Fighting The Geometry Wars

I always suspected that geometry could explode into conflict. Sitting behind a classroom desk, the whole subject of geomoetry seemed hostile and I had the grades to prove it. Now this odd graphic math has revealed the true purpose for which it was designed: to frustate and hypnotize unwitting players in Geometry Wars 2.

The six games in GW2 are similar, like a burrito is to an enchilada, but when I'm playing them they feel like separate, individual games. In some you can shoot, in one you can't, and in one you can only shoot sometimes. And there are two others I haven't even tried. I mainly play Deadline and Pacifism and have no exit strategy.

If you don't know the game, there's one feature the developer implemented that is controversial, at least for me. It's not how the game plays, but what happens after. You're sent to a screen that shows the scores of your last several attempts to destroy geometry. On the same screen is a friends' leaderboard. This I haven't liked much.

In most other arcade titles, you actually have to call up the leaderboard page to see how poorly you're doing against your friends' list. (Forget the global leaderboard. You may as well open up the Guinness Book Of World Records and check for how long you need to hold your breath.) With leaderboards, I'm of the don't ask, don't tell mindset. As in, don't tell me how good you are and I won't ask. As small as this sounds, I like to feel I'm the best in the world on my Xbox, for my 800 points. The developers of GW2 are pulling me out of my little world and showing me I'm not the best. And actually, pretty much fail.

I will admit, it's crossed my mind that if I were to kick these better players off my friends' list (I have two friends in the points stratosphere), my score would reign supreme on the friends' leaderboard. Haven't done it, but the thought gives me pleasure when I'm visited with the points disparity yet again.

Instead, I've been able to wedge my name in between these two other names in a couple different game types. Haven't taken the lead in either of them, but now we all have to wonder what could be in store the next time we power up the Box and get that screen. Which is every time we play.

I'd rather that the developer didn't put the leaderboard in our face. (They actually deliver the game with your friends' highest score in the upper-corner of your game screen like an old-school video game cabinet at the pizza parlor. Options > Score Display > Change To My High Score. Fixed.)

I'll keep playing, though. As it goes with all our modern enemies, I'd rather fight geometry than understand it.