| Meteos | |
|---|---|
 North American boxart |
|
| Developer(s) | Q
Entertainment Sora Ltd. |
| Publisher(s) | Bandai, Nintendo |
| Designer(s) | Masahiro Sakurai |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS, Mobile Phone, Xbox 360 (XBLA)[1] |
| Release date(s) | Nintendo DS JP March 10, 2005 NA June 27, 2005 EU September 23, 2005 AUS November 24, 2005[2] XBLA December 10, 2008[1] |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | CERO:
Free ESRB: E (Everyone) PEGI: 3+ OFLC: G |
| Media | Nintendo DS Game Card |
| Input methods | Buttons, touch screen |
Meteos (メテオス Meteosu) is an action puzzle video game for the Nintendo DS portable gaming system. The name of the game comes from the English word meteor, transliterated to "meteo". Meteos was developed by Q Entertainment and published by Nintendo and Bandai. The producer for the game was Tetsuya Mizuguchi and lead designer was Masahiro Sakurai. The game was released in Japan on March 10, 2005. The North American release date was June 27, 2005 (see 2005 in video gaming).
Meteos was very well received upon its release.[3] Meteos is often compared to Lumines, a game for PlayStation Portable by the same developer, which also features falling blocks. In general, Meteos relies heavily on speed and reflexes, while Lumines relies heavily on rhythm and concentration.
Contents |
Most of the action takes place at the bottom screen of the DS unit (the section referred to as the atmosphere). Blocks ("Meteos") fall down from the top of the screen and start to form stacks. The player can move blocks up and down in a stack using the stylus, or alternatively by using the control pad and A button.
The player aims to line up three or more matching blocks. When a horizontal or vertical row of at least three blocks is formed, the row of blocks will ignite and turn into a kind of tiny rocket engine. The rocket then pushes the blocks above it towards the top of the screen. To lift a large amount of blocks, additional rows of blocks must be formed in a quick succession (secondary ignition). Also, if an ignited pile of blocks falls back down and, in doing so, causes another set of blocks to ignite, the pile will boost back up again, wider than before. This is called a step jump.
The goal of the game is to lift blocks past the top of the bottom screen, turning them into sparks at the top screen (orbit). If any column of unignited blocks grows beyond the top of the bottom screen and is not dealt with, it's game over (annihilation). When a stack of blocks gets dangerously high, the stack will flash and the game will sound a warning signal, until either the game ends or a quick action by the player averts the disaster.
Holding down the L or R button, or tapping the appropriate on-screen icon, activates the speeder, making blocks fall faster. Certain game modes allow the player to collect items, which produce various helpful effects when the player activates them, or, in the case of smoke screens and weights, by launching them to the opposing planet.
Meteos has 32 different planets that serve as the different levels to play on in the game. Each level differs in many aspects, including the size of the playing field, the blocks (both in terms of their graphics and which types are on the level), gravity, and the acceleration that horizontal and vertical ignitions give the blocks. One world, Oleana, has blocks that fall if as if underwater; in another world, Gravitas, gravity is so heavy it's almost required to achieve secondary ignition in order to move blocks off the screen. One world, Hevendor, has no gravity whatsoever, so blocks launch completely off the screen almost immediately after being ignited. All the unignited Meteos that are launched are accumulated in the player's profile and can be spent, in a process called "Fusion", to unlock planets, sound tracks, power-ups, and "Time" and "Soul" rare metals, which themselves are used as ingredients in further Fusions.
The story begins with the evil, sentient planet Meteo attempting to destroy the many worlds of the galaxy by sending meteos through space to stack up on the surface of the planet until so much mass has accumulated that the planet collapses under its own weight. However, the peoples of the various world discover that if three meteos of the same color line up, they ignite and sent the blocks stacked on top of them back up, into space. Using this knowledge, the many worlds begin to fight back and build a spaceship, the Metamo Ark, out of the very Meteos that once threatened them. United, the many species fly from planet to planet, helping the people there send the meteos back into space, before finally attacking the evil planet itself.
The game has numerous endings, which are unlocked by defeating star trip mode in different ways. After an ending is unlocked, credits roll, and the player can play a game of Meteos with tiny blocks and a very tall game board. If one uses the speeder to fill up the board, the credits end prematurely. The player can also hold the START button down to speed up the credits.
Meteos was rated the 52nd best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo Power's Top 200 Games list.[4]
Famitsu magazine awarded the game a high 38 out of 40.[5] X-play gave it their first DS "5 out of 5" rating, which has only been awarded to four other games: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Mario Kart DS, The World Ends with You, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.
