Meteos
Encyclopedia
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. 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.
, 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 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.
s Top 200 Games list.
Famitsu
magazine awarded the game a high 38 out of 40. 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
.
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.
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. 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 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.
version of the game with a release date of December 10, 2008 for 800 MSP
.
Computer puzzle game
Puzzle video games are a genre of video games that emphasize puzzle solving. The types of puzzles to be solved can test many problem solving skills including logic, strategy, pattern recognition, sequence solving, and word completion....
video game for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
portable gaming system. The name of the game comes from the English word meteor
METEOR
METEOR is a metric for the evaluation of machine translation output. The metric is based on the harmonic mean of unigram precision and recall, with recall weighted higher than precision...
, transliterated
Transliteration
Transliteration is a subset of the science of hermeneutics. It is a form of translation, and is the practice of converting a text from one script into another...
to "meteo". Meteos was developed by Q Entertainment
Q Entertainment
Q Entertainment creates, produces, and publishes in digital entertainment content across multiple game consoles, PC broadband and mobile units...
and published by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
and Bandai
Bandai
is a Japanese toy making and video game company, as well as the producer of a large number of plastic model kits. It is the world's third-largest producer of toys . Some ex-Bandai group companies produce anime and tokusatsu programs...
. The producer for the game was Tetsuya Mizuguchi
Tetsuya Mizuguchi
is a video game designer and founder of the video game development firm Q Entertainment. He formerly worked for Sega were he eventually became the head of their United Game Artists division...
and lead designer was Masahiro Sakurai
Masahiro Sakurai
is a Japanese video game designer, the creative force behind both the Kirby and the Super Smash Bros. series on Nintendo platforms. He is currently Director of Software Development for the video game developer's Sora Ltd. and Project Sora. He is also the author of a weekly column for Famitsu...
. The game was released in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
on March 10, 2005. The North American release date was June 27, 2005 (see 2005 in video gaming
2005 in video gaming
-Events:*March 6 — The television show 60 Minutes tackles issues within video game controversy. This segment of 60 Minutes has been criticized by video game players for encouraging video game censorship....
).
Meteos was very well received upon its release. Meteos is often compared to Lumines
Lumines
is a puzzle video game based on sound and light patterns. Created by game designer Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his company, Q Entertainment, it was first released as a launch title for the PlayStation Portable in Japan on December 12, and released in North America on March 23 and released in Europe on...
, a game for PlayStation Portable
PlayStation Portable
The is a handheld game console manufactured and marketed by Sony Corporation Development of the console was announced during E3 2003, and it was unveiled on , 2004, at a Sony press conference before E3 2004...
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.
Gameplay and controls
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 stylusStylus (computing)
In computing, a stylus is a small pen-shaped instrument that is used to input commands to a computer screen, mobile device or graphics tablet...
, 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
Rocket engine
A rocket engine, or simply "rocket", is a jet engineRocket Propulsion Elements; 7th edition- chapter 1 that uses only propellant mass for forming its high speed propulsive jet. Rocket engines are reaction engines and obtain thrust in accordance with Newton's third law...
. 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
Orbit
In physics, an orbit is the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space, for example the orbit of a planet around the center of a star system, such as the Solar System...
). If any column of unignited blocks grows beyond the top of the bottom screen and is not dealt with, it's game over
Game over
Game Over is a message in video games which signals that the game has ended, often due to a negative outcome - although the phrase sometimes follows the end credits after successful completion of a game...
(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.
Story
The story begins with the evil, sentient planet Meteo attempting to destroy the many worlds of the galaxy by sending meteos (described as "phantasmagorical matter") 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 send 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.
Reception
Meteos was rated the 52nd best game made on a Nintendo System in Nintendo PowerNintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
s Top 200 Games list.
Famitsu
Famitsu
is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Enterbrain, Inc. and Tokuma. Currently, there are five Famitsū magazines: Shūkan Famitsū, Famitsū PS3 + PSP, Famitsū Xbox 360, Famitsū Wii+DS, and Famitsū Wave DVD...
magazine awarded the game a high 38 out of 40. X-play
X-Play
X-Play is a TV program about video games, known for its reviews and comedy skits...
gave it their first DS "5 out of 5" rating, which has only been awarded to four other games: Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, known in Japan as , is an action-adventure game developed and published by Konami. It is part of Konami's Castlevania video game series and the first Castlevania game to be released on the Nintendo DS. The game is the sequel to Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and...
, Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart DS
is a racing game developed and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Nintendo DS handheld game console in North America, Australia, and Europe on November 14, 2005, and in Japan on December 8, 2005. The game is the fifth installment in the Mario Kart series of video games, and the first to...
, The World Ends with You, and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a video game for Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, and iOS, developed by Rockstar Leeds in conjunction with Rockstar North. It is the thirteenth game in the Grand Theft Auto series, and the very first for Nintendo DS and iOS.-Gameplay:Chinatown Wars has a...
.
Sequels
On September 7, 2005 mobile gamemaker GameloftGameloft
Gameloft SA is a major French computer and video game developer and publisher headquartered in Paris, France. The company also has subsidiaries in 31 countries around the world....
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
Meteos: Disney Magic is a puzzle video game co-developed by Q EntertainmentQ Entertainment
Q Entertainment creates, produces, and publishes in digital entertainment content across multiple game consoles, PC broadband and mobile units...
and Aspect, published by Buena Vista Games
Buena Vista Games
Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. , is a Worldwide American video game company...
for the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
handheld video game console. It is the sequel to Meteos, also for the Nintendo DS. 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!
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!, also known as Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain? in PAL regions, is an entertainment video game that employs puzzles. It was developed and published by the video gaming company Nintendo for the Nintendo DS handheld video game console...
, 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
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to...
and Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean is a multi-billion dollar Walt Disney franchise encompassing a series of films, a theme park ride, and spinoff novels as well as numerous video games and other publications. The franchise originates with the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, which opened at Disneyland in...
. 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 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
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
'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
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
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
Meteos Wars is the Xbox Live ArcadeXbox Live Arcade
Xbox Live Arcade is a type of video game download distribution available primarily in a section of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360, that focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent game developers...
version of the game with a release date of December 10, 2008 for 800 MSP
Microsoft Points
Microsoft Points are the currency of the Xbox Live Marketplace, Games for Windows - Live Marketplace, Windows Live Gallery, and Zune online stores. The points allow users to purchase content without a credit card and to reduce the number of small credit card transaction fees, which Microsoft would...
.
External links
- Planet Meteos — the official Japanese site (in JapaneseJapanese languageis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
) - Nintendo Meteos — the official English site
- GameSpot GameSpace for Meteos
- Interview of Tetsuya Mizuguchi by 1UP.com