as part of a triple-A racing game, but that’s exactly what Bizarre Creations did back in 2003.
Project Gotham Racing was a fun racing franchise for the original Xbox, and Kudos-loving developer Bizarre decided to launch the second game with a brilliant arcade treat that you could play in your garage between races. I have fond memories, if you can tell.
This was back before the indie boom and the rise of the Xbox online store, but as soon as that was a thing with the launch of the Xbox 360, the game was updated and released as a standalone title.
Bizarre Creations eventually went the way of the dodo, but the company reformed into Lucid Games and the spirit of Geometry Wars lives with them, although we haven’t seen an original game in the series since GW3: Dimensions a decade ago.
Anyway, below is a picture of Project Gotham Racing 2 – what a game!
