"You don't play with Meteos. Meteos plays with you."

Meteos is a puzzle game. It deals with blocks, planets, fire and battles. It has a multi-player mode. You can record high scores. You can 'buy' stuff. It contains thirty-two made-up planets. It automatically records statistics. There are multiple endings. It has a storyline. What more could you want?

Well, firstly, I expect you'd wish to know what Meteos is about, and what the aim in playing it is...which is why I left that to the end...

The content of Meteos is better than could normally be expected from a puzzle game. There is a tutorial that can be watched, firstly, and then there is a main game, called 'Star Trip', which itself has three modes of play. A 'Simple' mode is also available, in which you can play against up to three computer-controlled opponents or alone, as a way to practise or collect Meteos, and with a stock of lives (novae) or for a certain time. Apart from that, there are two options that involve high scores: 'Deluge' and 'Time War'.

Deluge keeps a score for each planet, and is a test of stamina: keep playing until you lose for the most points. Time War is a fast-paced section with four ways to play: a two- or a five-minute game, which keep records of points; or a challenge of the quickest time to launch 100 or 1000 Meteos, each of which records time. All of Time War's modes have a set planet that a player must play on.

Apart from playing, there is a Sound room, Options (Erase Data, Item Switch, Hand Choice, Sound Balance and Planet Registry), a Tutorial Movie, an Introductory Movie, Statistics, Demo Download and a Multi-player mode. Finally, there is the Fusion Room. In this wonderfully unique idea for an option, Meteos that you have launched and, therefore, collected, are used to buy planets to be used in Simple and Deluge modes (you begin with only four); items to be used at any time in play; sets of sounds, which are listened to in the Sound room; and Rare Metals, of which there are two types, which are used in buying some of the other things I have mentioned.

Seemingly, Meteos is nearly endless in its length. After hours of play, practice and unlocking planets, items, sounds and endings, the game's surface has only just been breached. There are thirty-two planets, a multitude of inventive items to obscure the screen or benefit the player, thousands of sounds, more than ten ways to enjoy the game, and more. In all modes but Time War, there is also a difficulty setting, from one to five stars, each appropriately named; in addition, there is a CPU level from one to five stars when playing a Simple game.

Next, there is the ability to set high scores over thirty-six different fields once the game is completed with all of the endings, items, planets and sounds: high scores are made to be beaten continually.

Finally, there is a multi-player mode. Once you have played Simple games, Star Trip, Time War and Deluge mode to death; bought all thirty-two planets, all items and all sounds for the sound room and listened to them repeatedly; and set every challenge to yourself possible, there is still a chance to beat (or lose to) your friends (or enemies) again and again and again (i.e. repeatedly). Meteos' life is infinitely long (longer than a human's, at any rate).

Meteos, amazingly, is a puzzle game with a storyline. It involves another Universe, in which thirty-one planets are to be found, each different, but each peaceful to the others. Breaking the peace, unfortunately, came another, thirty-second planet: Meteo. It sent differently-coloured rocks called Meteos, each of which represented an element, to bombard and destroy all of the other planets; each was harmed and had no way of retaliating. Then, luckily, three Meteos had the chance to line up together, each of the same colour. They slowed their fall, then launched back upwards into the sky and away from the planet. According to this new discovery, the planets formed a rebellion project in the form of the Metamo Ark, to attack Meteo and save the planets from this enemy that had appeared.

So goes the method of play, but its simplicity is not as much so as that. Endings are shown when Star Trip is completed, of which there are many, each with a different outcome for the planets, and for Meteo.

The appearance of the Meteos is near-perfect. It is not exactly stunning, nor is it over-elaborate; it is the careful mix of simplicity, style and good graphics that makes Meteos look as attractive as it is. The planets are shown in three dimensions and, during Star Trip, viewed more closely with bright, vivid colours that match the mood and atmosphere of the planet in question with the utmost faultlessness. The symbols (which are also the inhabitants) of the planets are animated and displayed in places throughout the play and when setting it up; they glow with different colours and complement the colours and patterns which are shown in the background when playing. An aspect that I like is the fact that when Meteos are launched and you attack an enemy, shimmering, sparkling, glowing, white streams of Meteos that look almost like dust shoot about on the top screen, attacking the pictures of the planets there. It is just one example of the attention to detail in Meteos.

Lastly, the Meteos themselves seem to match the planet they land on: some planets' Meteos are simple shapes, others are textures, and those that land on the evil planet Meteo are animations, each type representing a planet as its symbol, though not all of the other planets are represented.

