It's remarkable that on my journey to console land and the serene surroundings of Microsoft's very own games console, I found that the one game which truly kept me hooked to my TV was not any of the disappointing launch games that I've long lost my recollection of, but the rather simplistic arcade game Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. It was and still is one of the best things to come out of Xbox Live Arcade, the 360's own platform for launching budget gem videogames.

Its initial release on PC was blighted by the problem that it was made inexplicably a Windows Vista exclusive, meaning that all those who are yet to make the switch to Microsoft's new operating system were unable to play it. Presumably realising that an exclusive of a cheap arcade game probably isn't going to create a rise in Vista's sales, Microsoft have since decided to make it compatible with Windows XP and available to all, although anyone who does choose the XP version over its Vista counterpart will have to make do without the online leaderboards and unlockable achievements that come with the previous two versions of the game.

Geometry Wars is a homage to the past coin-op arcade games of the Eighties and the objective is simple - fly a ship around the screen and blast all of the numerous geometrical shapes that appear on it. These shapes don't fire back at you, but they are immediately attracted to the ship and try to force a collision, gradually whittling away precious lives as they do so. You simply have to survive long enough to amass an impressively high score. That's it; that's all there is to it, you just shoot shapes on a screen until you die.

But simply surviving becomes a true test of your twitch-based skills, as the unrelenting hordes of shapes continue to grow in their density and become more erratic in their behaviour. You aren't just facing an armada of mindless drones; each vary in their methods of attack. The green squares for instance, trouble you no end; they avoid your weapons fire by quickly manoeuvring out of the way, but once your back is turned they move straight in for the kill, sneaking in when your attention is focused elsewhere. The purple equivalents are a little more direct, instantly charging at you but splintering into three smaller cubes once destroyed that spin around aimlessly.

There are snakes, appearing in the corner of each screen and often in great numbers, which are only vulnerable at the base of their head, Red Ships that dart across the screen but have a shield ahead of them to overt direct fire and small spinning crosses that pour out of the four sides of the screen in huge waves. Then there are the black holes, small red-ringed voids that glide across the screen but once ignited with a shot from your weapon turn into gargantuan gravitational sucking monsters, consuming everything in their wake. A good thing you'd imagine and the more tactical gamer can use these to his or her advantage, but there's only so much they can consume before they explode and send dozens of tiny circular shapes out after you. Alone they're all pretty vulnerable and easy to vanquish, but five minutes in and you'll be having difficulty just finding your ship among the flood of shapes that cover the screen.

One slip of the key, one minor mistake and it can all come crashing down around you. Keeping alive long enough to hit that elusive 1 million plus score is a challenge like no other - even the assistance offered in the form of new weapons, extra lives and the use of bombs (which can destroy everything on the screen in one fell swoop) can't help you unless your hand-to-eye coordination is up to scratch, but even with defeat upon defeat, there's an undeniable addictive charm in trying to beat your last score that just keeps you coming back time after time.

If there is one grievance with this version of the game over it's console original, it's that for once neither the keyboard or mouse lend themselves as well to the action as the 360 controller. The W, S, A, D keys handle the movement while the arrow keys are used to shoot, although you can also use the mouse to fire if you wish. While they handle the action well enough, they do end up feeling more sluggish when compared with the 360's controller, mainly due to the fact that the game was built around its two analogue sticks. It just works better on the controller I'm sorry to say, a betrayal of its console heritage. There is support offered for the 360 controller though (bizarrely it's the only controller you can use), so if you do have one spare and the necessary wireless adapter needed to use it on your PC then by all means take full advantage of it.

Minor control quibbles aside and the general lack of nice if pointless unlockables, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is a hard game to fault. It's a relentless, addictive yet difficult to master arcade game that epitomises everything that was fun about the classic games it takes its inspiration from - it's easy to pick up yet hard to put down and the perfect game to lose a few spare minutes in. Best of all, it's a mere two quid and with no operating system restrictions in place, there's really no reason for you not to snap it up right now!

Reviewed by Kieron Giacopazzi for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).