Puzzle games:
the never-ending frontier. They launched the portable games market with Tetris
on the original Game Boy and have since made a splash on Game Gear, Game Boy
Advance, Nintendo DS, PSP, and mobile phones. Whether using blocks, spheres, or
tiny ant-shaped creatures named Pikmin, puzzle games are the only universally
appealing genre. For several years they were the only games you could convince a
non-gamer to play.
Given the
genre’s popularity, publishers were once eager to turn their existing franchises
into puzzle games. Everything from Mario to Mortal Kombat has received the
puzzle game treatment. Though their success has not spawned sequels (who here
thought we’d see another Dr. Mario by now?), they have a lasting place in our
gaming collections.
Now it’s
SpongeBob’s turn to find a permanent place in our life via SpongeBob’s Atlantis
Squarepantis: Atlantis Treasures. The game is short and without any multiplayer
features, which would have been an excellent, replay value-enhancing edition.
But aside from a slight control issue, Atlantis Treasures is a great game.
Drop, Flip
and Spin
Standing in
the dark, Mr. Krabs gets a whiff of something. “I’d know that smell anywhere,”
he says. His nose was picking up on the Atlantean Treasure Room, the place where
hundreds of gold coins are stored, among other valuables. “If only I had known!”
he says excitedly. “I would have had me tailor put 10 more pockets on me pants!”
Mr. Krabs’
obsession with money has taken him to a strange place. Right in the middle of
all that gold is a large pillar surrounded by 10 indentations, which are there
to hold up to 10 lines of the orbs that will soon fall from the sky. These orbs
come in many different colors: green, yellow, blue, red, pink. Power-ups let you
wipe out one line or column of orbs.
The standard
route to elimination, of course, is to combine three or more orbs of the same
color – vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. With a circular, semi-3D
platform, the game feels different from the flatter, more traditional puzzle
games. Technically you don’t move the pieces except to change the order of the
falling orb cluster (three connected orbs drop simultaneously, and their colors
may be rearranged as needed). You do, however, have control over the pillar,
which swivels left and right, a la Pokemon Puzzle League.
Story and Free
Play – the only two modes available – contain five different challenges that are
built around the context of the game. In Treasure Room, the objective is to make
50 or more orb clusters disappear. But you don’t have to stop once the goal has
been reached. You can play continually until one line reaches the ceiling, which
causes the game to end. This is true of all the challenges. Their goals don’t
take long to complete, but like Tetris, Columns, and other great puzzlers, these
stages have the potential to last forever.
Story bits are
introduced before each challenge, attempting to capture the essence of
SpongeBob’s trademark hilarity. They don’t succeed too greatly – while the lines
are amusing, it just isn’t the same without a voice track. But you should still
get a smirk after seeing the excited look on Plankton’s face when he discovers
the Atlanteans have left a room full of tanks unguarded.
The Weapons
Room level changes the objective from matches to bursts. The game begins by
dropping a colored bomb into the stage. Your goal is to eliminate that bomb by
connecting it with two other orbs of the same color, creating a burst.
The Science
Room challenge is easy but doesn’t make much sense. Basically, you have to score
a point multiplier by eliminating an unspecified number of orbs. Or is it by
creating an unspecified number of chains (one orb elimination that leads to
another)? Or combos (two or more orb clusters that are eliminated
simultaneously)? I’m not sure. But I was able to win on the first try.
The Art Room is
a more challenging version of the Weapons Room. Here you have to eliminate the
colored blobs of paint. Finally there is the Bubble Room, which is a variation
of the other challenges that includes one notable difference: you can’t have
lines stacking more than six orbs. Normally you can stack nine without losing.
The orbs in the Bubble Room, however, are made of bubbles and can burst when
stacked too high.
While Atlantis
Treasures is a repetitive puzzler, it is also very addictive. These stages are
worth revisiting multiple times to top your high score.
On the
downside, the controls are good but mistakenly different. I think it’s safe to
say that all gamers are used to one thing: when we press down in a puzzle game,
we expect the orbs, blocks or whatever to go down. That isn’t what happens in
this game. Pushing down causes the orb colors to cycle through the available
positions. To bring the orbs down faster, you’ll have to push the OK/select
button. This isn’t a huge deal, but it’s certainly an odd one that will take
some adjusting. And although the entire game runs in endless mode, the base
objectives can be finished much too quickly.
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Gameplay: 7.9
Released exclusively
in mobile format, Atlantis Treasures is a little bit Tetris, a little bit
Columns, and a tad reminiscent of Pokemon Puzzle League’s 3D playing field.
Graphics:
6.0
Your basic array of
2D shapes, 16-bit colors, and a slight 3D view.
Sound: 1.0
Sound is still the
area where mobile games suck the most. There is hope in the form of Star Wars:
The Empire Strikes Back. But that’s the only mobile game whose audio actually
sounds like audio.
Difficulty: Easy
You won’t have to
fight much to beat the Story mode.
Concept: 7.0
Atlantis Treasures
isn’t a new idea, but it does bring together the concepts of some of the genre’s
best games.
Multiplayer: N/A
If only…
Overall: 7.4
Puzzle games derive
most of their replay value from player-to-player competition, a feature that is
not yet possible on the average mobile phone. Because of this, Atlantis
Treasures must rely on its single-player experience to keep gamers interested.
That’s cool for some players but could be a deal breaker for others.
