The DS version presented here attempt to kick it up a notch in a variety of ways, with more successes than failures. First off, publisher Empire Interactive and developer Razorwork fortunately choose to abandon any hope of making this game work within a 3D space and gets it old school with familiar 2D gameplay (the less said about the PS1's Pipe Dreams 3D the better). What makes this version of the gaming staple a little bit more unique than its predecessors is inclusion of touch screen controls. Instead of moving a cursor around with a D-Pad (which is an option still left open for some reason), the player is able to simply tap on the square they wish to place the current pipe piece. The squares are big enough that I didn't misplace too many pieces even with Mrs. Game-Boy driving on some bumpy roads. It's an obvious design choice that clearly wrote itself, but it's just so intuitive it's hard to blame them for implementing it as is. It certainly helps keep this version of the game run at a slightly quicker pace while making some of the more time focused levels a little easier for beginners.

When starting up the game for the first time you'll find that you will only be able to access only of the four modes. For whatever reason the marketing department felt that this game needed a story, they've included a light wrapper for the game's unique power-ups and character with the World mode. Presented in a similar to Peggle's Adventure mode, you'll get 8 levels with a unique tile set for pipes and different foe to contend with. At seemingly random intervals, the world's signature character will do something to throw a wrench into your plans. From weakening pipes your laid down to speeding up the flooz flow, these changes certainly transform the experience from world to world, but feel like punishments that come out of the blue with little to no way to deflect or predict them. In addition to these challenges, the overall difficulty of each round increases with different pipe length requirements to pass each round and obstacle placement.

There are additional modes that will unlock through the World mode that offer new levels and challenges, arcade play, and even a remake of the original Pipe Mania. All of these are welcome, but it feels a little cheap that a few aren't available from the start. The biggest surprise is also the title's biggest weakness. There is no multiplayer to speak of what so ever. Even including a simple single cart battle mode would have significantly extended the life of the game. A few more varied modes (co-op?) would have guaranteed the cart its place in my DS case for a long time. I suppose that when the single player content clocks in at over 250 levels that this should last the average player a good while, but it's still disappointing not to see at least an attempt at doing some form of multiplayer.

At the end of the day, this budget release is serviceable and does the job it came to do. The single player content should last most players at least a few long car/plane trips, but it's hard not to imagine where the concept could have gone if it got the update it really deserved. Part of me wanted to see game take on a more contemporary look and feel along the lines of Lumines, Meteos, or the recent handheld updates to Gunpey. Instead, I got something that was predictable and bland even if it wasn't overtly offensive to my senses. It's hard to recommend this game over those experiences when they're similarly priced if you dig to the bottom of the right bargain bin, but if you already have those titles and just looking for more puzzle action on your DS I would say that you could do a lot worse. As it stands, Pipe Mania is a good distraction with solid fundamentals for lonely players presented with a pedestrian presentation.

5 out of 10