Announced earlier today as part of the July 2015 PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection in North America and Europe, Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions Evolved launches on July 7, with non-PS+ members able to buy it for $14.99.
You can watch 20 seconds of gameplay beginning at 1:40 of the above video.
Discussing the Vita version, Lucid Games Co-Founder Craig Howard says the team wanted it “to be the same fully featured experience it is on PS4 and PS3 — capturing all of the varied gameplay and enemies that can be encountered across its 100+ single-player levels and multiplayer modes.”
While there were some technical challenges to get Geometry Wars 3 at a steady 60 frames-per-second on PS Vita, Howard says the Vita’s display being lower than a 1080p TV helped, as they didn’t need to include as many pixels each frame. This freed up GPU time and a little CPU time, and after a few months, they achieved 60fps:
However, the complex shaders and lighting wizardry that was used to define the vibrant Geometry Wars world on PS4 was a bit too much for its sibling to cope with, so we had to deploy some developer tricks to achieve similar results, and after a few months, we had something that not only looked spot-on, but also maintained that all-important frame-rate.
Elsewhere, Lucid Games kept the 8-player competitive mode of the console versions, while co-op only requires one Vita:
In the end, we came with a unique two-player co-op format in which players sit opposite one another and play the game simultaneously on the same screen. Player 1 uses the D-Pad to move and the nearest analog stick for shooting, while Player 2 uses the other analog stick for moving with the face buttons to shoot. This combination might seem strange at first, but it’s actually easy to pick up, so you can sit together with your buddy / partner / enemy on the sofa and share a little light Vita relief.
As Activision adds on their blog, “PS Vita owners will be able to play across 12 unique battle modes, like favorites Pacifism and King. There are also six upgradable companion drones to choose from, as well as six powerful drone supers. Whether you’re on the go or at home on the couch, you can also play cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes online over Wi-Fi, complete with online leaderboards.”
[Source: PS Blog, Activision Blog]
