So I found a new game on Xbox Live Arcade and discovered that puzzle games can have action too.  What kind of game could yield such a combination, you wonder?  It’s called Meteos Wars, and it’s avaiable on Live Arcade for the relatively low price of eight hundred Microsoft points.

You play one of several different alien races, engaging in a war to end the world-destroying Meteos.  If they stack up too high, you see, they’ll destroy your planet.  But, if you arrange them in groups of three, vertically or horizontally, you’ll launch them directly upward and, hopefully, off your planet.  You’ll also pass the danger on to your neighboring planet, who will thusly become more likely to be destroyed by the meteos.

The result is a surprisingly fun and fast-paced puzzle game with plenty of action.  The gameplay is smooth and almost completely intuitive–I managed to play the game for one round without even reading the instruction manual.  We need more interesting, original games like this, and I’m glad they can even be found in the first place.