On September 7, 2005 mobile gamemaker Gameloft announced that they would be bringing Meteos to cell phones. There was also a Meteos Online game for the PC in Japan, but it shut down in November 2007.
| Meteos: Disney Magic | |
|---|---|
 Box art for Meteos: Disney Magic, showing a variety of Disney characters. |
|
| Developer(s) | Q Entertainment, Aspect, Platinum Egg |
| Publisher(s) | Buena Vista Games |
| Designer(s) | Masahiro Sakurai |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Release date(s) | NA February 27, 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: E (Mild Violence) |
| Media | 64MB + 64KB EEPROM |
| Input methods | touch screen |
Meteos: Disney Magic is a puzzle video game co-developed by Q Entertainment and Aspect, published by Buena Vista Games for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console. It is the sequel to Meteos, also for the Nintendo DS.[6] Meteos: Disney Magic follows the same basic concept as Meteos, but makes many distinct changes, the most notable being that it features Disney characters as opposed to the various alien species from Meteos.
The player must hold the Nintendo DS sideways à la Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, creating a taller playing field on the touch screen. The top screen shows a particular scene, which changes when launching a certain number of Meteos off of the screen. Such scenes include Lilo and Stich, The Nightmare Before Christmas and Pirates of the Caribbean. One of the biggest changes in gameplay is the ability to drag tiles left and right, unlike the original Meteos whose tiles could only be moved up and down. This only applies to Easy, Medium and Hard modes; in Expert mode, only up and down movements are allowed.
Meteos: Disney Magic has received in general lower scores than its predecessor. Nintendo Official Magazine's review said it was a good choice for those looking for a puzzle game which is easy to get to grips with, noting however that it is inferior to its predecessor. that "If you're after a puzzler that's easy to get to grips with then this is a good choice" but added that "the original is still the definitive version" and said that the new Disney animations were pointless. IGN's review maintained that the gameplay was less restrictive due to the new horizontal sliding, and also praised how the slider locks, discouraging scribbling on the touch screen, a technique used to make the previous game easier. However, the review criticized it for a lack of online play, and for replacing the alien theme with the Disney theme. Gamespot found the gameplay to be as satisfying as in the previous title, complimenting the ability to move tiles horizontally, though also criticizing it for lackluster unlockable content and that the Disney theme wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea.
Meteos Wars is the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game with a release date of December 10, 2008 for 800 MSP.[1]
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Meteos | Table of Contents | Walkthrough
| Meteos | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Q Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | |
| Designer(s) | Masahiro Sakurai |
| Release date(s) | |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| System(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Players | 1+ |
| Rating(s) |
ESRB:
 EveryonePEGI:
 Ages 3+ |
| Series | Meteos |
| Meteos | |
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Q Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo (NA/EU) Bandai (Japan) |
| Designer(s) | Tetsuya Mizuguchi |
| Release date | March 10, 2005 (JP) |
| Genre | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Multiplayer |
| Age rating(s) | ESRB: E |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo DS |
| Media | Cartridge |
| Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough | |
Meteos is a puzzle game for the Nintendo DS. The object of the game is to arrange falling blocks into matching rows of color to create rockets, which will boost all the blocks above it to the top screen. Blocks in the top screen will then be destroyed.
Meteos: Disney Magic, an alternate version of the game featuring Disney characters, was released on February 27, 2007. In addition to the change in themes, this version of Meteos rotates the orientation of the playing field allowing the entire touchscreen to be used, and allows for horizontal block shifts (in contrast to having only vertical block movements).
Contents |
It was a dark time... The existence of all planets was threatened by one: the evil planet Meteo.
A stream of phantasmagoric matter flowed endlessly from the planet. This matter - called Meteos - crushed life and stole the sparkle of the universe. World after world fell... But then, by chance, three Meteos of the same type aligned. Fusing together, they ignited, firing the other Meteos into space!
A defense strategy was formed: the civilizations of each planet launched counterattacks by fusing Meteos in different ways. Thus the last, desperate stand versus Meteo began. The Metamo Ark - a warship made of Meteos ore - set off as a bastion of hope, with the fate of the entire universe resting on a lone civilization's valor.
The game's main story is fleshed out in Star Trip mode (see below).
