Not too long ago Microsoft rather appropriately kicked off their summer of arcade lovin’ with a sequel to their first truly AAA xbox live arcade title, Geometry Wars. Hitting the console back at a time when the service had yet to prove itself, GW stole the hearts and retinas of many a gamer, providing a frantic neon experience that soon gained a somewhat legendary status amongst early 360 adopters.

With such a simple formula to begin with, it’s always been difficult to see how Bizarre Creations could expand the idea into a full blown franchise – and yet that’s exactly what they’ve managed over the past year. After introducing level-based gameplay into their Wii and DS iterations of the lurid shooter, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 takes the format back to basics for another serving of pick up and play high score hunting. Despite having six modes to choose from it’s easy to snipe at GWRE2’s price if you’ve already extensively rinsed the previous version; admittedly if glancing at the sequel from a distance I’d forgive you for shrugging and heading back to the original, assuming the sequel to be nothing more than an unimpressive add-on pack.

Amazingly, the opposite is almost true: GWRE2 makes the original game look like a tech demo – simply put, play the original before you play the sequel and you’ll have fun. Play it after, and you won’t. In this respect it’s the perfect sequel, so if you found any joy in the original Geo Wars then you’ve no doubt read all you need to already – click the little cross in the top right corner of your screen, hit the power on your telly and get downloading already. Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is a shining example of what XBLA shooters should be like – and considering the download service is practically choking to death on the genre this is no small feat.