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Tetris DS: Reviews

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Game Score: 9/10

Tetris is back, and it's on the DS. Tetris is here with 6 different gameplay modes, including Marathon, Push, Touch, Mission, Catch, and Puzzle. It is also one of the few licensed Tetris games that can be playing online. Also featured are some of the classic Nintendo characters making a return, a few you may not have known existed.

Before I go any further, though, keep in mind that this game uses Tetris Worlds-style rotation. Without going into details, this means that even after a piece hits the ground, as long as you keep moving or rotating it, it will not lock down, giving you extra time for you to decide what to do.

With that said, Marathon mode is largely pointless. You see, the Marathon mode in this game is probably not the same Marathon mode you may be used to from previous games. Instead of continuing forever, this ends at 200 lines. That's not the only problem, though. Like usual, the level will increase every few lines -- in this game, it's 10. The pieces fall faster for each successive level, but when you reach level 18, they reach a speed where they are falling at the fastest rate possible in Tetris.

That's right, you heard me. This is no longer "maneuver the piece before it hits the bottom", because, well, it's already at the bottom. Need me to repeat myself? At level 18, the pieces simply appear at the bottom instead of falling to the bottom. So what's the problem with this? Well, this is really a new feature for non-Japanese players. But unlike Japan, until recently (but that's another story) they did not have the infinite rotation (see 2nd paragraph) on their side, so the challenge was still there, as they had to maneuver the piece before the lockdown timer ran out and the piece locked into place. But, since this game has infinite rotation, there is no challenge. The concept of instant gravity looks intimidating at first, but take your time and it's actually very easy.

So let's backtrack a little. You now know that at level 18, the pieces are basically hitting the ground as soon as they appear. So what happens at levels higher than that? Nothing, really, except you get a few more points. Let's go back some more. Marathon mode is nothing more than clearing 200 lines. There is also an Endless Marathon mode, but if you can complete the standard Marathon mode consistently, then there is no point to Endless Marathon. Instead of an endurance game like the old Tetris you're used to, it's challenging yourself to see how long you can play without getting bored.

Now you might be asking yourself, "What about points? Doesn't it keep your high score?" Of course it does, but it doesn't have a lot of significance. For Standard Marathon, the basic strategy is "Get as many Tetrises and T-Spins as possible". (Note that I'm not going to explain what T-Spins are in this review.) For Endless Marathon... you can play for hours, and the score counter won't max out. How high can it go? I just don't know. Whether this is a good or bad thing is your call.

Ah... Tetris Worlds. The genes of that game are now in this game, just look at it. Despite how so many people despised Tetris Worlds, its Marathon mode was actually better than the one in this game, why? Instead of giving you a score based on points, the game would give you a ranking for Marathon mode based on how fast you completed it. That game rewarded you for speed, and this game doesn't. Speed is essential if you want to play multiplayer, because if you can't keep up with your opponent, you might lose. (I'll get into this later.)

In addition to the "features" I've been talking about so far, there are also a few others. Probably the most noticeable is the 6 piece preview. I don't mind this at all but if you do, there is no way to modify this so forget about it. There's also a ghost piece (shadow of where your current piece will land) which can be turned off, a hard drop (press 'up' to drop the current piece instantly and gain control of the next one) which can also be turned off but I wouldn't recommend it, since you'll be very limited in multiplayer without it. There's also a Hold function. Press L or R and the current piece will be switched out, and you'll take control of the next one. If you have a piece in holding already, press L or R and the current piece will be switched out for that one. Good for when you get that annoying S or Z at the beginning or you have an O but nowhere to put it, or if you want to save an I for later, but some people say they don't really need it.

Okay, okay, enough about Marathon, now let's talk about something else. Like Push mode. This is my favorite new mode in this game (although it isn't really new.......)
Push mode starts with 2 blocks. One is higher and to the side, the other is lower and to the other side. Your pieces will fall from the top of the screen and your opponent's will fall from the bottom (although on their screen it's rotated 180 degrees so there is no confusion from playing from the bottom.) so this essentially creates a mirror image. You build off of these two blocks to try to clear lines. Multiple line clears will push the whole playing field in your 'down' direction, and if they clear multiple lines you will see the field move up. There are dotted lines at the very top and bottom of the field which never move. If you drop a piece and it goes above the line, you lose, and if your opponent drops their piece below their dotted line, they lose. Because of the nature of Push mode, you may usually find yourself only going for 3 lines at a time, and once your opponent messes up and creates a floating block, you can go for the kill with 4 lines. If you try to drop a piece and there are no blocks there, it will fall into nothingness.

Puzzle mode is a change from the fast-paced nature of Tetris. On the top screen, you see some blocks. On the bottom screen, you see tetrominos (I've been calling them 'pieces' until now) and you have to use those tetrominos to clear the top screen completely. You can choose how to rotate them, but you can't choose where they land (you don't really need to anyway.) There are a total of 200 puzzles in the game, so they will probably last a while.

