METEOS WARS

Match-three falling block games are a dime a dozen, but Meteos managed to make its mark on the Nintendo DS handheld back in 2005. The puzzle game showed both surprising depth and a focused understanding of what a touch screen should be all about. Now, three years later, the game has found its way to the Xbox Live Arcade. Though this is one of Q Entertainment's best games to make its way to the download service, the fact that it was built for a touch screen can be felt from the moment you pick up a controller.

Like other match-three puzzlers, the basics of Meteos Wars are simple enough. Blocks of various colors fall from the top of the screen and begin piling up. You can move them either up or down, but not left or right, to line up groups of three or more of the same color. This will turn the blocks into an engine that blasts off and begins lifting everything above it. Sometimes you'll find there are too many blocks above your engine and the structure won't entirely lift off and clear. If this happens, it will slowly begin falling back to the bottom. Here is where the strategy comes in. You can still manipulate the blocks as they are flying as well as the ones around them. This allows you to create secondary, tertiary or more ignitions to create combos for even greater damage on your opponent.

Click the image to watch a Meteos Wars video.

You can further complicate things by holding down the trigger to speed up the rate at which the Meteos fall. This might sound like a bad idea, but you actually need a fair amount of blocks on the screen to set up proper combos. If you want to be a pro, you'll learn to keep the blocks falling at maximum speed and simply clear them out faster to keep dumping as many blocks on your opponent as possible.

The Xbox 360 version has a few new bells and whistles that the DS cartridge lacked. In addition to the obvious HD visuals and improved sound quality, you get online play, local versus, a new special attack (that can be turned off if you prefer the classic gameplay), and some goofy little icons to decorate the screen while you play. There are a variety of different modes, though all of them feature the same basic gameplay. There's a mission mode that is 6 levels long, a vs. CPU mode and several different speed and endurance challenges. All told, it's pretty standard for a puzzle game but not the least bit unsatisfying in terms of features.

Where Meteos shines, aside from the addicting gameplay, is the sound. Like other

Q Entertainment

products, Meteos Wars has an eclectic techno soundtrack and set of sound effects that are quite charming. They fit the style of the game well and, together with some snappy visuals, offer one of the more attractive classic puzzle games on the Live Arcade.

Meteos Wars does have its drawbacks though. The largest is the fact that you're playing with a controller. The game was designed for a touch screen and shuffling around your pointer with an analog stick just isn't as satisfying. It also hurts because you can't quickly move from the right side of the board to the left without scrolling the entire length. With a touchpad, all you have to do to perform this move is lift the stylus and put it back down again. Meteos Wars is serviceable on a controller, but not ideal.

Watch this video to see what it's all about.

I also found issues with the online game. Few people were playing which made it difficult to even find a match. Worse yet, when I did the game had a significant amount of lag. Rather than being able to quickly scroll around the screen and slide blocks this way and that, it felt like I was moving through molasses. That's a shame because the multiplayer side of Meteos Wars is where it would really shine had the lag not held it back.

Closing Comments
Meteos Wars is a great puzzle game, but playing it on a controller isn't the best way to experience it. I prefer the original touch controls and so will most who have enjoyed Meteos on the DS. To its credit, Meteos Wars handles well and is still a lot of fun on the Xbox Live Arcade. It looks snazzy and sounds great. It's just too bad the online multiplayer didn't perform better in my experience.