Xbox 360 Arcade enjoyers might have fond memories of Geometry Wars, a series of excellent top-down bullet hell shooters that's since made its way to other platforms. Now it's back! Kind of. One Steam Next Fest demo unofficially emulates the series' blinding neon style and inserts it into the Vampire Survivors formula.
Geometry Survivors looks almost identical to my hazy XBLA memories, with the same claw-shaped ships and slow-moving projectiles slogging across a plain black background. This time, you don't have control over your shooting and instead of chasing increasingly higher scores, you're only trying to survive for five minutes.
As is genre tradition, our meager little ship also has access to upgrades when you grab enough shiny blue resources that enemies drop. There isn't anything too revolutionary in this roster of abilities, with the usual boomerangs, area-of-effect projectiles, and auto-shooting bullets included. Though there's also a currency that carries over in between runs, so maybe some game-changing upgrades are waiting in the final game.
I enjoyed my time with Geometry Survivors, as a more precise version of Vampire Survivor's moreish loop. Ships are so precise and thinly drawn that it's actually thrilling to loop in between enemies and narrowly avoid the spinning blades of death that spawn.
