I am addicted to the Geometry Wars franchise. I'm not very good at the games, but I am addicted to them.

I went through many pairs of games trying to come up with a suitable combination for Chris Hoadley's This or That writing challenge. I wasn't able to find just the right mix. So here I am, cheating. For shame.

But hear me out. I'm combining Geometry Wars 1 & 2 as one game. This is for many reasons. Both are available on Xbox Live and both are smaller games. But the main reason is that each game requires the other. Not technically speaking, they don't, but I'm of the opinion that the full game experience requires the two. The first game is a stripped-down affair. It offers one of my favorite video game experiences of all time, but it is so bare bones that I would compare it to flash games as opposed to other Xbox Live games. Its sequel, on the other hand, provides a great diversity of modes. While "Deadline" and "Evolved" harken back to the first game, Geometry Wars 2 never really offered the basic elements. I see the two games as a core game and expansion, so I will consider them together.

Geometry Wars: Galaxies, funnily enough, came out between Geometry Wars 1 and 2 for the Nintendo Wii. I have never played the DS version, and frankly I'm not sure how it would work. Unless you were using the Wii's classic controller, the game was terrible. When you do, it is amazing, so that's the experience I will reference in this article.

The Xbox Live series of Geometry Wars and the made-for-Nintendo Geometry Wars: Galaxies exist in parallel dimensions. Aside from appearing on the universe-apart consoles, each game has a different development philosophy. This only makes sense, as they were developed by two different studios -- Bizarre Creations for the Xbox Live titles and Kuju Entertainment for the Nintendo games.

Geometry Wars on Xbox Live provides a very specific and very sophisticated game. The controls, the mechanics, and the design are all sublime. I wouldn't exactly compare the games to chess, but there is a something beautiful in its frantic chaos.  The extra modes supplied by the sequel are perfect compliments to the basic gameplay, with the exception of one. The "Evolved" mode is the most similar to the first game, but the inclusion of items left by enemies that affect the score multiplier provide a much different experience.

I will argue that Geometry Wars: Galaxies offers a much sloppier experience. The control isn't as tight, which is partly due to the weird analog sticks on the classic controller. With 8 notches in the controllers casing, the analog sticks tend to get "stuck" in specific directions. Other than this minor qualm, the "sloppiness" actually benefits the game. The developers, when faced with the issue oF making Geometry Wars into a full retail game, decided that anything goes.

The game offers up all sorts of new obstacles and enemy types, including whirlpools and eyeball-shaped enemies that are not constrained by the board's border. The boards themselves come in dozens of different shapes, from the regular rectangle board in the Xbox Live versions of to full-on mazes. It never does anything as well as the original Geometry Wars, but there are so many new things that the game is solid in its own right. This fact makes the game much easier -- where I am terrible at the original Geometry Wars, I managed to get a Silver Medal or better on every single stage in the game.

While Xbox Live and the Nintendo consoles offer Geometry Wars, they are similar in name, appearance, and genre only. To compare them is valid, and I can only conclude that they are different but equal.