10 Video Games With Bizarre Origin Stories
6. Geometry Wars Was Test Software
It’s a rare case when you can buy a title that’s two great video games for the price of one. Project Gotham Racing 2, the 2003 Xbox racing title, also happened to include one of the niftiest Easter Eggs known to man: an entirely different game.
Whilst in development on the original Project Gotham, Bizarre Creations’ developer Stephen Cakebread constructed a little test application. Apparently, the team were having troubles with the prototype Xbox controllers, in particular the right analogue stick, and Geometry Wars was put together as a means to explore their issues and test the controller out.
However, this little experiment was too good not to share with the world. In Project Gotham Racing 2, Geometry Wars can be found on an arcade cabinet sitting in the player’s garage.
Many Xbox gamers found themselves falling in love with it, so much so that the title got its own, broader independent release on the Xbox Live Arcade store and became one of the store’s best-sellers because of it.
It truly only needed to be simple to fit its purpose, which is why Geometry Wars’ art style is really just mathematical shapes and bright, beautiful colours. Through its simplicity players found something calming and addictive, and Bizarre Creations inadvertently created a new shooter/puzzler franchise.