Meteos plays similarly to Pokémon Puzzle League (aka Tetris Attack (aka Panel de Pon)). Puzzle blocks ("meteos") fall one by one from the top of the screen, settling in a pile. If the pile pushes the top of the screen for too long, the game is over. This is called a nova.
A numeric score is also computed as you play based on meteos launching, but outside of saving high scores, this is almost always irrelevant.
When three meteos blocks of the same type (distinguished by color and symbol) come into contact, they transform into rocket blocks and fire upward. Meteos blocks that were on top of these rockets will, naturally, be pushed up as well - hopefully high enough to be pushed off the screen. The beginner's goal is to simply avoid being suffocated by meteos, and launch them away as quickly as possible.
The player moves meteos blocks vertically, by switching a block with the one above or below it. Using the control pad and A button, they are switched one at a time. However, the suggested method of moving blocks is the stylus - by moving the tip up and down across a column of blocks, you can drag a single block to any point in the column. (Keep in mind that this is no voodoo - the one-by-one switching is still happening, so inadvertent alignments are not only possible, but somewhat common.)
Every meteos block has weight. Every meteos block that is consumed by an alignment contributes to rocket boost. When meteos are aligned vertically, there are three rocket blocks pushing a single column, so the stack tends to achieve escape velocity fairly easily. When meteos are aligned horizontally, there is only one rocket for each column, so there is less thrust. This is where midair alignments come in: meteos blocks can continue to be moved around while airborne, and these subsequent alignments will create even more rocket thrust. However, keep in mind that a second-fusion will only sometimes push the entire stack, and, other times, will instead detach from the floating stack as a new stack of its own. To see if a fusion will split a stack in half, look at the block above the potential ignition. If there will be friction between a non-fused block on the new stack and a block on the old stack, then the whole stack won't split.
Once the player has learned the ropes and begins reaching toward more difficult settings, the challenge is no longer keeping your screen clear, but launching blocks in an offensive manner against your opponent(s): meteos that are launched off the top of your screen will drop onto your opponent's planet as gray garbage blocks. By launching meteos skyward as fast, or in as great number as possible, the idea is to bring your opponent to his knees.
A large part of becoming better and more dangerous at Meteos is learning how to use the speeder. The speeder is activated with the shoulder buttons, or by touching the lower-right corner of the touchscreen. Jamming the speeder almost always makes blocks and stacks fall faster, thus accumulating the materials for your meteos offensive in a quick fashion.
A basic strategy is to try to keep blocks airborne, without entirely launching a stack off the screen, and never letting them settle on the ground. By keeping stacks in limbo, you can effectively negate the threat of losing your own planet, so you can concentrate on keeping the garbage flowing onto your opponent and making him nova.
As time passes in a Meteos match, three things become faster: the rate of falling blocks, the rapidity at which garbage blocks (which don't trigger the screen-ceiling alarm) become real meteos, and the speed of your demise if they reach the top of the screen. So slip-ups become increasingly dangerous over time.
One last action to remember is flicking single blocks up. You do this by dragging the top block of a column upwards, as if to switch it with a block above it. If you flick blocks up to a stack that's in the air, you can either push it up off the screen, or added blocks to it to form a secondary ignition if there aren't enough blocks already. In some levels, flicking blocks up to a stack works very well. If you flick a certain color block up in the air, and flick another of the same color at it, they will collide and explode. (Flicking an item block into another of the same type will have the same result.) This is a good way to trim tall stacks.
There are 32 different planets, plus a Metamo Ark bonus stage (see Planets below), and each one has different variables for gravity, air pressure, rocket power, et cetera... to the point where many planets have very unique gameplay quirks that can drastically affect how they must be played to win.
There are several items in Meteos. These appear randomly (depending on Item Switch settings), and have various effects. Most of them result in the destruction of meteos blocks for your opponent, which impedes their ability to launch against you. Some of them activate powerful rocket boosts, which can help you put or keep blocks aloft. But, even at a High frequency setting, items rarely turn the tide of a match.
The simple concept of the game, played against zero to three computer-controlled opponents. Players can choose between Stock and Time rules: in Stock, each player is allowed a certain number of novas, and the last planet standing wins; in Time, the winner is the planet with the least novas (or in case of a tie, highest score). A Difficulty setting determines how quickly situations become dangerous for players, and CPU Level adjusts the intelligence/skill of computer players (all of them - they can't be changed individually). In addition to the standard free-for-all, teams can be set up, so you can have two-on-two or one-on-three or one-on-one-on-two configurations. Each player's planet can be chosen individually.
