DS Homebrew Review: GeoWars

Homebrew gaming opens the door for novice game developers to get a taste of the game development industry. We see a ton of DS and PSP homebrew games, and we appreciate the hard work and efforts of the people behind them. Once in a while, however, certain homebrew games and applications stand out from the rest and deliver excellent gameplay and design. GeoWars is a fantastic example of great homebrew development, offering superb gameplay and graphics and a sophisticated game that asks nothing from commercial DS titles.

GeoWars is a Geometry Wars clone for the Nintendo DS, and gives us a great glimpse of what to expect from Geometry Wars Galaxies, an official release coming to DS and Wii this November. GeoWars puts you in charge of a spaceship flying through a level, frantically shooting multitudes of enemies as you avoid colliding with them. There are two playable characters and you move through missions and zones, each with a different play style, as you progress through the game. You use either the D-pad or the buttons to move and the touch screen to shoot in any direction. This video shows exactly how the game is played:

Missions require certain objectives to be accomplished in order to unlock your next challenge, such as defeating a number of enemies or surviving for a certain amount of time. As you move through the game’s missions you unlock power-ups for your spaceship, including extra bombs and lasers with a greater range. Zones play somewhat differently; you start with the basics and attempt to reach the necessary high score as you collect power-ups to improve your spaceship. There are different enemies; some are slower and weaker while others are far more evasive and troublesome, and as time goes by more and more enemies appear on screen, and trust us, things can get pretty crazy after a while.

This homebrew game includes very impressive graphics, as well as full music with different audio for missions and menus. The game itself feels a bit challenging at times, especially as you start playing, but eventually you should be able to move through the missions at a decent pace; the game is challenging, but not to the point of frustration. You can upload your high scores for each level to a leaderboard and check the high scores of other players and how you rank amongst them.

GeoWars is a fantastic homebrew game that sets an example to upstart game developers and their games. The game is a blast to play and features good controls and graphics, and it’s free. Follow these instructions to download and play GeoWars on your DS:

- Download the game here.
- Unzip the ‘GeoWars’ folder.
- Select the file appropriate for your homebrew-running device. File extension .nds runs on slot-1 devices such as R4 and M3 Simply, whereas .ds.gba and .sc work on SuperCards and other slot-2 homebrew devices.
- Patch the file with DLDI. R4 users, learn how to do so here, otherwise check this site for information concerning your homebrew device.
- Send the patched file to your card and begin to play!

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