"A New Kid In The Tetris-Cloned Hall"

Most of you haven't seen a decent puzzler since Lumines for the PSP, but for those DS fans (or fanboys), one has finally comes to grace your double-screened little baby.

The story is quite intriguing for a puzzler. A planet called Meteo has released "phantasmagoric matter," which is known as Meteos, and is destroying the "sparkle of the universe." Intriguing, isn't it? But what is more intriguing is that a warship called the Metamo Ark is out to destroy the first Meteos there ever was. Then comes along someone (who got his theory from Tetris, most likely) who tells every planet that if more than one Meteos of the same color touch, they fuse and blow up! And that is your job.

The game plays almost exactly like Tetris, but with a nice little twist. Blocks fall from the sky and you have to align three or more of the same colored Meteos to make them ignite and blast off towards the top of the screen. When (or if) any of the blocks make it to the top of the screen, they blast off and hit your enemy (who you must destroy with Meteos to advance). To make matters worse, you fight on many different planets, and each of them has their own unique gravitational pull, so that means on one planet, lighting up three Meteos will blast them all to space, while on another planet, maybe five or six Meteos of the same color will only make it out of the atmosphere. It adds a much-needed level of challenge here.

And since you're facing enemies, they tend to drop colorless blocks down onto you, and these blocks are impossible to blast off back to them. Those blocks will form a color after time, but they could make or break you.

There are two ways to play the game: with the stylus or with the D-pad. The former is the better choice as it gives the game a fast-paced feel. It may be difficult to learn, but over time you'll get it.

The game has a pretty decent look to it (since it's a Nintendo game, very colorful). The backgrounds all have a lot of detail and variety to them, and the same can be said about the enemies you'll face off on. The audio can be expressed exactly like the graphics, great variety and interesting.

The game does support wireless multiplayer with one cartridge, and it is worth it. Dumping blocks on your friend can be very satisfying.

Overall, I haven't seen a great Nintendo puzzler in a long time! And this one really shoots to the stars (pun intended)!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/08/05