Meteos Review (NDS)

Nintendo, for the second week in a row, has released a potential classic for its latest handheld system in the form of Meteos. Much like Kirby Canvas Curse, this is an innovative title that not only entertains, but is a game that will keep you glued to your handheld for months.

Tetris has influenced almost every puzzle game and helped attract an entirely new audience to the world of gaming. If there is one problem I associate with the title however, it is the fact that because it was so successful, very few puzzlers since its release have strayed too far from the falling block formula. There are a few standouts, such as Bust-a-Move, Tetrisphere (an underrated gem), and Tetris Attack, but for the most part, it's difficult to find a puzzle game that is truly unique. Not even Lumines, the awesome PSP title that came out at launch last March escaped the traditional puzzle game mechanics, even though it incorporated music and in particular, tempo, to help it stand out. But Meteos breaks the mold and then some.

The very, very basic mechanic of the game, matching three tiles of a kind, is simple enough, but once that occurs, the three tiles launch into the air, along with any other tiles above them, and that's where the formula gets interesting.When these pieces launch into the air, you can still manipulate them, causing either all of these pieces or just a few of them to further ascend. The goal is to send all of these tiles, or "meteos" into orbit by continuously setting up combos of rockets. You can match meteos so that they come up from under already launched pieces, attaching these two clusters. As I write this, I realize that understanding the ruleset from my explanation would be an unlikely task, but I promise you that this is an extremely intuitive game, and you'll feel comfortable with the gameplay in no time. The point is, it's a puzzle game that feels new and has a ton of strategy involved, more so than something like Tetris. It should also be mentioned that the touch screen is implemented very well; dragging pieces feels much easier than moving a cursor back and forth, and any thoughts that the stylus wasn't suited for puzzle games (Mr. Driller Spirits, Puyo Pop) are put to rest.

Article Author: Justin Hemenway

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