Either nobody's bought this game or they're too busy with it to come and talk about it, because Meteos is certainly a great title that the DS sorely needs right now. It's a puzzler, and it's extremely fun and addictive.
...
Oh, wait. Since OB1 left, am I the only one here with a DS? Damn.
No, I have one and I think GR has one too.
At any rate, I'm very interested in this. I think it's just been too long since I was obsessed with a straight puzzle game. I actually tried playing a store demo, but have you seen store display DS systems? If the stores in your area are anything like the ones in mine, the dregs of humanity have a habbit of utterly ruining anything they are asked to touch. Control sticks are completely slack, or sometimes out and out broken OFF the controller. Everything, EVERYTHING, is sticky. If a screen is within reach, it is scratched up and has had all it's image controls messed with. For portables, this is a bad place to be. For the DS, this is hell. Every DS I've seen that's been around for more than a week has the appearence of one of those "lucky 7's" lottery cards, which is to say it looks like someone thought they might win something if they scratched the touch screen off with a coin. They look horrible, but they seem to have mostly withstood the beating and can still be seen through as well as used. The problem is they often have their calibration ruined. If I wasn't in a hurry I could have fixed it, but as it stood I decided to give meteos a quick play but couldn't really figure out how to even play the game. I think that may be due to realizing halfway into it that I was clicking the blocks one block to the right of wherever I touched.
Still, I have high hopes for the game and I'll just chalk that up to a terrible display unit.
I have played Lumines though, thanks to a friend having a copy, and can say with certainty that that is certainly addictive. From what I understand, Meteos was developed by the same team (only working for Nintendo this time around).
Since I have a DS, but no PSP, and since I have a desire to play a puzzle game using something like the touch screen, I think I'll be getting Meteos first.
So anyway, could you describe the game? Mainly, how exactly does it work?
Yes, I also have a DS. Right now though I'm spending my time playing San Andreas.
...on DS?
GR: NO!
DJ: But we were talking about...
GR: I know, I was saying I'm playing that INSTEAD of the DS!
DJ: Well you smell like burning moonrock!
I have no time or money for Meteos, is what I meant.
Well, basically, colored blocks, called Meteos, fall from the sky and pile up on the screen. You need to move the Meteos up and down so that three or more of them of the same color line up horizontally or vertically. Once you match them up, those Meteos become rockets and launch themselves and all Meteos above them into the air. Depending on the size of the stack you launch, they could either fly completely out of the stage, or up a little bit, then drift back down to the surface. If the latter happens, you can then arrange Meteos in the airborne stack to line up with Meteos on the surface and launch even more. In this way, it's quite easy to launch an entire screen full of Meteos.
It's very simple, but with plenty of depth. There are over 30 planets to unlock and each has different characteristics, with different gravity, types of Meteos, and other factors.
Oh, yes, it's quite a great puzzler. I've barely been able to put it down since I got it. I would highly recommend it.
Well that's all I needed to hear. So drag and drop is the name of the game eh? That explains why I couldn't really figure it out. So as far as size, I imagine that small lines result in small boosts and it takes big combos to actually eliminate the blocks, right?
Well, I shall eventually get this then.
Well it all depends on the size of what you're launching and your current planets gravity. Vertical line launches usually go all the way off the screen, since they've got so little to lift, but if you have a screens worth of Meteos stacked and you launch a horizonal line near the bottom, it'll only creep a little bit off the ground and slowly (or quickly, again, depending on the planet) make it's way down to the bottom. If there are three blocks that can be matched up within the ones that are airborne, you can connect those, and give the mass even more boost, or wait till it drifts down, connect it to Meteos that are on the surface, and extend the amount you launch. Naturally, the more you're launching, the more firepower you'll need to launch it, so with each progressive launch you create, the force upward gets stronger. Using this to your advantage can launch an entire filled screen of Meteos with a little foresight (matching up what you'll need in the air and on the ground so they'll connect upon landing) and luck (HAVING what you need in the air and on the ground).
Ah, strategic forsight... A major weakness of mine...