Steam Gets Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

Bizarre Creations' cult Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved has seen a new entry in its growing number of platforms with a Windows XP release of the shooter on Valve's Steam platform, following a previously Vista-only PC release. Described as an "old school style shooter, but remixed for the 21st century with next generation graphics and deep, modern gameplay," the Steam release promises a "pixel perfect recreation of the Xbox Live Arcade game." As well as offering the traditional dual-stick gamepad support, the Steam release also allows players to use the keyboard and mouse. Bizarre has been busy bringing the smash hit Xbox Live Arcade game to various platforms in recent months. Apart from the Games For Windows release exclusive to Windows Vista, the first such move from Live Arcade came with the previously reported mobile phone version being published by Sony BMG Music Entertainment, with simplified controls for more agile one thumb play. More recently, Sierra Entertainment announced that Kuju Entertainment would be bringing the game to Nintendo's Wii and DS as a mission-based title called Geometry Wars: Galaxies. That version, as expected, will be optimized for its respective platforms, with new multiplayer modes, bonus content when the DS and Wii versions are linked via wi-fi, online leaderboards for the Wii version, and a full version of the Xbox Live original Retro Evolved. The release of the game for standard Windows follows "amicable" requests from Bizarre to various hobbyist coders making their own cloned versions of the game for Windows, and a lengthy and interesting public statement on the matter, posted on its website, illuminating some of the issues behind game 'cloning' and intellectual property. Priced in line with the Xbox Live Arcade release, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is currently available for download via Steam.