Bermuda Triangle: Saving the Coral for Wii and DS: Puzzle Guide
Playable today Yes Both the Wii disc and the DS card play on current Nintendo hardware that still reads them.
Bermuda Triangle: Saving the Coral is a colourful ocean puzzle game released for the Wii and the Nintendo DS, with a United States Wii release listed for 17 November 2009. It has no connection to SNK’s 1987 arcade shooter of the same name.
Overview
VGChartz summarises it as a brilliantly colourful ocean puzzle game with a decidedly green theme. Players chain pods of the same colour to feed and protect coral, while pirates, sharks and other pests get in the way.
WorthPlaying’s Dustin Chadwell, reviewing the DS edition, set it beside Tetris and Bust-a-Move.
How it plays
Matching blocks of one colour removes them and sends nutrients down to the sea floor so the coral grows. Four items help: an anchor, a bomb, a bubble wave and a colour sphere. They are in short supply and mostly bought with in-game cash.
The enemies have specific tricks. A fish drains nutrients, small squids blacken blocks, a giant squid blackens the whole board, and a shark forces a block to drop.
Three modes are listed: the single-player campaign, Endless and Time Attack, plus a high-score tracker. There is no multiplayer.
Release and credits
VGChartz dates the Wii release to 17 November 2009 in the United States and 29 April 2011 in Europe, and the DS release to 2 February 2010 and 10 June 2011 respectively; the European publisher is not named. Storm City Games appears beside the US dates. The same site lists the developer as Storm City Games on the Wii page but NorthPole Studio on the DS page, and WorthPlaying’s header gives no credits at all.
Both versions are rated E by the ESRB, and PEGI 3 is listed in Europe.
Reception
WorthPlaying scored the DS version 6.0 out of 10 on 19 March 2010 and called it a decent puzzler for Tetris-style fans, not a must-buy but worth picking up cheaply.
The eco-friendly premise came as a pleasant surprise. The failure line is hard to read, and coral growth makes that worse. Difficulty is uneven, with easy early worlds and a punishing final level. Menus, visuals and soundtrack are bland, and the announcer is irritating.
Can you still play it?
The Wii disc plays on a Wii and, via Wii Mode, on a Wii U. The DS card plays on a DS, DS Lite, DSi and the Nintendo 3DS family, but not on a Wii U or Switch. Discs are region-coded, so a North American copy suits an NTSC-U console. The Wii Shop Channel closed on 30 January 2019, which does not matter for physical copies.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the 1987 arcade game Bermuda Triangle?
No. The 1987 Bermuda Triangle is a vertically scrolling shooter that SNK made for arcades. The Storm City release is an unrelated colourful puzzle game about protecting ocean coral.
What platforms was it released on?
VGChartz lists both a Wii version, dated 17 November 2009 in the United States, and a Nintendo DS version, dated 2 February 2010. WorthPlaying reviewed the DS edition in March 2010.
Does it have multiplayer?
WorthPlaying reports a single-player campaign, an Endless mode and a Time Attack mode, plus a high-score tracker, and no multiplayer option.
What is the subtitle?
Saving the Coral is the subtitle used in the VGChartz listings. The Storm City listing shortens the title to Bermuda Triangle, which is also how WorthPlaying's review is headed.
More games
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Sources
Where sources disagree: VGChartz lists Storm City Games as developer on its Wii page and NorthPole Studio on its DS page. WorthPlaying's review header does not name a developer or publisher, so the credits rest on VGChartz alone.