[Intro: Hi, I'm Anton, new guy around here at Joystick Division. Like all JD writers, I'm an international playboy/super-spy/war hero/general man of mystery. I'm writing this post atop my solid gold throne in my ocean liner currently cruising the Aegean Sea. So yeah, I'm pretty much a normal guy.]

Microsoft has kicked off its summer program of high profile, and it's off to one hell of a start. This week brings us fancy-pants art game Braid, while last week got things rolling with the sequel to Xbox Live Arcade's first smash hit title, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. The original was a fairly simple game at its core, - basically, it's Asteroids with funky neon graphics and a Robotron-style dual analog control scheme. At first, I was a bit skeptical about a sequel, assuming that any changes or additions to the formula would dilute it or feel tacked on. Boy, was I wrong. Comeback of Zubaz wrong. More after the jump.

The nuclear option is always on the table when dealing with green squares.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 breaks the game into six different modes: Deadline, King, Evolved, Pacifism, Waves, and Sequence. Each brings a different element to the core gameplay, such as a time limit, safe zones, waves of enemies, etc., but the core gameplay always remains the same: It is you're duty to kill as many damn dirty parallelograms as you can. If you don't, then the trapezoids have already won!

Aside from the new gameplay modes, Retro Evolved 2 features a few new gameplay tweaks that alter the formula established by the original, including Geoms, the power-ups introduced in the Wii/DS release Geometry Wars: Galaxies. Geoms act as score multipliers, stacking throughout the game and leading to much larger score tallies than in the original. Leaderboards are visible right on the mode selection screen, so you can see exactly how you compare to your friends. It's a small tweak, but perhaps one of the smartest additions to the game. Nothing drives me to play another round more than being able to brag that I've wasted more of my life practicing blowing up primitive shapes than my buddies!

Of course, the urge to humiliate your friends would quickly dissipate if the gameplay was lacking. Fortunately, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 boasts some of the most addictive, hold-your-breath-as-you-maneuver-through-killer-decagons gameplay you'll ever see. At $10, it's twice the price of the original, but offers far more than double the content. Pretty much the only thing it doesn't offer is an explanation as to why there's a war amongst all these bright, colorful shapes in the first place. Fortunately, I've stumbled across some Geometry Wars fan fiction that sheds a little light on the subject!

"Oh Square," said Heptagon. "If only we could be together! But my father Admiral Trapezoid will never accept you. You just don't have enough corners!"
"I don't care what your father says," Square declared confidently. "I'll take on your father's entire Rhombus Army if that's what it takes to be with you!"
Heptagon felt her corners quiver with excitement. Square was the most powerful, rigid structure she'd ever seen. She stepped forward and rubbed her flat plane against his, and she knew that she would finally give in to their forbidden love...