Line up the blocks. The simple ones are always the best. Click for fullsize
I wouldn’t exactly call Meteos Wars original. Blocks falling from the sky has been done before (see Tetris and a million other games similar), but thats not necessarily a bad thing. In a nutshell, you have to line up the blocks that fall from the sky. Not exactly revolutionary, but good fun nonetheless. The press fact sheet boldly claims:
“A puzzle game can’t get any better than Meteos Wars, where the story, situation and environments formulate one explosive adventure!”
Lets disect this. The story. Errm. Yes, there is a story, but text scrolling across the screen dosen’t really bring the story to life. That said, at least there is a story, and its well put together.
Situation and environment. There are a good number of different ‘planets’ to play on, and for an Live Arcade game, it looks good, but then, it dosen’t really need to look good – its a simple puzzle game about falling blocks. As with all puzzle games, its the concept and not the visuals. Thankfully, the concept is simple and works, which is really the most important thing for a game like this. I digress.
Explosive adventure. Not exactly how I’d describe Meteos Wars, but in a way its kinda right. You have to line up three or more blocks of the same colour, and when you do, they shoot up into the air, with what look a bit like rocket boosters on the bottom (thats the ‘explosive’ reference’).
Looks good, but then, what did you expect for a game where you have to arrange falling blocks? Click for fullsize
Now we’ve finished analysing the press release, lets delve a bit more into the game. Meteos Wars was originally released on the DS a couple of years ago, but its made the jump to Live Arcade pretty well, although the controls have just been copied and pasted on to the Xbox – they’re laid out in a very DS way, only using the thumbstick and the X and A buttons.
Despite having a very simple concept, Meteos Wars took us a moment to pick up, but thankfully there is a tutorial to walk you through how to play. Speaking of ‘us’, the main and best feature for Meteos Wars should have been the online play, so it was a big disappointment to find the online multiplayer was, well, a bit rubbish. The lag (in a game where speed is vital) was just ridiculous. That said, you may not be able to experience the lag, as there weren’t many people playing online.
Luckily, though, the sound track is excellent, in an electro-techno sort of way. Unluckily, most people don’t buy games for the sound tracks, and due to the relatively short single player, the awful online multiplayer and the lack of much originality we can’t recommend Meteos Wars. Steer clear.
The single player has a story, but don’t expect George Orwell. Click for fullsize
Nometet.com says: 
+Great soundtrack
+Good visuals -Short
-Awful online multiplayer
-Wants to go back to the original DS version
-Not exactly original
