Tetris

"Ooo...pretty..."

An infamous game that really caught the world by storm, Tetris is a game that will forever be nailed into the minds of every gamer for being a puzzle game that was so addictive, it was thought about day and night! Featuring a set of game play mechanics that was both simple and complex, Tetris can really be called the King of Puzzlers and not have another game that quite matches the addictive quality that this game represents. Set on several different platforms and across several different variations, Tetris is a fun ride through the world of puzzles and strategy while staying within the simple confines of visuals and audio as well as control.

Finding this for an old CD-I player is something short of impossible to do, as most stores and outlets don’t carry or even remember this age old thing. You’ll find, that even placed on the CD-I, there is nothing that has changed, other than the visual backgrounds that you’ll play through, ranging from forests to deserts. The theme that you’re playing with here, is more or less an outdoors-like theme with nothing else really attached to it! If you’ve played other versions of the game, then you’ll find that there is nothing here that you’re really missing, other than those interesting backgrounds. It may be a small improvement over the other versions, but if you have a CD-I and you’re into the Tetris games, then you’ll find this to be one of the better buys.

Tetris is a simple game to play, but extremely hard to master if you’re looking to make super amounts of points through proper play. Spanning across several stages, you’ll find that the challenge of the game is to line up the blocks correctly and therefore clear them from the stage to give you more points and more room to make more lines. What this does, is it creates more of a playing field in order to attain a higher scoring line with the use of the different blocks, that allow you super high scoring trick lines! While this may not seem like much at first, after a few minutes, you’re just looking to clear the blocks and gain the high score, which turns up the addictive qualities of the game to overdrive.

Through successful clearing, you’ll be able to up the level and the overall speed of the game, which allows you to challenge your reflexes by trying to get the same blocks moving, but at a higher speed. After a certain point though, you won’t be able to keep up with the speed of the game unless you’re inhuman, and your only reward after a certain amount of stages is the sight of little dancing Russian characters that appear as a reward for good play! What the game is lacking though, is a solid multi-player option, but like most other versions of the Tetris game {save for Tengen’s NES version}, you’ll find that the trip down puzzle solving action is a solo one at that.

Controlling Tetris is what makes the game so fun, in which you really have to be on your game and have your reflexes moving at top speed. The different blocks all have a certain shape, which must be turned and twisted in order to get clean lines and therefore clear out different situations. What brings a little more challenge to the table is that you can move your shapes within the lines to create cleared lines and therefore, it takes more skill and more reflexes as well as precision timing in order to get this accomplished! There isn’t anything super advanced with the game and in the end, it is really all about practice and timing to get the desired effect during the speedy portions of the game.

Visually, Tetris is about as simple as it gets save for the backgrounds. The backgrounds change for depending and you’re never looking at the flat black color of other versions, while the blocks themselves take on different colors to show that you’ve moved up to another level and stage. The blocks are all set in different shapes that aren’t too complex to understand or learn to place, so you’ll be looking at the speed of the game and the overall shape and design in order to get a good line going! Special effects in the game are very limited and the overall detail of the game isn’t top notch, but when you take a game like this, you’re really not looking for detail or special effects. With certain games, you don’t need to dazzle the player visually in order to get the point and fun of the game across, which is just what Tetris does for the gamer.

Tetris has a little bit of audio that is supposed to keep the pace and feel of the game to a certain speed. While it does accomplish this, and you can listen to a couple of different tracks while you play, there is something to be said about having a looping track that keeps playing no matter what stage you’re on! Something that does come of interest is the fact that once you reach a certain point in the stage, and your blocks are high up on the screen, the music will speed up in order to create the effect of urgency and that you really need to get moving in order to be successful. This really does come out as effective in which it creates the sense and the feeling that it is trying to portray, adding up to a nice surprise. The sound effects of the game are limited to crashing blocks and you'll hear that more often than not, so simplicity in sound effects wins out in this particular title!

Tetris is a game that is famous for being nothing to look at, but plenty of fun to play. While it has no two-player option and is really missing anything that would give it a competitive edge, there is plenty to say about playing an addictive puzzle game and actually enjoying it! There are games that are addicting to play, but not all that fun, while Tetris really stands out as being both fun and addictive. With very simple visuals and audio that sets the mood of what it is that you’re trying to play, you’ll find that the sensory aspect of the game is covered rather well. With the easy to use control and the overall game play being something that started a trend, Tetris is a wonderful {and rare} addition to anyone’s CD-I collection!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/15/02, Updated 01/15/02