"Meteos shines through the lack of good titles on the DS"

After the DS launched with few good titles, finally a really great game has shined through the few good titles that the DS has. Meteos is a very addicting puzzle game where you have to line up 3 meteos of the same kind horizontally or vertically to make them launch into the air and then into orbit. It may sound simple but in the end you are presented with a fast moving puzzle game that each game you play only lasts a few minutes(if that)!

Story- 8.0
The story is presented in a classic Star Wars fashion. It has it all, scrolling text, exploding planets, and it even has the people of a similar planet alike to Earth launching a ship called the Metamo Ark to stop the evil planet Meteo from taking over the galaxy! Although this isn't really a game you'd play for the story, it still has one included that actually isn't too bad. It also has many different endings and most of them are normal and some are downright hilarious! All in all, the story is pretty darn good though compared to the gameplay and everything else it is nothing.

Controls- 9.5
The game can be controlled by either using the D-Pad and buttons or the stylus for touch screen control. The control pad and buttons control scheme is very slow and annoying to use, you could say that it's put there just to show you how much using the touch screen for control is better. The game was obviously designed with the touch screen in mind and everything that's on the touch screen you can touch. This game has excellent touch screen control.

Graphics- 8.5
The graphics for this game are actually really good. I was very, very impressed when I watched the opening cutscene to this game as the graphics on that are very good. But, not just the opening cutscene has good graphics, in-gameplay graphics present some very nice eye candy for you to look at. All the gameplay graphics are amazing, even the launching meteos and the meteos them self look simply stunning! All the planets are detailed and even the backgrounds during gameplay look very nice. All in all, the graphics for this game are very detailed and they look gorgeous. I was very impressed!

Sound- 9.0
The sound for this game is another good highlight of the game. The sound effects for everything are perfect and all the sounds for the meteos launching are great, as they are different on every planet. The music in this game is also wonderfully balanced and each planet has it's own different music as well. All of the music ranges from rock, to heavy metal, to soft music, even to music straight from the wild west. The sound and music in this game is excellent and well spread out.

Gameplay- 9.5
This is easily the best part of the game. You control meteos with the stylus(or control pad) and you have to line up three of the same meteos(horizontally or vertically) in order to make them launch into a rocket and try to get off of the screen into outer space. When you launch a meteos all of the meteos on top of it are launched away with it. You may have to launch a few more times in order to get all of the meteos off the screen, or you may not at all. It all depends on the planet. Each planet has different physics and characteristics, meaning one planet could have slow gravity or one planet would have no problem getting a chunk of meteos off of the screen in just one launch. Every planet is different and there are 32 different planets in total. Also, before I forget, every meteos that you launch off of the screen will be collected into a bank and you can use them to buy stuff in the Fusion area. There are many different modes at all including Meteos, Fusion, Wire-less, Options, and Extras. I'll get to each of those in a second. Meteos is definitely where you'll spend almost all of your time in when playing Meteos. The different modes in it are Simple, Star Trip, Deluge, Time War, and Tutor. Simple is a easy mode to use and it's where you can pretty much customize your game to the fullest. You can choose from which planet you want to use, what mode of play you want(time or stock)/how many lives you want, what difficulty you want(selectable from 1-5), and if you're playing with other computer player, what team you want to be on. Star Trip is pretty much the story mode of the game. After you choose which of the 3 paths you want to do, you will go through a series of planets on the Metamo Ark and at the end you will fight planet Meteo. Deluge is a quick easy game to play. You don't have to choose any rules, all you have to do is select a planet and then see how long you can survive with one life. Time War is the same, except you can play 2 minute games, 5 minute games, 100 meteo war, and 1000 meteo war. You also play for high scores and the planets are already selected for you. Tutor is just what it sounds like. If you don't know how to play then when you click on it it will give you an explanation of how to play and it'll provide some useful tips as well. Back to the main selection, Fusion is where you can use all of your launched meteos to purchase Planets, Items, Sounds, and Rare Metals. Items can help or not help you, and they range from hammers to smoke bombs to screen exploding bombs. Sounds can be listened to in the Extras menu and rare metals are rare meteos that can be found in the main game or they can be bought here. Wire-less is where you can play multiplayer with up to 4 other people. In VS, everyone has Meteos and you can select whichever options that you have unlocked. In DS Download Play, only you have Meteos and everyone must download it off of you. Also, in this mode you can only select the 4 planets that are available at the start of the game. Profile is where you can look at yours and everybody else's profile that you have played in VS mode up to this date. Options is where you can select which items are available and how often you want them to appear, change your home planet, choose which hand you want to use the stylus with, and changing how loud the sound is. In Extras, you can listen to all of the tunes that you unlocked and look at your stats(which have many different things kept in there including when you first played Meteos). Also, you can send a demo of the game to someone who does not own it to convince them to get it so you can play multiplayer with them. All in all, excellent gameplay that deserves a round of applause.

Replay Value- 9.5
The replay value in this game is amazing! It is very addictive, and very hard to stop playing when you really get into it. The fact that Meteos is a very portable game in itself is amazing. Games last a few minutes, and it's perfect for just starting up and playing a quick game whenever! Unlocking everything in the Fusion room took me about 20 hours, but I played it so much nonstop it felt like nothing. Even after you unlock everything the game does not get old. You can play it over and over and over again and you're still not sick of it. The replay value in this game is excellent and I am still addicted to this game.

Overall- 9.0
Overall, Meteos is a great game and even people that don't even like puzzle games will probably like this game. It is not like a regular, traditional style puzzle game. It is a fast packed action puzzle game that gets hard really fast and will take a long time to master. I still haven't even mastered the game and I've owned for it for over 2 months. Meteos is a must have game for the Nintendo DS and it really shines through the lack of good titles for the Nintendo DS. Go get it if you don't already own it, Meteos is a keeper.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/05