All planets are in peril
The Nintendo DS trumpeted its astounding aptitude for the humble puzzle game right from its release, when early adopters thrilled to the joys of Zoo Keeper and Polarium. Now the latest puzzle sensation that everyone is talking about finally comes to the UK: Meteos.Meteos is designed by Masuhiro Sakurai (of Super Smash Bros. fame) and developed by Q Entertainment. Also involved in the project was ex-SEGA man Tetsuya Mizuguchi, acclaimed creator of SEGA Rally, Rez and the not entirely dissimilar puzzle game Lumines for PSP. Like most puzzle games, it has an arbitrary storyline: you must defend your planet from a rain of deadly meteors sent your way by the malicious inhabitants of planet Meteo. But you don't want to worry about that too much. Suffice it to say that it falls firmly into the family of puzzle games that demands manipulation of blocks of various shapes and colours. As they fall unceasingly from the sky, you must'you guessed it'group like with like with a flick of the stylus. Get enough of one colour together and they'll blast off into the stratosphere and beyond, taking any more blocks in their path away with them too. There's a catch though'you can't slide the Meteos sideways so a little more concentration will be required.As you progress, you'll be able to unlock other'planets'which you must defend from this interstellar assault. Each planet has different qualities: some are wider in terms of how far they stretch across the screen'this means that the blocks will fill the screen more slowly but there are more to worry about; on some planets the gravity is stronger than others so you need to generate more thrust to get the Meteos off the screen. Each planet also has a different graphical appearance, as well as inhabitants with differing abilities.This being the ultra-flash DS console, you're able to play over WiFi against opponents. They don't even need their own Meteos game, although you'll have more options to choose from if they do. The game also stores the data of every player you face, so that you can gloat over victories and rue defeats long after the intense battle has finished. Games like this are exactly what the DS is about. If you have one you should buy it.