Who doesn't love Disney? Okay, let me rephrase that. Who doesn't love the early to mid Disney work (cause let us face it, the past few films have been a tad lackluster, with only Pixar's endeavors really succeeding)? I mean, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King…it doesn't get much better than that. So what happens when you take Disney properties, smack them onto the Meteos franchise, and let players have at it? Are we looking at the next Lion King or the next Treasure Planet?

THE STORY SO FAR
Yep, there is indeed a story, but let me paraphrase that by saying there isn't much of one. In the Story Mode of the game, you find yourself heading off to various themed worlds, helping Jiminy Cricket and Tinkerbell right the wrongs and set the Disney worlds back into place so everything is stored in the storybooks properly. The story consists of some static text at the beginning of a level, but there isn't a whole lot there and it doesn't really tie into the gameplay or form a complete beginning to middle to end narrative. But then again, you need to sit back and ask yourself when was the last time you played a puzzle game that actually indeed had an amazing story.

SINGLE PLAYER: GAMEPLAY
Meteos Disney Magic – like a lot of puzzle games nowadays it seems – is all about matching three of a kind tiles, thus rocketing them towards the top of the screen; if you manage to get the rocketed tiles and all those above them to go beyond the top of the screen, you'll have eliminated them from play and increased your score. You'll make matches by clicking on a tile with your DS stylus, and then sliding the piece either up or down or left or right to make a match of three in a straight line.

Though in concept the idea of matching tiles by three isn't a complicated thought to do, but learning to master it can be tricky. You'll see by playing that, depending on how many pieces are on top of the match you've made, you'll see that sometimes it rises higher or not depending. However, should you rocket one pile into the air and find it falling, you'll be able to match a group of three on the rocket (if the pieces are there for you to do so) and then you'll probably shoot it up and beyond. You'll also notice that it is considerably easier to shoot a straight up and down match up in the air than it is a side-to-side one.

Along the way you'll also amass the power to perform certain skill spells, which depending on which one you have access to can either give your blocks a Nitro Boost so they go above the screen no matter what; Slow Mode (the blocks fall from the sky slower); and Horizontal Block Movement (lets you move blocks side-to-side on levels in which you usually aren't allowed). You'll also have random helpers fall from the sky too, and these pieces will either make themselves part of a match no matter what the tile is; blocks that will randomize the blocks on the screen; and rocket blocks that will shoot the tiles right above it to go as well.

It can be a bit difficult in the game to move the tiles, because sometimes when you click on them it doesn't seem like you always select the right one (if one at all) and the process of dragging also proves difficult as you can sometimes bypass the tiles you were meaning to move to. Also, the pictures on the tiles that differentiate themselves from one to the other are sometimes too similar and when you make what you think is a match and it doesn't happen, you'll have to genuinely sit there a second and wonder just why they aren't matching up (then you'll realize they aren't three of the same picture).

From a single player perspective you've got the Story Mode, and a Challenge Mode in which you try to match the criteria for specific levels, such as simply continuing to play until the blocks stack above the screen; Time Attack where you play for a specific amount of time; or Score Attack where you try to get as many points as you can in a specified time.

MULTIPLAYER: GAMEPLAY
On the multiplayer side of things, you can either choose to do it solo, playing against the computer where you can pick three computer controlled AI to play against (and their difficulty). You'll then play them in either a Survival Mode (try to outlast the other players and not have the blocks rise above the top of your screen) or Time Attack (get as many points within the time frame as you can – most points win). You can also recreate this same computer Versus Battle with human people over local play, but sadly there is no option to take the game online and use the Wi-Fi abilities of the DS to find other players to play against.

GRAPHICS
On one side of the DS (literally) the hand drawn look animation that recreates the characters of the Disney franchise is pretty good, as it faithfully captures the essence of these Disney characters and world. On the other side (namely the right) the actual graphics of the tiles and their effects aren't exactly dazzling or anything, and look rather ugly even for a puzzle game.

SOUND
The sound is about as lackluster as the graphics, as the little music there is in the game is pretty lousy and too cutesy and kiddy for our taste, and the special effects of matching the tiles and having them rocketing off aren't great either.

IN CONCLUSION
If you need a puzzle game fix, you could do worse than Meteos Disney Magic. However, you could probably do a whole lot better too. Heck, you could probably get the original Meteos game (which I actually think has a cooler look and style than this version) at a cheaper/used price by now. If Meteos Disney Magic had contained the Wi-Fi the original didn't have, then perhaps the game would be something more than it is. As it is, though, it is just an average puzzle game with more flaws than positives.

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