Match three puzzle games are a weakness for me. As long as there are some good visuals and addictive gameplay I'm hooked. Meteos is a unique take on this as the game lets you drag blocks anywhere in their column and you can match three horizontally or vertically. This allows the game to drop blocks at a breakneck pace. You need to strategize and line blocks up, but that's not all. To clear them the matched blocks launch themselves and all blocks above them into the air. Continue matching blocks below that set and it will exit the screen and clear.
Of course, there are some items that help you clear the stage such as a giant hammer and bombs, but if the game is going too slow for you there's a speed-up dial as well. The main mission mode has three different stages. In each one, you have to work your way to the final bass, Meteo. Each and every planet has a different tile set and way to clear blocks. One planet required matching two sets nearby in order to get the blocks to launch. Some planets will launch every set all the way up in exchange for making the entire round faster. This is a simple concept, but it's hard to master. Match three games like this always require strategy, but I found that some luck comes into play here. I would restart one round nearly a dozen times only to win really quickly thanks to blocks falling in a certain pattern that allowed me to keep my screen clear.
Every time you defeat a boss it's really satisfying. The fast speed of needing to look ahead and make sure blocks are always lined up gets tough, but you learn over time. I wish you had power-ups like in some games like this, but what's here is fine. There are a couple more modes such as an endless mode and a custom mode. Modes are ideal for games like this that don't have a ton of missions like Puzzle Quest. However, I really do feel a more robust mission mode would have been better. After about an hour I wanted to stop. The game is only fun in short bursts due to its arcade-like nature. While the game can be addictive at times when you actually win it can also be exhausting because of the fast pace and luck-based nature of each match.
For an early DS title, the game looks good. There are some nice effects, and lots of colors and the touch screen responds well to the small blocks. I did find some tilesets were hard on the eyes, but I did eventually get used to them. Overall, Meteos is a fun puzzle game on the system and takes the genre in new directions despite the lack of a more robust mission mode.