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REVIEWS - Meteos::
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| Zoom! Dadada-DAAA!! |
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| Game Info. |
Genre
Puzzle |
Publisher / Developer
Nintendo, Bandai / Q Entertainment |
Release
6/05 |
Meteos
The most action-packed puzzle game ever!
Reviewed by Sam - July 2005
When I think about it, I would consider myself a fan of puzzle games. Games like Bust-a-Move, Tetris Attack, Yoshi's Cookie, and even that weird obscure game "Tetris" (I think, I may have the title wrong) have long represented a good-sized chunk of my time with video games. There's just something alluring about a game that doesn't ask you to get wrapped up in its overly complicated controls and storyline and instead offers totally simplified, repetitive, addictive gameplay, at its best in portable form.
On that note, I also think puzzle games are some of the best suited to define handheld gaming. The generation before mine had Tetris and mine had Tetris Attack to represent the puzzle genre, and both were and are considered the best puzzle games ever. So what does this generation get? To make a long story short, this generation gets Meteos.
Gameplay
The premise of Meteos is that the evil planet Meteo has begun launching streams of colored blocks called "meteos" at neighboring planets, devastating dozens of civilizations. One such civilization, the people of Geolyte, discovers that by connecting three meteos of the same element together, they ignite and shoot the stack of meteos above them into the stratosphere. They then construct a ship called the Metamo Ark that has the power to connect meteos on a grand scale. Using it, they set out to rid other planets of the Meteo curse.
While it's much more story than most puzzle games can vouch for, it doesn't dominate the gameplay by any means. A nicely animated FMV or two explain the premise and make way for a fantastically simple gaming experience. In every mode, your job is to combine falling meteos in groups of three or more of the same color to launch the meteos that are above them skyward.
As for the modes themselves, there's first and foremost Simple mode, in which you go against either none or up to three computer opponents in either a time game or stock-based match, Star Trip, in which you go down a series of matches on different planets to reach the final shodown with planet Meteo, Deluge, in which you play solo on any planet you'd like for as long as you can to get high scores, and Time War, in which you try to get either the highest score in a specified time or try to launch a specified quantity of meteos as fast as you can. All four modes offer a lot of fun and turn what could otherwise be a pretty monotonous premise into a kind of gameplay that's new, fresh, and exciting.
And that's just what's in single player mode. The multiplayer features in Meteos are excellent as well. You can play on any planet you'd like with up to 4 players using multiple copies of the game, or you can play off of one game card on one of the first handful of planets. The game also features a demo that your friends can download and take around with them as long as they leave their DSs on. This demo feature is a fantastic idea and in my opinion should be included in as many DS games as possible. Perfect for the wireless technology.
Overall, the gameplay Meteos offers up is fast-paced and always keeps you on your toes. It helps revitalize a genre that many players have gotten tired of way too soon. Would you expect anything else from a man who helped create Super Smash Bros.?
9/10
Control
The trick to this game's controls is that you can't move the meteos around any way you'd like - you can only slide each block up and down the stacks. This just doesn't feel intuitive when you first play the game, especially since Tetris Attack (another game in which you had to fit together three or more similar blocks) only let you move blocks horizontally. But it's not really a fault of the game's controls, it's just part of the game's concept, and you come to learn all the different gameplay tricks sooner than you'd think.
The only glaring issue with the controls is that it's way too easy to get away with just randomly scribbling around the screen. As some reviewers have put it, this is akin to the c-stick performing weaker versions of the "smash attacks" in Smash Bros. Melee - it works if you don't wanna' learn the right way, but you won't have as much fun. While there have been instances where I've needed to scribble in order to have any hope of surviving, there have also been instances in which I couldn't have made it out alive if I hadn't taken the time to focus on what I was doing. Still, it's hard to avoid the fact that on certain low-gravity planets where strategy doesn't really matter, you stand a chance of winning by doing nothing more than scribbling on the screen. That kinda' sucks.
7/10
Graphics
A healthy string of great games with no use of the system's 3D capabilities is starting to convince me that for handhelds, 3D is out, at least for the time being. Electroplankton, Kirby Canvas Curse, and now this. Not to say I'm totally fine with that, cause I'd like to see some real competition for the PSP screenshots. But it's hard to complain when the games are so damn good.
It's not so much the technical prowess of the graphics that appeals to me here, it's the style. Some of the best art design a video game's ever had has been put into this project. The looks of the aliens themselves as well as that of all the planets they live on are original and cute, and not in an annoying way by any means. These various creatures look the least like creatures something could before looking like scribbles or blobs. It's amazing that the most a species gets toward a face is a dot floating around its hollow head, and yet the game's pro animators bring even that to incredible life.
8/10
Sound
Each planet has a completely different soundtrack - not just background music, but every little sound is different depending on the planet you're playing. For example, Geolyte and Suburbion have marching band tunes, Megadom and Hotted's are technopoppy, Oleana's is reggae, Mekks and Gigagush have 8-bit NES-style soundtracks, while Freaze and Dawndus's sound like traditional Japanese folk music. Even the planet Vubble, which features bird chirps and waterfalls in place of music, sounds absolutely fantastic. The quality, in addition to the extreme variety, is stunning. You almost wonder if they stole the soundtrack from a GameCube game.
An audience always applauds when you pull off a particularly nice string of launches - another great throwback to Smash Bros. Melee. On top of that, the main menu song sounds remarkably like the theme to one of my all-time favorite movies, Back to the Future. It's like this game is trying its absolute hardest to please me. I've gotta' say, while it's sort of pathetic, I like the attention. Yesterday he took me to the mall and followed me around while I shopped for clothes. How cute is that? That night in bed, I took him out of my game slot and he looked so sad. I guess he wasn't finished even though I was. This game amazes me all night long.
9/10
Replay Value
The big secret behind all this meteo-launching craziness is the Fusion room, where you combine all the elements you "mine" from the planets to gain access to more planets and unlock items and other features. Because each planet has a different variety of elements, you'll be exploring them all to try and unlock more. Naturally, this adds exponentially to the game's replay value. I've spent an illegal amount of time playing this game just so I could unlock more planets. It's incredibly ridiculous.
9/10
Overall
No match should last more than 10 minutes, and only very hard ones will take you more than 4 or 5. Even if you're a very good player playing a supposedly "endless" match, you'll find yourself trounced by the ever-speeding avalanche of falling meteos in a short amount of time. My point is that this game is very good at compacting its fun into small packets of time. This aspect, even more than the cool FMVs, awesome graphics design, exciting multiplayer, and unlockables makes Meteos a winner and my personal pick for best puzzler ever and the best DS game so far. Definitely a must-own for fans of the puzzle genre and any DS player who wants a good multiplayer fix.
FINAL SCORE: 9/10
=Amazing=
Send feedback to: sam@ngeb.net
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