As a late adopter of the Nintendo DS, I figured I missed the boat to review this game. Shockingly, this is only the second review of this spectacular game. I can only imagine that other Meteos owners are simply too busy playing to write about it, because it's hard not to praise this one.
Meteos comes from the same house that offered
Lumines on the PSP. Despite common origins, Meteos is a unique animal, largely due to its excellent use of the DS touch screen. It's like no puzzle game you've ever played before, and is a no-brainer addition to any DS library.
Basic Gameplay:
Like so many puzzle games, Meteos takes place in a world of falling blocks of various colors. Ho-hum, you think.
Blocks rain from the sky, and pile up on the ground below. You have no ability to steer or choose these blocks -- you get what you get. Once the blocks are stacked, however, you can use your stylus to "slide" any block vertically within its stack. Horizontal movement is not allowed.
The goal, predictably, is to line up 3 (or more) blocks of the same color (horizontally or vertically). What happens next is not predictable...
Rather than blinking out of existence as in most puzzle games, the matched blocks "fuse" together, and transform into rockets, lifting the entire overlying stack into the air. Once launched, the stack will climb to a certain height before it begins to drift downwards again due to gravity.
You can continue to manipulate blocks within a launched stack, however, and fusing more blocks within the stack will create secondary ignitions, forcing the stack even higher. Ultimately, you're trying to launch the blocks clear off the screen.
The rapid block-switching would be impossible without stylus control (a fact emphasized by the ludicrous addition of a button-only control scheme which doesn't work at all). And the action grows terribly frantic as you try to keep your stacks launching off the screen without piling to the top.
Gameplay Details:
Naturally, the simple gameplay masks a boatload of underlying intricacies.
With extended play, you begin to see the opportunities to create fantastic combos. You can arrange blocks so that as one stack lands, it immediately fuses with a neighboring stack to produce a bigger secondary launch. You can dock separate stacks in mid-air. You can even (in an undocumented maneuver) "flick" individual blocks into the air to dock with an already-launched stack. And you can play around with the offensive and defensive items which occasionally mix into your pile of blocks.
As you play through the game, you'll find yourself on different "planets," each of which observes different physical laws. On some, you'll find that blocks launch straight off the screen with a single ignition. On others, you'll strain to fight the crippling gravity. Some have additional rules (which need to be discovered by experimentation) regarding exactly what kind of ignitions will produce the best results. Some planets, for instance, respond better to vertically arranged ignitions. This degree of variety is unheard of in a puzzle game, and is a brilliant way of extending the life of a simple concept.
Presentation:
This game has far more gloss than a typical puzzle game, and is one of the few "falling block" games to incorporate a (semi) credible story. The plot involves warring planets capable of launching the colored blocks (Meteos) at each other as weapons. Each planet features unique graphics, and the little aliens that inhabit each planet are particularly charming (and reminiscent of the player icons from Lumines). The game teems with life and energy at all times.
Music is equally wonderful and varied to match the individual planets. The music is good enough that unlocking it in sound test mode is actually rewarding enough to justify the effort.
Multiplayer:
Meteos allows four players to compete simultaneously over local Wi-Fi with one game card. During play, the blocks launched off the screen are actually dumped on the opposing planets. The touch screen interface allows you to target a single opponent, or spread your launched Meteos across all targets. The primary single-player mode actually mimics this form of play, having the computer control opposing planets.
Sadly, there is no option for any sort of online play. Now that internet connectivity is standard on video game consoles, it seems insane that online play is omitted. This is the one and only flagrant bit of laziness in the game's design.
Replay:
This game carries an unusual similarity to Super Smash Bros. Melee, right down to the similar theme music. It places a similar emphasis on replayability, though perhaps not to the same degree as its inspiration.
Longevity is found largely through the "Fusion" system. As you launch colored Meteos during gameplay, they get tallied up. You'll eventually have hundreds (or thousands) of each color, and you can basically use them as currency to buy (or "fuse," per the game's terminology) access to new planets, new items, and music. It can take weeks of solid play to unlock everything this game has to offer.
I would love to see this "fusion" system expanded in a sequel. Perhaps the ability to design your own planets and life-forms by stirring together different Meteos?
Summary:
Meteos is a fast-paced, clever, and well-presented puzzle game. Though it begins with the familiar falling-block elements of most puzzle games, it takes them in such a fresh direction that it's hard not to be impressed. And the fact that the game effectively
requires stylus control is a ringing endorsement of the DS's potential to expand the boundaries of gaming.
If there is a DS in your home, it is insane not to have this game right there with it.
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