Not since the original Gameboy had I made a puzzle game my first game system purchase. And with the Gameboy it was unintentional since Tetris was bundled with the system. Not to say I'm complaining in either case; both games were fantastic. However, with all the free puzzle games on the web, I tend not to spend money for console or portable puzzle games. Still there are exceptions, and Meteos is one of them.
Meteos was my first purchase after I got my Nintendo DS Lite. I was a little wary because I very rarely purchase puzzle games. But Meteos seemed unique, and the longer I waited for my DS Lite to arrive, the more I became convinced that this was the game to get for the system. At the risk of gloating, I really feel as if did the right thing by getting this game.
Story
Meteos is about an evil planet of the same name which is raining down deadly blocks across the galaxy. Not since Unicron had I ever heard of an "evil planet". Anyway, due to the composition of the blocks, lining up 3 or more like-colored blocks causes them to ignite. Your job is to use this to your advantage to prevent these blocks from causing your planet to go Nova (yes, I know that cosmologically this makes no sense).
Despite the obvious fallacies in the story, it really doesn't matter too much. All it does it setup a premise which explains the game dynamics. In the end, you ignore the details of the story and pay more attention to your opponent, and the world you're trying to save.
Gameplay
Like many popular puzzle games like Tetris, Meteos involves lining up blocks. Different colored blocks fall from the top of the screen at a fast rate. You line up three in a row either vertically or horizontally and they ignite, sending them back up into the stratosphere. The game ends when you cannot clear a column of blocks quickly after it reaches the top of the screen. In order to prevent this you must use your stylus to move blocks vertically (they cannot be moved horizontally) and arrange them so they ignite. Using certain tricks you can cause huge stacks of blocks to blast off and send them away from your planet.
There are lots of variables that also play into the equation as well. First, depending on the planet you choose, the gravity could be lighter or heavier than what you're used to. Heavier gravity might not allow you to get your stacks of blocks off the ground in a hurry, but can buy you enough time to clump together many if not all the columns for one big blast off. Lighter gravity can remove blocks quicker, but can make it tricky if not impossible to send a huge pile of blocks off the screen at once. Also planets have different makeup of the blocks that rain down. Some have a balance of certain colors, while others have a high concentration of one or two then a lower concentration of the other three to four types. This can greatly impact the ability to arrange groups of three.
One final dynamic to this game are the items. Every so often an item will rain down with the blocks. Most of the items are designed to remove blocks. After years of playing Tetris, my first instinct was that these items were good. I need these blocks taken away because I don't want the stacks to get too high and lose. However, the more I played the more I realized that these items were bad. By taking away blocks, it made it harder for me to match up three in a row in certain columns. In other situations the blocks I blast off are headed to my opponents. So I'd rather get rid of them skyward then have them destroyed by an item. One thing you can do is to activate the item (which typically has a 5 second fuse) then blast it off to your opponent to hinder him or her. It opens up a great element of strategy and yet another aspect to multitask in Meteos.
There are four main single player game types. There's the mission mode. This develops the story ("develops" in the loosest sense) as you travel from planet to planet trying to send these blocks back into space. Eventually at the end of the path you face off against Meteos itself in an attempt to overwhelm it in a deluge of blocks. The story mode is interesting in the sense that there are many different groups of paths to take, some of which require fulfilling certain requirements like clearing the screen of blocks. Still it's a puzzle game and it's about as robust as the adventure mode in Tetris DS. There's also the Deluge mode. This is essentially the quick play option. You're placed on a planet and you just go as long as you can before the game ends when your stack gets too high. There's another mode called Simple, which is a more customizable Deluge mode. Here you can pick your home planet, up to 3 computer opponents, their skill level, and what the winning conditions are. You can either use a timer or a certain amount of novas by you or one of your opponents. This is the mode I play most often when I'm not doing the missions. The final mode is time attack. Here you're measured on your high score based on a time limit of either two or five minutes. Alternatively, you can play a different variation of time attack where you're measured on the time it takes you to clear 100 or 1000 blocks. This mode tends to be shorter than the other modes, especially the more experienced you get, but it is still fun and adds yet another element to the game.
