Tetris Worlds
Reviewed by MaxH
Tetris. Probably the simplest and easiest to grasp
game there has ever existed. Tetris remakes. Probably
the most pointless, absurd creations that ever
existed. The thing is, there's no improving Tetris,
all the new modes developers have added are stinky,
plain and simple, not even Disney characters can
improve the formula. Tetris is so brilliant BECAUSE
of its lack of gameplay features. There are seven
shapes because, it is believed, the mind is capable
of remembering seven 'things' at a time. And if you
get just ONE tiny element of the game wrong, you've
blown it completely. And if you get everything right?
Well then you've got exactly the same game that was
made over a decade ago. There's just no winning with
Tetris remakes.
This doesn't seem to worry THQ though (The games
publishers who laugh in the face of quality), and
they have unleashed the insipid Tetris world on the
masses. Ostensibly the same as every other Tetris
remakes, it includes tarted up graphics and
ridiculously dull extra modes.
In case you are, I don't know, about two years old
you should know exactly how Tetris works. Seven
different shapes fall from the top of the screen to
the bottom at a speed that increases the further you
go into the game. Your objective is to create lines
by slotting the falling shapes in with each other,.
When you've done so, the line you just made will
disappear. If you do badly, and don't manage to clear
many lines, then the shapes will pile up high,
eventually amounting to Game Over when they reach the
top of the screen.
The formula is present and correct here, and it all
works fine. The shapes move at the right speed and
the joy of being given a 'line' shape just as you
really need one is still there. Tetris works on its
own and it's difficult to ruin it. Developers Blue
Planet have wisely not added any new shapes into the
mix with their normal Tetris modes. Tetris is perhaps
one of the most significant and widely known games of
all time. So it's no surprise to find that it's so enjoyable.
Things really fall apart, however, when we come to
the extra modes. Endurance Tetris, sticky tetris
(Someone tell me if there's any actual gameplay
differences between this and normal tetris, because I
can't see any), fusion tetris, blah blah blah blah.
They add on a variety of annoying features to the
main game such as building lines up to a certain
block, connecting certain colours together. It's
just awful. If you are thinking of buying this for
it's extra modes, don't.
Graphically, this is fairly lame. The backgrounds
that include undersea and a volcano (And for some
reason, a strange block with eyes that rotates eerily
around all of the backgrounds) are fairly nice but
wholly pointless as they are just distracting and add
nothing to the game anyway. And a feature which I
hate is that now an outline of the falling shape
appears at the bottom (Or top, depending on how badly
you're doing) of the screen telling you where the
shape will fall. This is hugely distracting as you'll
often concentrate on the outline rather than the
falling shape itself, meaning you'll often bring the
shape down at the wrong time. Luckily it can be turned off.
The music is a terrible amalgamation of the original
theme tune and new GBA 'techno' music. This is just
as impressive as it sounds (i.e not at all) and ruins
the tetris theme to the point that it becomes
unlistenable. There are other, equally stinky tunes to
listen to as well, if you like. Not only have they
ruined the originally superb music but they have
scrapped the classic old SFX! Bastards.
Technically, there's nothing wrong with Tetris
worlds, nothing that makes it unplayable. The extra
modes aren't worth bothering with, and I was a bit
miffed to see the high scores removed COMPLETELY from
the game (Why was this done? What could removing the
scores possibly achieve?) but Tetris remains intact,
puzzling at it's finest. But then, why does Tetris
Worlds even exist? The best thing you can say about
it is that it doesn't make a complete mess of a game
that's already there. Tetris is just as good (and a
lot cheaper) on the original gameboy, and it has
better sound and less distracting graphics. Don't
even glance at this as you pass it in the shops.
Overall: 4 out of 10