Geometry Arena

I had somewhat high hopes for Geometry Arena, and I'm not entirely sure if the game met those hopes or not.
Geometry Arena is an incremental minimalist twin-stick shooter confined to a very small arena. You get to choose one of 12 classes, each of which has a surprisingly unique playstyle, from simple classes that just shoot and dodge, to classes that fire giant projectiles that blast through everything, to classes that shoot bouncy lasers in every direction. You also have basic stat upgrades - all the usual damage, fire rate, critical, range, etc. as well as a few dozen difficulty modifiers that give you more rewards. There's also a rune system that allows you to buy and merge randomized runes, allowing for some very rare and powerful, but also expensive, permanent powerups.

The game loop is simple - you go into the arena, beat as many waves as you can, buy temporary upgrades between waves, and then permanent upgrades between runs. In fact, pretty much every single system in this game is quite simple, but I have yet to see a game that allows you quite as much freedom in customization and insane powerups as this. About twenty levels into the run, and you may already have cranked the enemy HP up a millionfold, because you fire 50 projectiles every second that each deal several billion damage and bounce around the level, instantly killing everything that appears. It's a bit of a journey to those ridiculous levels of power though, and so it feels quite exhilarating the first few times you get there.
However, it is understandably very difficult to balance something with so much freedom, and it's no exception here. My steady climb was interrupted by one run, where I got a broken combination of powerups going, put the in-game difficulty to the max, and beat the game for the first time. This allowed me to get pretty much every upgrade for this one class. A couple tries later in endless mode, I got another good run, which now allowed me to pretty much max out every single class. It only took a few hours, but I'd seen all the nearly 200 temporary upgrades, and experienced pretty much all the game had to offer, even finding a power-up combination that granted me effective immortality.

I really had a ton of fun with Geometry Arena. The road to the top may have been short, but I've rarely been this excited at seeing my character become stronger. For this alone, I would recommend the game. But I can't quite put this in my favorite games list, because it's still lacking in content and quality. It needs better balance without compromising the freedom. It needs longer progression without getting repetitive. And while the minimalistic art, world, and enemies were a great fit, it would really benefit from all-around better design. There's a point where the game goes from a skill-based twin-stick shooter, to a weird incremental simulation game. That's not a bad thing, but realistically, I've played better twin-stick shooters, and I've played better incremental games. Still, I would absolutely recommend giving it a try.