Meteos: Disney Magic review

How much you love Disney will likely dictate your enjoyment of Meteos: Disney Magic, the sequel/follow-up/money grab to the original space-themed puzzler which is as close to videogame crack as you can get. Slimmed down for kiddies - we assume - this version is essentially the original Meteos, but Disney-fied.

For you Meteos-virgins; different colored blocks fall from the sky and it’s your job to match at least three either horizontally or vertically to blast them and any blocks you’ve stacked off the screen. Sometimes that pesky gravity won’t let your blocks launch so easily, meaning you gotta match more blocks in mid-air, which rockets them off screen much faster.

This version brings with it some questionable changes that alter the overall core gameplay. For one, you hold the DS sideways now, which doesn’t seem to serve any purpose. Two, you can now move blocks horizontally, unlike the original where blocks only moved vertically. We assume this was done to prevent "scratching" - randomly moving the stylus up and down to launch blocks - because it sure didn’t make the game easier. The bead of sweat forming on our brow tells us there's much more to keep track of now.

The story mode has been re-worked as well: rather than just launching blocks at your CPU opponent or planet, each level comes with a pre-determined objective; stay alive for a couple minutes or launch 400 blocks for example. At first this change seems welcome, until you realize that you have no way of ever knowing your progress outside of time elapsed. It just seems unfair after playing a level for six minutes and not knowing when or if you’ll win.