I originally wrote this for a (p)review at another board, but I thought people here might be interested in how this game will play as it is going to be released soon. I didn't really have an idea of how to play it until I gave it a try and thought others would appreciate a heads up.
At first the game was a little confusing, but after a few rounds of the short demo I got the hang of it and once I did, wow.. this is the greatest puzzle game I have ever played. I'll explain what I learned about how to play the game and hopefully you'll get the idea of it. It combines gameplay elements from Tetris, Zoo Keeper (or Bejewelled for those that have played that) and Columns for the old Sega systems.
Single blocks of different colours fall down onto your screen from the top of it and stack up along the bottom and you have to line them up into a row of three in order to get those blocks and any above them to lift off the ground in an attempt to 'blast off' the screen (which scores you points, and rids you of blocks cluttering up your play area). The only catch with doing this is that you can only move blocks vertically within the column that they are stacked in, but you can move them to any place within that column.
The premise is simple, but don't let this fool you into thinking that the gameplay mechanics are.. this game has by far the most depth to any puzzler I have played (I'll admit, I haven't played a lot) with the possibilities for lining up the colours expanding more and more as you learn about the game. As an example, sometimes the blocks on top of your blocks that you have lined up into a rocket blaster are too heavy for the entire pack to be blown off the screen and it will start descending back to the bottom of the screen, not to worry - you have the ability to line up blocks that are within the pack in order to try and blast them off to the top, or re-launch the entire pack with more velocity. I also discovered that you have the ability to 'throw' blocks up from beneath the descending pack in order to try and create a combination within the falling cluster.
The music was crisp (as you would expect from Q Ent.) and had a war march like feel to it, the sounds were nice as well, nice clean samples and soothing sound effects when you lined up blocks and blasted them off. The graphics were nice as well, and served perfectly well the role that they play to represent the pieces of the game, the couple of backgroudnds in the demo were interesting, I can't wait to see more.
The second screen wasn't put to a lot of use, it showed your blocks blasting away to a distant planet (or your opponent if you play multiplayer) but I think it would probably get a bit distracting if it were as my focus was constantly on how I would arrange my next move. The touch screen movements were accurate, even though the blocks were fairly small it was no trouble for me to pick up the block I wanted and slot it into place.
Multiplayer - this is where the game shines. I had the chance to borrow my g/f's DS and have a few games with my brother last night and wow.. we played about 10 straight rounds (maybe more) which we didn't see coming. The gameplay between two people is amazingly frantic and really tests your mettle against each other. The way it works is that when you blast blocks off your screen they hurtle to the distant planet on the second screen which is your opponents, they then fall down on their screen to stack their blocks up higher. When you have 3 or so flashing full columns on your screen because they are close to ending your game and you somehow manage to dig yourself out from that and launch most of your screen slowly towards your enemy planet it is a great feeling, it's like a tug-of-war reversed.
I'm really looking forward to the release of this game, and have my import copy pre-ordered. Expect very high reviews for this once it is officially released in the U.S.
If you have friends with a DS, be sure to consider picking up this title, or at least giving it a hire as the multiplayer mode will provide hours upon hours of entertainment.
At first the game was a little confusing, but after a few rounds of the short demo I got the hang of it and once I did, wow.. this is the greatest puzzle game I have ever played. I'll explain what I learned about how to play the game and hopefully you'll get the idea of it. It combines gameplay elements from Tetris, Zoo Keeper (or Bejewelled for those that have played that) and Columns for the old Sega systems.
Single blocks of different colours fall down onto your screen from the top of it and stack up along the bottom and you have to line them up into a row of three in order to get those blocks and any above them to lift off the ground in an attempt to 'blast off' the screen (which scores you points, and rids you of blocks cluttering up your play area). The only catch with doing this is that you can only move blocks vertically within the column that they are stacked in, but you can move them to any place within that column.
The premise is simple, but don't let this fool you into thinking that the gameplay mechanics are.. this game has by far the most depth to any puzzler I have played (I'll admit, I haven't played a lot) with the possibilities for lining up the colours expanding more and more as you learn about the game. As an example, sometimes the blocks on top of your blocks that you have lined up into a rocket blaster are too heavy for the entire pack to be blown off the screen and it will start descending back to the bottom of the screen, not to worry - you have the ability to line up blocks that are within the pack in order to try and blast them off to the top, or re-launch the entire pack with more velocity. I also discovered that you have the ability to 'throw' blocks up from beneath the descending pack in order to try and create a combination within the falling cluster.
The music was crisp (as you would expect from Q Ent.) and had a war march like feel to it, the sounds were nice as well, nice clean samples and soothing sound effects when you lined up blocks and blasted them off. The graphics were nice as well, and served perfectly well the role that they play to represent the pieces of the game, the couple of backgroudnds in the demo were interesting, I can't wait to see more.
The second screen wasn't put to a lot of use, it showed your blocks blasting away to a distant planet (or your opponent if you play multiplayer) but I think it would probably get a bit distracting if it were as my focus was constantly on how I would arrange my next move. The touch screen movements were accurate, even though the blocks were fairly small it was no trouble for me to pick up the block I wanted and slot it into place.
Multiplayer - this is where the game shines. I had the chance to borrow my g/f's DS and have a few games with my brother last night and wow.. we played about 10 straight rounds (maybe more) which we didn't see coming. The gameplay between two people is amazingly frantic and really tests your mettle against each other. The way it works is that when you blast blocks off your screen they hurtle to the distant planet on the second screen which is your opponents, they then fall down on their screen to stack their blocks up higher. When you have 3 or so flashing full columns on your screen because they are close to ending your game and you somehow manage to dig yourself out from that and launch most of your screen slowly towards your enemy planet it is a great feeling, it's like a tug-of-war reversed.
I'm really looking forward to the release of this game, and have my import copy pre-ordered. Expect very high reviews for this once it is officially released in the U.S.
If you have friends with a DS, be sure to consider picking up this title, or at least giving it a hire as the multiplayer mode will provide hours upon hours of entertainment.
