"So addictive you'd swear it's ilegal"

When I see review saying, “this game is so addictive you'll never put it down!” I tend to find that it isn't addictive at all. I thought this game would be the same but I was wrong, dead wrong. I couldn't stop playing for 3 days after first getting the game and when I did manage to tear my eyes of the screen I couldn't help but think about how good it is. I needed something to take my mind of it, so I decided to tell you all about how good it is instead.

Story 10/10
Imagine a planet where flowers blossom into beautiful colours and birds sing songs of pure happiness. Where life itself is full of peace and fun and the residents know nothing of despair or misery. On this peaceful planet a squirrel looks up at the calm blue sky and sees a star no 2 stars wait 6 no 10 no 50 but there not stars at all they're meteos. These meteos fall down onto the planet at such velocity that they destroy the peaceful planet within seconds. No one survived.
This is a story about the evil planet meteo. It has come to the end of it days and is exploding, sending meteos of all colours into space where they land on other planets and crush them. Only by combining 3 meteos of the same colour can they be sent back into space. A ship called the memento ark has been created to launch meteos back at the planet meteo and stop it from destroying any more planets. Only you can join the meteos and save the universe from total destruction.

Gameplay 10/10
This is what really matters if a game doesn't play well then it's not worth the box it came in. I am pleased to say that this game is easy to pick up fun to play and more addictive than crack. Meteos fall down from the sky and you have to use the stylus to move meteos up or down and match 3 or more of the same colour to launch them back at your opponent. Sounds easy no? The only catch is that you opponent is doing the same and depending on what planet you're on the meteos act differently. On Hevendor there is no gravity so the meteos fly of at high speed. But on other the gravity are so strong you have to launch meteos at the falling stack you launched to give it a boost. There is lots of ways to ensure that the meteos you send get of the screen and you have to learn them in order to defeat your opponents and rack up the high score.

The game itself is split into modes, which in turn are split into more modes. Theses simple where you chose the condition in which you want to play, Deluge were you choose a planet from the ones you've unlocked and protect it until you fall. Time war were you either fight for a set time and see how many meteos you can launch or see how long it takes to launch a set number of meteos and Star Trip where you follow a path and take out as many planets as you can before you get to planet Meteo itself. There's even a mission mode where you get the choice to do a mission in each stage, succeed and you can got up doing harder and harder missions fail and you go down heading back to where you were before. If you get to the top then you can fight against the hardest version of planet Meteo and see the best ending.

The game is also filled with items to help or hinder you during your fight. These range from destroying all the meteos on the screen to launching towers of them at your opponent. These items have to be fused before you can use them (as explained below).

The best thing about this game is the unlockables. The meteos you launch of the screen get total up and added to the “store”. Here you can fuse them to make new planets, sounds or even items. Most planets need rare metals before you can fuse them and these appear randomly when playing. If you see one you have to get it to the top of a meteo pile and launch it of the screen in order to get it. Some planets have special requirements to get as well.

The final thing about meteos is that it features multiple endings. That's right a puzzle game with endings. Getting them all takes skill but it's worth it to see the best ending.

Graphics 10/10
Puzzle games like this one doesn't need great graphics but that's where meteos surprises you yet again. Each planet is full of detail and colour. Even the blocks have a different pattern on them for each planet, which stops you thinking that it's all the same. Planet Vubble has such a rainbow filled background it feels so relaxing. That is until halve the screen is full of meteos and there is more to come.

Sound 10/10
This is one of the games best features. Each planet has a different tune that sets the mood and before you think it NO, the music isn't just a few bleeps played over and over it's descent stuff. What's really great is that the game features sound test so you can here your favourite tune whenever you want. My personal favourite is planet Jeljel. It has a horror theme complete with alien screams when you launch meteos and a bell rings when you win.

Replay value 10/10
Erm it's a puzzle game, meaning there is no way you can complete it. Even if you unlock everything (which takes a while) you can still play it again on different difficulty or modes and try to beat your high score.

Overall 10/10
What can I say this game got straight A's with me (and I rarely rate a game full marks) it's colourful sounds great and plays brilliantly. This is a definite must have for all DS players.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 02/23/06