Geometry Wars Evolved²

Another video from Knuckles (Rooster Teeth) on how to get the Smile Achievement.

You don't want to complete the selected levels in the achievement description. At levels 2 & 4, let the time run out, but in levels 11, 15, 17, 18, and 19, make sure that you die before the time runs out. Every other level must completed, meaning all enemies must be depleted before the time runs out.

The best tip one can offer is that practice makes perfect. You want to try and not use a bomb until the level that spawns all green comes up. It is also a good idea to have at least one bomb on hand by the time you reach the last level.

Other than that, just stay focused and don't make any stupid mistakes. This achievement isn't as hard as it seems as long as you learn the levels and use bombs only when they are needed. It may also help to practice playing in the pacifism & waves mode to improve your dodging skills.

Only use a bomb on levels 9, 10, 16, and the last two bombs on level 20. You need to run out of time on levels 2 and 4 and you can only die on the levels 11, 15, 17, 18, and 19. You need 10 million points to be able to have enough lives and bombs to do this. It's a good idea to pick up as many geoms as possible, but do not risk dying to pick any up. You should have plenty of points by the time you reach level 20 to have enough bombs and lives just by playing. Use my video as a guide to familiarize yourself with each level and to know when to use the bombs. Comment with any questions you have or things I need to add.

I made a video for this achievement.
Timeout on level 2 and 4.
Die on level 11, 15, 17, 18 and 19.
Use bomb on level 9, 10, 13, 14, 16 and 20.
Grab some points and gems on levels where you must die to score 10M :)

Good Luck !

Just one tip that I found useful - learn to do the level with loads of black holes without using any bombs. That way you can carry 2 bombs into the last level which makes things a lot easier.

Here are my tips for Sequence mode in general and this achievement.

Sequence is the final mode in Geometry Wars 2, and it tasks you with completing 20 levels back to back. Run out of lives and your run ends. Getting though all 20 without running out of lives gets you the "Game Over" achievement. To get "Smile" you need to time out levels 2 and 4, die on levels 11, 15, 17, 18 and 19, and clear the rest of the levels. (Both are easier said than done!!)

Practice practice practice. When you're going for the achievement, you'll want to be restarting if you die in any of the first 9 levels, but when practicing just keep going, you need experience of the later levels to get through them. Also play other game modes to improve your general Geometry Wars skill - Waves is especially useful as certain levels require the exact same type of gameplay - level 16 for instance has a part where you have two oncoming waves of orange arrows from left and right, which is much easier if you have played plenty of Waves mode.

Points: don't stress too much about getting every last geom, I have died many times by trying too hard to collect them. Your score is likely to be between 10 million and 50 million at the end, and you're unlikely to make 50 for the extra bomb that brings, so don't stress, you'll have enough bombs/lives just by scoring 10 million.

Watch videos on Youtube - these really help, and you should watch as many as you can find (search "Geometry Wars Smile achievement". The roosterteeth video is a good place to start:

Turn off the game sound! I like to put on some chill music in the background. This achievement needs a LOT of focus, I found the in-game music quite distracting.

Remember! Be extremely careful not to time out (apart from on levels 2 and 4!). You need green boxes for every non-smile level, so you can't die or time out on any of them!

Some tips for specific levels:

Level 6: when the huge circle of orange arrows spawns around you, pick a direction and move and shoot in the same direction (I prefer both sticks upwards), then once you're out of the circle just clear up.

Level 12: This is snakes and orange arrows. Stay at the very bottom of the level, take out the bottom row of arrows on both sides (do this for each wave that spawns), then shoot any snakes that come near you. Once all the snakes are gone keep shooting upwards to cleanup.

Level 20: Keep moving around, don't worry about where you're shooting, just worry about not getting hit. Your reflexe shooting won't nescessarily help here as the c-shaped 'homing' enemies can only take damage from the rear. Bomb as soon as you're in danger. If you can survive until the arrows spawn before you bomb, you're golden.

Bombs:
-levels 10, 16, 20 are "must bomb", levels 6, 9, 13 and 14 are "bomb worthy". You'll only have 6 bombs, so choose tactically which levels to use them on.
- In general get used to bombing if you think you're about to die. You could always get lucky later and make it a tough level through without a bomb, but if you die on that run, it's a write-off as far as Smile is concerned.

Good luck with the achievement