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Last year, a Tetris-y game called Meteos came out for the DS and failed to set the world on fire. It didn't do bad for itself, and, in fact, was one of the single best games of its sort, but Meteos never achieved popularity among more than a small number of puzzle fans.
But second chances come along every now and then, and that's exactly what Meteos has gotten thanks to a heavy dose of Disney's pixie dust. Meteos: Disney Magic replaces the dueling planets theme of the original game with as many Disney characters as a cartridge can hold, including boards themed after , Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story, and more, with music to match.
Meteos: Disney Magic is even deeper and more fun than the first, and an excellent example of what a sequel should be.
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Disney theme aside, the new Meteos isn't so much a remodel as a true sequel, with several new gameplay elements thrown in to the mix. The obvious one is that you now hold the DS sideways to play, letting the well that holds the meteos blocks take up the entire touch screen on the right while the story plays out on the left, unless you're left-handed in which case it's reversed. The basic gameplay is the same: line up three blocks of the same type and they rocket to the top of the screen, carrying everything on top with them. If the weight of the carried blocks is too much then they won't clear the top of the screen, settling back down to their starting position, but it's possible to line up the tiles in the air to make chains and combos that, with a bit of work, can clear the entire screen in one enormous ignition.
This is where the second new addition to Meteos comes into play, with the addition of horizontal as well as vertical block movement. While this seems like it would make the game much easier, the overall difficulty has been balanced by adding more kinds of tiles onto the board. Shuffling pieces around to make a chain reaction is quick and easy, though, even as the unending rain of tiles never lets the pressure up for a second.
The final two new additions come in the form of power-ups. There's a meter on the left of the board that fills up as pieces are launched off the screen. Touching it activates the board's ability, either to slow down time or to launch something more powerful, but ignoring it grants a large point bonus at the end of the stage. That bonus can go a long way towards earning a gold medal, which will be a tricky task even on the easiest difficulty levels. Fortunately, the second variety of powerup doesn't interfere with the scoring. There are three kinds of blocks offering special abilities, including a wild card and a Replacement Block that changes all of one tile into another. The most useful new powerup, though, is the Rocket Block, which ignites itself and the two blocks beside it in a strong blast that guarantees the departure of any tiles on top.
In addition to all these tweaks and changes to the core game are all the play modes and variables than can fit, and then a few dozen more for good measure. The standard story mode comes in easy, medium, hard, and expert, and unlocking the highest difficulty will take a huge amount of skill and practice. The story modes are eight levels long with different objectives and physics in each. Clearing a level may involve launching a certain amount of blocks within the given time, beating the AI opponents, clearing a certain amount of a specific kind of block, and several others. Once beaten, a level can be selected in the Challenge mode, complete with a variety of parameters to determine what kind of game it'll be. There's a huge amount of choice in Meteos, and seeing it all will take a long, long time.
That's a good thing, too, because Meteos is highly addictive. Launching blocks, finding patterns, and forming the seeds of chains before lighting off a high-scoring, screen-clearing combo is incredibly satisfying, especially when the tempo just keeps getting faster and the blocks won't stop raining from the sky. The addition of the Disney characters hasn't hurt anything, and the variety and nature of the challenges has only increased despite the cartoony look. Meteos: Disney Magic is even deeper and more fun than the first, and an excellent example of what a sequel should be.
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