Meteos

Screenshots

Notes

Meteos is a match 3 puzzle game. The unique twist is that when you match 3, they form a rocket and start flying upwards. Any blocks that are pushed up off the screen this way are gone, but the rocket may not get all the way off the screen if more blocks fall onto it. And you can match further blocks mid-flight to give it more thrust.

Meteos is made by the Kirby/Smash Bros people, and is polished nicely as you might expect.

There are a lot of planets in the game, which are effectively stages with their own unique properties like block types and gravity. This makes a surprising difference to gameplay. You have high gravity planets where it's all about making individual matches blast off contrasted with low gravity planets where you need to make mid air combos to acheive liftoff.

It has a story mode with end credits unlike a lot of arcade puzzle games. Didn't take too long to complete once although it's obviously meant to be replayed.

Meteos is definitely one of the better arcade puzzle games out there. Not quite a Tetris but not a million miles off. The high level of polish applied helps a lot. Obviously didn't take off as a game with massive longevity.