The music goes perfectly with each planet and, along with the individual sounds produced with each action, the look of the planet and Meteos, and the style of play, they give the planet a character that makes it more than just a creation, but almost living. Some tunes are better than others, of course, but with thirty-two sets that go with the planets, and more of music from endings, the Tutorial, the introductory movie and menu screens available to buy with Meteos and listen to in the Sound room, there is always something for everyone, even if it's a simple boing (or a beep, ping, crash, neigh or cheer, for that matter).

Yes: this is a puzzle game with a multi-player mode that is fun to play. Astonishingly. To tell the truth, this part of the game is wonderfully set up, with handicaps, difficulties, choice of planets, and use of the nickname and phrase built into the Nintendo DS. Even one game allows more than one user to play together at once, by downloading a demo version of the game onto each DS taking part in the game. The play ranges from frantic to slow; it forms grudges, makes partnerships, and is a source of eternal exuberance. If you buy Meteos (which, needless to say, you should), get someone to play with you, preferably with their own copy of Meteos (and a DS: it is hard to play multi-player with only one).

Controlling play uses only the stylus and the L- or R-button; it is no more simple, or difficult, than that. However, that doesn't mean that the controls are over-simple. In contrary, the precision that the stylus has, for an infinite number of movements, is perfect for a puzzle game, and for Meteos. When calibrated, it is easy to work the game's every aspect, from arranging menu screens and selecting menu screens to playing the game and scrolling down lists of statistics. The L- or R-button is used to speed up play, and the stylus allows for it to be accurate, and as quick as you can be; alternatively, the D-pad and buttons can be used, but they cannot be used to easily keep up with Meteos' speed at faster or, indeed, the slowest levels of play, where it is impossible to utilise them accurately enough. As another note, only the stylus on the Touch Screen can arrange the options in menus.

The method of play in Meteos is one that is initially hard to get used to, but it slowly dawns that it is the most inspirational, unique experience that you have ever had or, most likely, ever will have. Anyone will be hard-put to ever beat the smooth, pick-up-and-play style that the game has to offer, that can engage players completely and utterly in a Meteos-firing euphoria of mayhem. But firstly, I must explain how Meteos works, before I can go on to explaining exactly WHY Meteos 'can engage players completely and utterly in a Meteos-firing euphoria of mayhem'.

Firstly, the aim of play is, if you have not already guessed it from the story above, to line up at least three Meteos of the same colour and shape either vertically or horizontally, to get them to launch into the air, and back into space. These attack enemy planets or, if alone, simply fly away, meaning you protect your planet from them. More Meteos randomly fall from the top of the Touch Screen at a predetermined, increasingly faster rate as the game progresses. If the Meteos pile too high, even in one column, and reach the screen's top, a sound is heard and the column starts to flash (which is why it is better to play with the sound on than off). If, by the time another Meteos lands on its top, you have not gotten rid of some, you lose a single life, which is usually all that is available, called a 'nova'. After all available novae have been lost (an infinite number is given in a timed game), the game ends. To win, pile the Meteos on your opponent's (or opponents') screen(s) until they lose.

You cannot 'win' in a Deluge game, or a match on Simple mode with no opponents. The difficulty can be easily set, so that anyone can win, or to a point that will put pressure on even those with impossibly fast reactions and thinking speeds. However, the style of play is not consistent throughout the game: each planet has its own rules. Gravity, the effectiveness of different methods, the width of the screen and the speed of Meteos up, down, and when landing differ between them. In, for example, some planets, the Meteos shoot straight off the screen when aligned horizontally, but move little distance at all when aligned vertically. In others, the Meteos fall back to the ground slowly, but are launched with a ferocious speed. In one, the Meteos shoot so quickly off the screen that it seems like they disappear, while yet another two require a second ignition of the same block of Meteos to make any headway. All of this makes Meteos a magnificent game, unique and different in its one-of-a-kind ways, alike to no other game that can ever be made.

But that is not all. When you play at a fast enough speed, with anger and passion and a will to win and not fail, the game changes for you. Once the call for speed is great enough, it should become a necessity. Concentration when playing is absolute. It is then that you begin to react and not to think; it can be a trance that draws you into the game, making it dominate your life; a representation of your thought itself is what is on-screen. Meteos is new, different and almost as good as it can get. As I wrote before:

You don't play with Meteos. Meteos plays with you.

As you may or may not have guessed from the above paragraphs, I kind of like Meteos, just a little bit. It is a revolution of a game, a piece of modern art that is a step forwards, not back. In general, it is its simplicity that makes it great, but in that it is complex. Improvements that could have been made, perhaps, include the inclusion of more ways to play, other than stock or time, or the game making sense of attacking friendly, harmless planets with Meteos. Maybe mini-games would have spelt utter perfection for Meteos.

Score
-96%-

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/18/05, Updated 08/01/07