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We’re getting dangerously near being 20 years faraway from the launch of the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Moveable. It was an thrilling time. Would Sony do to Nintendo in handhelds what it had performed in dwelling consoles? What sort of wild video games would come up from the beefy specs of the PSP and the weird options of the DS? An thrilling battle the place everybody finally gained, so far as I’m involved. However I wish to have a look at one micro-skirmish in these early years, as a result of it’s from this relative footnote that the inspiration for this sport, Gravitas! ($1.99), was born. Let’s discuss Meteos.
Simply a few years earlier than the launch of this epic era of handhelds, one other main occasion went down. SEGA, having had its newest console’s clock totally cleaned by the PlayStation 2 (a destiny it will not endure alone), determined to drop out of the {hardware} enterprise and shift to being a 3rd celebration. A pivotal time for the corporate, and one that will see a variety of its key builders depart the corporate for varied locations. One such particular person was Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the producer of video games like SEGA Rally Championship, House Channel 5, and Rez. On the time a comparatively younger producer, he was keen on sick dance beats and raver tradition, elements that he had more and more been incorporating in his initiatives.
When he left SEGA, he determined to start out up his personal unbiased firm with a variety of different former SEGA builders. Named Q Leisure, its first order of enterprise was to develop a puzzle sport for every of the upcoming handhelds. Not the identical one, both. Every handheld would get its personal distinctive sport from prime to backside. For the PlayStation Moveable, Q Leisure made Lumines, a rhythm-focused falling block puzzler that noticed gamers rotating and inserting items to match colours because the display eliminated them based mostly on the tempo of the constantly-changing music. The Nintendo DS obtained Meteos, a really distinctive puzzler designed by Masahiro Sakurai (Kirby and Smash Bros. creator) that used contact controls to govern falling blocks to make matches, which might ship them rocketing into the sky and, if that they had sufficient elevate, clearing them.
Each tremendous video games, and each did fairly properly. One did rather a lot higher than the opposite, nevertheless, and to the victor go the spoils. Lumines obtained a number of sequels and a handful of ports, and may simply be purchased on fashionable platforms right this moment. As for Meteos? A considerably ill-conceived sequel knocked it off the rails nearly instantly, and it obtained solely a pair extra releases of any form earlier than successfully falling off the map from 2010 on. And look, I like Lumines. However I additionally love Meteos, and I’ve been hoping for it to make a comeback of any form for a really, very very long time. Ideally in a type nearer to the unique than that sequel.
Nicely, I don’t know if Meteos is ever coming again. And clearly, I’m not the one one who misses it. Developer Drew Smith has extra initiative than I do, as a result of he appears to have gotten bored with ready and simply went out and made his personal Meteos. I’m not going to sugar-coat issues an excessive amount of right here. Gravitas! wholesale borrows its mechanics from the unique Meteos, nearly to a tee. Every Section sees you attempting to ship a set variety of blocks off the highest of the display inside a sure period of time. You may slide items up and down every column (and never left and proper), and matching three or extra of the identical items both vertically or horizontally will ship all affiliated columns into the sky. How excessive? It relies on the gravity of the section, whether or not the match was horizontal or vertical, and what number of combos you could have rolling.
Blocks will fall in one after the other from the highest, and generally you’ll get some power-ups within the combine. Ship them off the highest of the display to activate them. There are additionally some rubbish blocks, however they are often changed into regular items, usually triggering a match after they change. Horizontal matches don’t get as a lot elevate as vertical ones, and in principle that is your alternative to make a combo by making additional matches on the elevated items. It is a staple of Meteos, and it’s one of many methods the place Gravitas! doesn’t fairly hit the mark. It’s an actual ache to make a match on these flying columns, and it ties into maybe the largest drawback with the sport on the entire: the fiddly controls on telephones.
I’m unsure what the sport can do about it, actually. However I’m not right here to repair points, I simply level them out. Anyway, the mix of the small blocks, comparatively small show, and my chunky fingers implies that it’s slightly difficult to get the piece I wish to go the place I need it on iPhone. It usually takes a couple of tries, and that may be deadly within the tougher phases. It’s additionally what makes it onerous for me to nail these floating combos. If I can’t transfer items precisely on a steady column, I’ve little hope of doing so on a shifting one. Once more, I don’t know the way the developer might make this higher, however I hope they will as a result of I actually like the sport in any other case. Enjoying on the iPad is far more snug, and the sport performs very well with the Pencil when you’ve got it.
Like in Meteos, every Section has a method of its personal. The items look completely different, the background seems completely different, the music is completely different, and the gravity additionally modifications. What impresses me right here is that the general feel and look may be very “Q Leisure”-core, if that is sensible. Typically extra Lumines than Meteos, however all the time on level. It’s not fairly as polished as one thing we’d see from Mizuguchi and firm, which is the principle giveaway. Nevertheless it seems and sounds actually good, and among the themed items are very amusing if slightly onerous to tell apart.
The primary sport consists of 20 Phases, and the issue curve is good and clean. Candy in the beginning, very spicy by the top. It’s also possible to do a Fast Play, which helps you to select your favourite theme, what number of blocks it’s worthwhile to clear and the period of time it’s important to do it, and the issue degree. A Marathon mode challenges you to maintain taking part in so long as you possibly can, with the issue rising as you go. Vs Match enables you to play in opposition to one other human participant through native wi-fi or on-line (Hamster, take notes). That mode may be very enjoyable as a result of the blocks you ship off your display find yourself cluttering theirs. Lastly, your prize for beating the entire Phases of the principle sport is the Grav-Lab mode, which provides you the power to play with no matter degree of gravity you want. Neat.
Other than the management points and a few minor roughness within the UI, I don’t have numerous unfavourable issues to say about Gravitas!. I did have a crash right here and there, which was disappointing, however the video games are so fast that it isn’t actually an enormous loss on the uncommon events it occurs. I’d love extra Phases to play, however that’s simply me wanting extra of one thing I loved a good bit. When you’re taking part in on iPhone, it’s actually going to come back down as to whether or not the developer could make these controls work higher. As it’s, I’ve to suggest it with the heavy caveat that you simply might need to take care of the frustration of frequent missed matches, and never with the ability to do a lot dependable comboing with the floating items because of the lack of accuracy is a bummer. Once more, should you’re on iPad you’ll in all probability be tremendous.
Gravitas! is closely impressed by Meteos, there’s no getting round that. However contemplating how a lot of Meteos was wrapped up in a really distinct type, it’s wonderful simply how shut this sport will get to evoking the identical emotions as that traditional. Given the low worth of entry, anybody who misses Meteos would do properly to choose this up on no matter machine they personal regardless of the management difficulties. Common puzzle followers would possibly wish to give it a go too. It’s a few stable fixes away from a powerful suggestion throughout the board, however I’m prepared to put money into that hope.
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