In Touch mode, a very horrible Tetris player has filled up both screens with tetrominos, obviously not trying to clear any lines at all. That's for you to do, by moving the pieces left or right, and rotating them. There are two submodes here: Touch Puzzle, which is like a Mission/Puzzle hybrid. There are only 50 missions here and you can not rotate the pieces. Then there's Tower mode, where there are a huge amount of pieces, and a cage. Move and rotate the pieces to clear lines to get that cage to the bottom to win. There are 5 difficulty levels and on 4 and 5, you can not rotate the pieces. In both modes, there is no time limit, so you can take as long as you want.

Mission mode also has 2 sub-modes. In Marathon you simply have to complete a certain number of missions, and in Time Trial (..........) you have to complete a certain number of missions as quickly as possible. So what are these missions like? Well, it plays just like normal Tetris, but on the top screen you're given an objective, such as "Clear 2 lines with an S". Do this objective and all of the blocks currently on the field will sink down a few lines, and the next mission starts. If you take too long, you'll get garbage, and you'll have to do a different mission.

Catch mode is last, and I'm not really a fan of this, it's just completely different. In this mode you start with 5 blocks shaped like a plus sign, with your 'core' being the one in the middle. You can move this around up, down, left, and right, and you can also rotate it. Tetrominos are falling, and you have to catch them with this block, they will stick to the block and make it bigger. If you manage to create a 4×4 block this way, it will begin flashing, and you can detonate it (or it will just detonate by itself.) Metroids are falling with the Tetrominos, so be sure to blow them up. If a Tetromino hits the bottom of the screen, or if it hits your core while it's rotating, you lose energy. If a metroid touches it, you lose even more energy, and if you run out of energy, game over. Like I said this is just completely different from Tetris so whether or not you'll like this is completely up to you.

Now let's talk about multiplayer. I've never played locally, but I do know that you can play against up to 9 opponents in Standard and Mission, and only one (obviously) in Push. Online, you can play against one person in Standard, 3 other people in Standard with items, or Push mode.

Push mode is push mode, there isn't much else to say about that. For standard, multiple line clears will send garbage to your opponent. Clear 2 lines for 1 line of garbage, 3 will give 2, and 4 will give 4, so trying for 4 isn't such a bad idea, now, is it? In 4 player standard mode with items, a cursor is on one opponents field at a time and moves around. When you attack with garbage or use an item, the attack will affect whoever the cursor is on. To get an item, you simply have to clear the line with a '?' block in it (these appear randomly.) The effect of the items is nowhere near the magnitude of the specials in Tetris Battle Gaiden, just in case you've played that game before.

When playing online, you can play against anyone in your friend list, or play worldwide. When you choose Worldwide, you have a rating that starts at 5000, and it increases when you win, and decreases when you lose. You can also gain or lose more points depending on your opponent's rating, so if you with your 5000 rating beat someone with a 4900 rating, you won't get a lot of points. If you beat someone with a 7300 rating, you'll get points overflowing, and they'll be mad because they just lost a bunch of points. If someone disconnects during a match, it will count as a win for you and you'll get even more points than if you had just beat them normally.

However I'd like to know what Nintendo was thinking when they designed this. If you're playing worldwide against random opponents, the garbage will usually appear so that the holes that come with it are in a straight line. But, that's not always the case, and sometimes the garbage will be in a straight line for your opponent but not for you, and in the next match it might be the other way around, so there is just too much luck involved. 4 player mode is even worse. Let's say you've become really good, defeated tons of opponents and now you have a 7000 rating. You decide to play some 4 player, and you get 3 opponents who suck. One has a 5200 rating (not bad), one has a 4100 rating, and one is terrible and has a 3900 rating. They know you're good. They gang up against you, they abuse items against you, you lose and there's nothing you can do about it. Rematch? Sorry, the 3900 guy just left the match, so everyone is disbanded and if you want to play again you've got to find 3 opponents all over again.

When playing against friends, the rating never changes, so that's not a problem there. As for garbage, if everyone agrees to play on a higher handicap, the garbage will always be random and you won't have to worry about the game being biased about who gets Tetris-ready garbage and who doesn't.

Infinite rotation is not a problem online either, since in multiplayer, the piece must lock down after a certain amount of time no matter what. This is all I have to say about multiplayer.

So, we've covered most all of the gameplay elements of the game, but what about the nostalgia factor? What about seeing 8-bit Mario, Link, Samus, and others running around in their respective games? What about remixes of classic Nintendo tunes? These are some of the things that make Tetris DS, Tetris DS. Without them, would this be a good game or not? Of course it would. It's not the best ever, but, it's got free online play, solid Tetris gameplay, and Tetris spin-offs in case you get tired of the original.

There's one thing, though, that this game is really missing that many people have anticipated, and that's real classic Tetris. If that's what you want, without this delayed landing, infinite rotation garbage, or Super Mario Bros. levels playing on the top screen, go pick up Tetris Worlds GBA for $15 dollars and figure out how to get classic mode in that because that's the closest you'll get on the DS.