Meteos Review

From the creators of Lumines comes an innovative puzzle game for DS owners. Enter Meteos. Your home planet is being besieged by falling blocks (Meteos, they are called) of various colors, the only hope for survival is fusing like-colored blocks together, launching them into space. If the blocks pile up too high, it’s not just game over – it’s the end of the world.

If your DS has been collecting dust, Meteos is the reason to charge your battery and work your stylus hand back into shape. While it seems to lack a bit of polish in comparison to Lumines, the popular PlayStation Portable puzzle game, the addiction factor is just as high, and there’s plenty to do to keep you playing.

The gameplay consists of a rectangular playfield, into which Meteos fall randomly. Using your trusty stylus, you slide the Meteos vertically in the stack to line up 3 Meteos of the same color. The Meteos will fuse together, launching off of the ground and taking any Meteos stacked on top with them.

Depending on your planet’s gravity, the Meteos may peak and begin descent back toward your world. You have several options from here. You can align 3 of the Meteos you’ve already launched to launch them again, in hopes of breaking your planet’s gravity and sending the buggers into space. You can also fling blocks upward from the ground, giving your launch a much needed boost. If that’s not working, you can launch more Meteos from the next column over to dock with your existing launch, boosting it and giving you more blocks to perform a secondary launch with.

You’ll find that you have to master lots of different launch strategies to be successful, and thus begin your addiction. As if that weren’t enough, all the Meteos you launch are counted and added to a collection of sorts. With your launched Meteos, you can fuse items that will fall into play, new planets, and even the music from the various worlds you’ll be visiting.

To mix things up a bit, there are several different modes of play. There’s your standard game, pick your home planet and launch to your heart’s content. If you’re feeling competitive you can add up to 3 computer planets to battle with, all Meteos launched are directed towards your opponents’ planet(s). The next mode of play is the Star Trip, in essence a story mode as you travel from planet to planet trying to find the source of the Meteos. There’s Deluge mode in which you launch Meteos until you’re overrun. All modes are fast-paced and keep you on your toes.

Last but not least is wireless mode. Up to 4 players can battle for Meteos supremacy wirelessly. You can send a demo version to players who don’t have their own copies; you’ll only have a few less options to work with. If your friend is enjoying the game, you can send him home with a single player demo version, which pretty much guarantees that they will buy a copy of their own. Meteos literally covers all the bases.

Another interesting aspect of the game is that each individual planet affects the gameplay in different ways. Planets all have a different type of gravity, different music, a different playfield width, and different kinds of Meteos. You can fuse new planets with your collected Meteos, which will keep the game fresh for a long, long time.

If you want to nit-pick, the graphics leave a little to be desired. It’s hardly noticeable, as you’ll be too panic stricken in your launching to worry about it. The music and sound effects do their jobs well. The focus of Meteos is the gameplay, which it delivers in buckets.