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Tetris DS: Reviews

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Game Score: 9/10

The classic just got better!

Tetris DS offers the long time glory of what we know with some, up to date, changes. Some are subtle, others are a bit more grand, but all of them are fun.

For example, Standard Tetris offers what we all know; clear lines, survive until the speed of the game catches up to you and squishes you to a ceiling death. The game does feature the possibility to 'hold' one piece and swap it with the falling piece on the go, both a good way to save your butt from a badly placed piece which is stuck against a 'tower' or simply to get that Tetris you've been waiting for. The background music swaps from time to time depending on your current 'speed level', getting more rapid and intense as you go. They're all themed about Super Mario Bros. games and are very well remixed.

Then, Push Tetris has a very good twist that makes multiplayer games 'very' intense. Set in the scene of a Donkey Kong game, you must clear likes on a 'floating' set of blocks. Single lines simply clears your own, while Doubles, Triples and Tetrises pushes the whole 'block' of tetriminos down against your opponent. It seems ver ysimple, but it's also very challenging as a 'hole' in the setup of your blocks will let Tetriminos fall through, so risking to set one to fill the hole and make your move might be your loss, as your opponent might actually be waiting for that opening.

Catch Tetris puts you into Metroid's world; you have a floating 'cross' of tetriminos floating in midair which you can rotate and move freely; the goal is to 'catch' incoming tetriminos and make a compact 4x4 cluster or bigger and then detonate it. it can be fairly useful since the blast will destroy incoming Metroids as well as other blocks. The process is rather unique, but also very challenging.

Mission Tetris shoots you in the world of Link, your task is to clear lines as per described in your objective on the top screen; you do have a time limit displayed as a row of 'hearts' which will decrease as time goes on. If you complete the objective (ranging as "Clear 5 lines" to "Make a triple with a gap in it" or "Clear 4 lines without rotating tetriminos"), some of your lines are removed and you're given another objective to aim for; if you fail, you get shot some lines in and swap to another objective.

Puzzle Tetris is exactly what it says : you're given 3 blocks, all the time in the world and must complete every row and sets of lines with these three blocks. There's over 100 puzzles, each testing how bad you can screw your mind over them. Set in the setting of Yoshi's Cookie, the music sounds awfully 8-bit, giving it a very good charm.

Touch Tetris works with the stylus; being set in the world of Balloon Fight, you have to move, rotate and push blocks set in a tower to lower a cage of balloons to the floor. It comes in two modes : Tower and Puzzle; the first one is exactly what was described above while Puzzle mode prevents you from rotating blocks, forcing you to match them up correctly to bring the cage to the floor. Very interesting, although it didn't get to me as much as I thought it would.

The music is simply great, remixes of classic titles sounds simply fantastic. I admit I am, myself, a fan of videogame music remixes and theses easily fits a collection I'd keep. The graphics are kept simple, for the need of the titles being of the same way.

The multiplayer, internet access allows you to match up and play against people around the world; it is quite simply very entertaining and fun (although my winning rate of 50/50); Push Tetris comes as my favorite in multiplay. Standard Tetris gets to have 'Mario Kart' type powerups on the playfield, each granting you an advantage or inconveniencing your opponents in some way.

All in all, fans or not might like this game for the sole feeling of being accompanied through one of the great Nintendo titles they played in their younger times. I know I kept remembering the first time I played Super Mario Bros. back then...