‘Gravitas!’ Review – This Puzzler Takes Its ‘Meteos’ Inspiration Seriously – TouchArcade

We’re getting dangerously near being twenty years faraway from the launch of the Nintendo DS and Sony PlayStation Transportable. It was an thrilling time. Would Sony do to Nintendo in handhelds what it had accomplished in house consoles? What sort of wild video games would come up from the beefy specs of the PSP and the bizarre options of the DS? An thrilling battle the place everybody in the end gained, so far as I’m involved. However I wish to take 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 recreation, Gravitas! ($1.99), was born. Let’s speak about 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 could not endure alone), determined to drop out of the {hardware} enterprise and shift to being a 3rd occasion. A pivotal time for the corporate, and one that will see quite a few its key builders depart the corporate for varied locations. One such individual was Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the producer of video games like SEGA Rally Championship, Area Channel 5, and Rez. On the time a comparatively younger producer, he was keen on sick dance beats and raver tradition, points that he had more and more been incorporating in his tasks.

When he left SEGA, he determined to begin up his personal unbiased firm with quite a few different former SEGA builders. Named Q Leisure, its first order of enterprise was to develop a puzzle recreation for every of the upcoming handhelds. Not the identical one, both. Every handheld would get its personal distinctive recreation from prime to backside. For the PlayStation Transportable, Q Leisure made Lumines, a rhythm-focused falling block puzzler that noticed gamers rotating and putting items to match colours because the display eliminated them based mostly on the tempo of the constantly-changing music. The Nintendo DS acquired Meteos, a really distinctive puzzler designed by Masahiro Sakurai (Kirby and Smash Bros. creator) that used contact controls to control falling blocks to make matches, which might ship them rocketing into the sky and, if they’d sufficient elevate, clearing them.

Each effective video games, and each did fairly properly. One did loads higher than the opposite, nevertheless, and to the victor go the spoils. Lumines acquired a number of sequels and a handful of ports, and might simply be purchased on trendy platforms at the moment. As for Meteos? A considerably ill-conceived sequel knocked it off the rails virtually instantly, and it acquired solely a pair extra releases of any variety earlier than successfully falling off the map from 2010 on. And look, I really like Lumines. However I additionally love Meteos, and I’ve been hoping for it to make a comeback of any variety for a really, very very long time. Ideally in a kind nearer to the unique than that sequel.

Properly, 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, virtually 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 possibly can 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 depends upon the gravity of the part, 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 typically 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 became regular items, usually triggering a match once 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 downside 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 somewhat 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 laborious for me to nail these floating combos. If I can’t transfer items precisely on a secure column, I’ve little hope of doing so on a shifting one. Once more, I don’t understand how the developer may make this higher, however I hope they’ll as a result of I actually like the sport in any other case. Taking part in on the iPad is far more comfy, and the sport performs very well with the Pencil you probably have it.

Like in Meteos, every Section has a mode of its personal. The items look totally different, the background seems totally different, the music is totally different, and the gravity additionally modifications. What impresses me right here is that the general feel and look could be very “Q Leisure”-core, if that is smart. Generally extra Lumines than Meteos, however at all times on level. It’s not fairly as polished as one thing we might 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 somewhat laborious to tell apart.

The principle recreation consists of 20 Phases, and the issue curve is good and easy. Candy initially, very spicy by the tip. It’s also possible to do a Fast Play, which helps you to select your favourite theme, what number of blocks it’s essential clear and the period of time it’s important to do it, and the issue stage. 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 allows you to play in opposition to one other human participant by way of native wi-fi or on-line (Hamster, take notes). That mode could 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 recreation is the Grav-Lab mode, which provides you the flexibility to play with no matter stage of gravity you want. Neat.

Other than the management points and a few minor roughness within the UI, I don’t have a number of detrimental 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. If you happen to’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 may need to take care of the frustration of frequent missed matches, and never having the ability to do a lot dependable comboing with the floating items as a result of lack of accuracy is a bummer. Once more, if you happen to’re on iPad you’ll in all probability be effective.

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 fashion, it’s superb simply how shut this recreation will get to evoking the identical emotions as that traditional. Given the low value 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 strong fixes away from a powerful suggestion throughout the board, however I’m prepared to spend money on that hope.