The New Tetris
Reviewed by David M.
The New Tetris is not going to amaze anyone with stunning
3-D graphics, or some sort of dramatic camera angle (a
phrase often tossed around when speaking of RPG's), but
it will rejuvenate an old and spectacular classic, bring it to
the platform system for today, and keep you up for hours,
without realizing it is far past your bedtime. For those new
to Tetris, the game is simple; create as many horizontal
lines as you possibly can by fitting together differently
shaped pieces before the stack reaches the top of the
screen. Pieces fall from the top of the screen, and you
have can rotate the piece, and move it left and right. It
is essentially a puzzle game, but it is the most addictive
puzzle game ever created. The best part of The New Tetris
is what has always made Tetris on any platform, be
it the NES, Super NES, and especially Game Boy, is that
the best competition is still yourself. I keep starting "just
one more game" because i am sure i can do better than I just did.
Graphics 8 out of 10
There aren't many ways to mess this up. Its Tetris. You don't
have to worry about fogging or pop ups. The pieces are clear
and colorful. The details on the pieces when the fall to the
ground are beautiful as the individual blocks in each piece
disappear and form one solid glowing piece. The Gold and Silver
Squares (which I will explain later) and also nice. The New Tetris
offers a variety of backgrounds to play on, all with some area of
the world in mind. The shadow that helps tell you where your piece
will fall is easy to see without being so dark that you cant see
the rest of the board. Also, the 3-D worlds (I take it back, they
did make this game 3-D at times), where the 7 wonders are found,
are adequate for their purpose, although not spectacular. This
takes next to nothing away from the game though. The only
drawback to the graphics is one of the backgrounds, I believe
the Greek background, is too bright with too much blue, and
the pieces blend in too much, making! It hard to tell how close
to the sides of the board you are. Otherwise, the graphics are
better than you would think a Tetris game's graphics would be.
Music and Sound 8.5 out of 10
The only music taken from the old games is the opening music,
and the music played while maneuvering through menu selections
before beginning a game. This is rather disappointing, because
the best thing was playing Tetris to the cool Russian tunes. The
New Tetris futures more upbeat, Techno-New Age sound, which
are pretty nice. They are soothing, which is necessary in this
tense game. The only sound effects are basically the movement
of pieces, and pieces dropping to the ground, which make an
appropriate "thud."
Game Challenge 10 out of 10
As I said, the best challenge is yourself, and that is what The New
Tetris is all about. While it includes a multi-player mode, the best
part is sitting down and playing this game alone, challenging your old
records and setting new ones. And it is more fulfilling beating your
siblings by beating their personal bests! The game itself is still the
most challenging puzzle game around. It requires you to plan 4
moves ahead in order to keep the stack from rising while getting
as many lines as you can as fast as you can. The New Tetris does
not feature levels as previous Tetris's. Instead, the speed at which
the pieces drop increasing gradually with time, making it important
to not only get one line at a time, but multiple lines at once. The strategy
involved increases when you attempt to make the fifty line Gold
Squares. If you make a 4x4 square using all of one type of piece,
the value of the line you get that uses part of the square increases,
giving you more lines faster, the only way to reach especially high
scores. While the overall task does not seem too difficult, it is.
Game Play-Fun 10 out of 10
It is addicting, intriguing, and absolutely perfect in terms of Fun; and
what is more important that how much fun a game is. While there
are new twists and options in The New Tetris, every Tetris game has
remained essentially the same, because it was perfect from the
beginning. Thank the maker that instead of changing the original
game for new stuff, it just added the new stuff to the original game.
It includes one of the base multi player modes around, with the
"garbage" mode. If a player gets more than one line at a time,
it can add to the bottom of another players stack, raising it up
and closer to the top, which would make them lose. And you can
set the mode to random, in which the lines go to a random person,
or directed, in which you can chose who gets the garbage (many a
fight has been starting while playing in this mode. Also, the game
keeps track of a players stats over time, and at least 8 or 9
different people can enter their name into memory and save it,
so they can use their file each time they play. The game gives
players something to shoot for as well, with the seven wonders
of the world. They are built up over time, and when a certain number
of lines are reached, it is completed, and then you start on the next
one. While it doesnt add much to the game play, it gives you a
number to aim for, which will take you a long time to reach. We
are talking 100,00 lines or so!
Replayability 10 out of 10
The game has no beginning and no end. There is no conclusion. There
is no final boss to beat. It is forever continued each time you turn it
on. Nothing bores you in this game. Do not this of The New Tetris as
a new game, think of it simply as what it is called: The New Tetris. It
is still Tetris, as it has been for about 15 years. There is an old saying.
"If it aint broken, don't fix it." Tetris isn't even leaking, and it never will.
Game Value 10 out of 10
Even if you have Tetris on another platform, or another Tetris game
on Nintendo 64, such as Tetrisphere of Wetrix, this game is worth the price.
I believe it became one of Nintendo's players choice games, meaning
it met a milestone in sales, 25 million or something like that. It
remains to this day one of my all time favorite games, and years of
fun and escape from the world for 50 bucks or so is a steal.
Overall 10 out of 10
The Best Puzzle Game Ever. Even that title doesn't do justice to what
the game means. Nintendo rated Tetris as the 3rd greatest game
of all time. This is that game, with extra stuff. But i guarantee you,
even with the extra multi player modes, and the extra single player
modes, like the fastest to 150 lines as you can get, or the most
amount of lines in 3:00, you will play the regular, one player, normal
get-as-many-lines-as-you-can mode the most. It is video game
brilliance, without all the eye candy to draw you in. It has succeeded
for so long with nothing but the game-play to back it, which is
exactly what a great game should be able to do. If you aren't hooked
yet, you will be. If you are already hooked, you have already bought
it. Happy, aren't you?