Besides the option to play the single player missions, you can also play Meteos wirelessly on a local network. The premise is essentially the same as the computer player except you're introducing the human element into the game, which inherently makes it more fun. However, this is only a local multiplayer mode and you cannot play Meteos over the internet yet. It's probably the one feature which is the most disappointing because it is such a fun game. However, one multiplayer aspect which helps make up for that is the download feature. If you have a friend who has a Nintendo DS, but not Meteos, they can still play against you using one cartridge.
Finally, the more games you play the more you'll be able to unlock more planets, items, different types of blocks, and even audio. The way this works is the blocks that you blast into space are tallied at the end of the game and placed into a collection. Certain items become available once your tallies of one of the 15 or so block types reaches specific milestones. However, other unlockables can be obtained by completing certain tasks like finishing the mission mode, breaking a milestone in time attack, or just for playing for a certain period of time.
Overall, the gameplay in Meteos is top notch. There are tons of dynamics to the basic gameplay, which help to keep the game fresh. In addition the various gameplay modes serve to add yet another relevant dimension to these dynamics as well. My biggest complaint is that there are significant learning curve hurdles to overcome. It's easy to pick up the game, but I can see many gamers becoming frustrated because their ability to play the game might plateau. This is a common issue in fighting games as well. The ability to raise your game and understand how to do things quicker and better is essential to not getting stuck.
Controls
The control scheme is almost perfect. You can play Meteos entirely via the stylus, with the exception of a few menu functions. This is perfect because it allows you to play either right or left handed depending on your preference, while you don't have to worry about contorting your hand to use the stylus and either the shoulder buttons, face buttons, or dpad. There is the option to use the dpad, face and shoulder buttons, but the stylus allows you to work quicker and all the functions can be used on the stylus.
Graphics
The graphics on the surface are acceptable. The backgrounds are rather mundane given your travels to different planets. The cutscenes are equally mundane. Each block has bright and contrasting tones, which really help to discern different types and don't cause unneeded grief. However, for one planet, the block sprites seem to flash at a high rate. This is really distracting and causes me to get a headache if I play on this planet too long. While I can understand the need for different tile styles, it shouldn't make someone sick and I can imagine this tile set to be a seizure risk for some individuals. The only other graphical flaw that I noticed was that on some of the bars indicating which block types are distributed for each planet, the symbol indicating which type is too small to easily tell what type is being depicted. With two screens at the game's disposal, they could have blown up that graphic through some redistribution.
Audio
The audio is a mixed bag of good and bad on several fronts. The music can vary quite a bit. Each planet has its own theme song, which can improvise based on how you're doing. Some of these planetary themes are kind of catchy, but others just are boring, cliché or just plain weird. The musical variations are very helpful in that you can use it as a crutch when focusing on one side of the screen. But some of the themes just aren't all that great and can get really annoying fast. This is especially disappointing because a large chunk of the music must be unlocked and you feel as if it isn't worth it part of the time.
The sound effects also play a positive role in the gameplay experience. Most of the sound effects are pretty immersive, from the blocks falling to the ignition. There's even an alert beep when your stack is getting critically high. This is extremely useful at times because sometimes I neglect a certain column for too long and I don't realize it.
Replay Value
Like most puzzle games, Meteos offers a lot of replay value. One of the biggest incentives is the unlockables. While you only start out with a small percentage of the content at the beginning, earning most of the additional content is very easy and quick. Simply playing through the mission mode once could likely unlock quite a few things. Still the high replay value isn't limited to just the unlockables. Meteos has a strong gameplay engine that combines lots of different dynamics and variations, which force you to adapt your strategies depending on the situation. Also even if you are able to unlock every element possible, the CPU at the highest difficulty levels poses quite a challenge. Even if you don't have another person to play against, the computer AI definitely will challenge you.
Overall Meteos is one of those must have games for the Nintendo DS. Unless you really are turned off by puzzle games, you should really give this game a try. It's one of those games that was designed extremely well for the Nintendo DS system and follows through almost flawlessly. Most of my complaints are minor and I cannot emphasize enough how strong the gameplay is. I probably won't be setting down this game for a while.
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