Meteos

Game: Meteos (Nintendo DS) - By Tetsuo

Mashiro Sakurai's and Tetsuya Mizuguchi's concept is deceptively simple, and one that takes a bit of time to truly exploit its hidden depths. Inevitable comparisons have been made with Q's other handheld puzzler, the excellent Lumines, and although both are undoubtedly puzzle games in the mould of Tetris and Super Puyo Puyo, Meteos has a distinctly opposite style of gameplay. The pacing is far more frantic than the sedate musings of Lumines and the title takes full advantage of the touch screen: this game simply could not have been replicated on anything other than the Nintendo Duel Screen. Indeed, it was specifically created to take advantage of Nintendo's revelatory system.

The ultimate aim of the game is to launch the falling meteos rocks back into space before they clog up the screen and subsequently destroy the world. There are various modes and sub-missions, usually consisting of clearing a certain amount of blocks in a given time or beating another computer controlled player before they destroy your planet. The wealth of options and play modes ensure players will always have a reason to come back to Meteos. From wanting to have a quick two minute blast or a half-hour sustained game, the breadth of options are excellent, catering for all moods and skill types. There are lots of unlockbles including music themes and sounds, special items (that the player taps on screen to activate during play) and rare metals. All of these are purchased with the meteos collected by playing through the game. There's even a statistical count-down for the player to view that details everything from the time and date the player first turned on the game to the amount of individual meteos blocks they have launched.

Initially, the player will instinctively attempt to launch blocks in any and which way they can see, in the same fashion as Zoo Keeper, perhaps. But Meteos teaches you that the only way to succeed is to launch horizontally, as constantly launching vertically will result in the 'game over' screen time and time again. And in this game, the key to success lies within the 'linking' system: joining multiple chunks of rocks and launching them over and over to get massive multiplier bonuses. It's important to remain calm when things get frantic, (and it does get frantic), rather than wildly scraping your stylus in the hope of lining up a block correctly. Sometimes in the heat of the moment this gets results, but most of the time it's just too random to be relied on. With extended play you learn to resist the temptation of this technique and tackle even the most difficult situations coolly, backing yourself out of any corner through skill and patience, rather than chance, and the feeling of satisfaction when this pays off is much greater. You should begin to notice your scores ascending too.

Each new planet that is unlocked doesn't just offer a new colour variation on the same game, the entire play mechanics are altered with each planet, and as a result you find yourself drawn to particular levels. Some planets have low gravity, allowing for more multipliers, whereas others drop rocks quicker or certain patterns fling blocks into the sky easier than others. Choose the one you like best and rinse it for all it's worth, or switch to another and see if your tactics work as well on that planet as they did on the one before it. The music is formed by all of the game's interactive elements and movements, similar to Lumines in this respect. The flicking of blocks, the clear noise and the dragging of blocks through the play area all create pleasing SFX which cleverly appear to form a soundtrack. All of these touches hint at the Mizuguchi-san influence.

It's true things can get too fast a bit too quickly on some levels in the basic play mode, artificially limiting the time you spend to around two or three minutes. And if we're into nit-picking, I should point out there is some noticeable slowdown when mutiplayer games get a bit crowded. That aside, the sheer level of involvement in Meteos is so constantly engrossing it warrants the purchase of any DS owner. Its manic gameplay requires full concentration: it makes you panic, but that's always the sign of a good game. Couple this with wireless multiplayer modes (including single cart play and even a brilliant demo-transfer option) and you have an addictive puzzler that is absorbing, challenging and refuses to let go of your sub-consciousness.

Eight out of Ten