This is the game mode that goes along with the Meteos story. Star Trip is a series of matches - almost always seven - pitting the player against some planets on the way to the evil Meteo, and finally confronting Meteo itself. You can choose a home planet for this mode, but the only effect this has on the Star Trip is that you will never fight your own planet. When you fight a planet in Star Trip, you do so using that planet's properties, e.g. you play as that planet. Star Trip also has a difficulty setting.
There are three "routes" in the Star Trip, each having multiple "endings." An ending is a short semi-cinematic screen that shows when you defeat Meteo.
-Straight gives you six planets to fight, then Meteo. The default ending happens when you finish. A second ending happens when you gain at least 500,000 points through the course of the Trip (or finish on five-star difficulty).
-Branch gives you the option of going to any two planets after you finish a match, so while a Trip is still six matches (+ Meteo) long, there are many possible routes and seven different places to fight Meteo. Each of these results in a different ending.
-Multi messes with the Branch concept by introducing missions in each match. If you pass a mission, such as launching a certain number of meteos at once, or completing the match in a certain amount of time, you have the option of choosing where to go; if you fail the mission (this still entails winning the match), you are forced through the lower of the two options. There are three possible endings depending on the routes you take. While matches in Straight and Branch are always one-on-one, in Multi you will frequently fight two or three planets simultaneously.
A sort of mini-game area that has four separate challenges. All of them have the added condition that you cannot nova.
-2:00 Time War challenges you to score as high as possible in two minutes. Played on Geolyte.
-5:00 Time War challenges you to score as high as possible in five minutes. Played on Layazero.
-100-Meteo War challenges you to launch a hundred meteos as quickly as possible. Played on Firim.
-1,000-Meteo War challenges you to launch a thousand meteos as quickly as possible. Played on Hevendor.
Choose a planet, and play the Meteos game until you nova.
Meteos supports short-range wireless multiplayer. There are two types of Wireless play, depending on how many game cards there are between the players. Wireless multiplayer plays pretty much like Simple mode, with the exception that you can also engage in verbal and physical warfare with your opponent(s).
Everyone has Meteos! The fastest option if everyone has a copy of the game. Create a "group" and pick up members to start a game, or join an existing group.
Only you have Meteos! A simplified setup for when not everyone has the game: one person selects this option, and everyone else chooses the DS Download Play option from the DS startup screen. Planet choices are limited to the initial four, Geolyte, Firim, Oleana, and Anasaze.
Meteos has 32 planets, 16 items, and numerous sound sets. However, you start the game with almost none of these to use/choose from. These are unlocked through Meteos Fusion.
There are 12 different types of meteos: Air, Fire, H20, Soil, Iron, Zap, Herb, Zoo, Glow, Dark, Soul, and Time. When you launch meteos blocks off the screen, the game records how many of each type were launched. Later, you can use these launched meteos to fuse planets, items, and sound sets (additionally, since Soul and Time are very rare, other meteos can be fused to create them).
There are 32 planets in Meteos, each having their own variation in gravity, boost speed, and block combinations, giving each planet a different feel.
Additionally, after defeating Meteo in Star Trip mode, a game is played on the Metamo Ark while the credits scroll on the top screen. The Metamo Ark stage is more than twice as wide as other planets, making the meteos blocks extremely small.
   | GameSpot GameSpace for Meteos - Meteos for DS - Meteos Nintendo DS - Meteos DS Game |
| | Interview of Tetsuya Mizuguchi by 1UP.com - Meteos Preview from 1UP.com |
| | Nintendo Meteos - DS at Nintendo |
| | this GameSpot review - Meteos Review for DS - GameSpot |
| | Meteos Entry - Meteos - Wikia Gaming - Walkthroughs, games, guides, and more |
| | Buena Vista Games Enters Agreement to Publish Four New Games from Q Entertainment - Top News Stories for Meteos: Disney Magic on DS - GameSpot |
| | Meteos at Metacritic - Meteos (ds) reviews at Metacritic.com |
| | ''Meteos'' Reviews - Meteos for DS - GameRankings |
| | GameSpy ''Meteos'' Review - GameSpy: Meteos - Page 1 |
| | ''Meteos'' review at ''IGN'' - IGN: Meteos Review |
| | IGN Editors' Choice Games - IGN DS: Games, Cheats, News, Reviews, and Previews |
| | this GameSpot preview - Meteos Import Hands-On - DS Previews at GameSpot |
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