Meteos Wars

Its falling-block puzzles may look suspiciously stale, but Meteos Wars wields key innovations that beautifully turn the familiar formula on its head. The idea is that you’re a planet under assault by these blocks called Meteos, and if you let too many fall into your gravity field, you’ll go supernova and die. As you might expect, you must match three or more colors either vertically or horizontally to clear blocks.

The catch is that, instead of simply disappearing, matched sets transform into rockets that launch upwards off the stack, taking everything above them with them. Blocks that launch high enough to clear the top of the screen shower down on your enemy as junk. Not all blocks will have enough momentum to break free, though, so you’ll have to chain combos of nearby blocks for maximum launchage.

Unlike most 2D block puzzles, physics actually matters here, and each planet’s specific gravity affects blocks in different ways. On some planets, launched stacks float down slowly, allowing time to chain combos, but on others, blocks feel weightier, while some even have specific requirements before blocks will launch at all. And since planets have different elemental compositions in real life, each planet also has a unique ratio of colored blocks. That’s what makes Meteos Wars so innovative — you’re plotting against not only your opponent, but also the constant force of gravity and other variables.

Beyond experimenting with each planet, players have plenty of gameplay modes to master, like mission mode, where you battle progressively tougher planets, and the enjoyable multiplayer, where two players pick a planet and have at it. With all that content to complement its addictiveness, Meteos Wars shouldn’t be missed by those who crave block puzzles.