This Week In Gaming: Geometry Dash, "Fire in the Hole!!"

Photo Courtesy of Steam

Do you love rhythm games? Do you love platformers? Do you hate having a functional brain? Then Geometry Dash is for you. This has been one of my favorite rhythm games for as long as it’s been out, which as of the 13th is 10.5 years! The game has a very simple premise: you have one button to jump, and you move forward through obstacles. That’s it. The levels are all designed around the songs playing in the background, which in my eyes is fantastic. As usual, I’d like to cover four aspects of this game: soundtrack, visuals, story, and gameplay.

Soundtrack: 9/10

This game’s soundtrack takes many elements of EDM, similar to TEKKEN 8, but slightly more down-tempo. With that said, many of the tracks will still get your heart racing. Honestly, I’m a little biased since I grew up hearing the songs of the first 6 levels or so (that’s all I could beat when I was 12), so nostalgia plays some part in the rating for me.

Visuals: 8/10

This game takes a very blocky approach to level-building, which I’m a huge fan of, since I come from games like Mario and Metroid. As a result, the design is very simple but very colorful. At certain levels, however, it becomes hard to pay attention to what you’re doing because of the sheer amount of visual noise. It’s overwhelming at times, which makes some of the later levels much less fun for me.

Story: ?/10

For the most part, you play as a square jumping through a maze of spikes, portals, what have you. Sometimes, you transform into a spaceship, a ball, a spider, a robot with a jetpack, and a few other forms. To say that this game has a story is a stretch. With that said, the most recent 2.2 update added a new mode called The Tower, which we have only 4 levels of so far. This introduces a completely new element to Geometry Dash: in this mode, you’re no longer constantly scrolling right. The Tower is played like a traditional platformer! This was a big surprise to me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, the story so far is still ambiguous, but rest assured this will be expanded upon.

Gameplay: 10/10

This game is extremely fun. It’s quite addicting for me, it really allows the player to lean into their perfectionism. In addition, each level has 3 gold coins, which aren’t necessary at all, but add an extra layer of challenge to complete. The RobTop-created levels are phenomenal, but the online levels are insane. The new 2.2 update added much capability for the level editor, which has led to many “lobotomy core”-esque levels. If you’re interested in playing these levels, I would recommend “Lobotomy ReTraY”.

The base game of Geometry Dash is an extremely solid rhythm platformer that offers replayability through completionist challenges. The user-created levels of Geometry Dash, as of the most recent update, is essentially Garry’s Mod of the base game, offering hilarity, extremely challenging levels, and genuinely impressive cinematography in some cases. Overall, this is a fantastic game, and definitely worth the $4 price tag.