Tetris Plus

"Not bad… Not bad at all…"

When I got Tetris Plus (over ten years ago) a couple of days after it came out, I have to admit that I was skeptical, and was thinking, “What haven't they done to poor old Tetris?” But I found out that Tetris Plus, which may come as a surprise to some people, is actually a good, respectable game. Except for an empty story that JALECO tried to force upon the classic puzzle game designed by Alexey Pajitnov, the gameplay and graphics are top notch and two-player mode makes it even more fun. I'll explain in more detail about this pretty good game:

Graphics – 9 – It's Tetris… yep, Tetris alright. All joking aside, how can you make Tetris look any better than it already looks, or looked in the past? Well I have to admit JALECO made the classic game look colorful, lively, sharp, and most of all, fun. Colors blaze across the screen, flash, and make colorful patterns that really catch your eye and make you say, “Wow. That was pretty awesome.” I don't usually use the word “cute” in everyday language, but I can't think of a less girly word to use to describe the professor and his assistant when playing the story mode, so here it goes. The professor and his assistant have…cute… little animations as you play the game. The cartoon-ish way they do things also can get a chuckle out of you sometimes (duh, they are cartoons). The only reason this game didn't get a ten out of ten for graphics is because, c'mon, it's Tetris. There are way better looking Playstation games out there, but I assure you that there are also worse looking ones. And I have to comment again on how sharp and clean looking the game itself as well as the menus and easy-to-use editor mode are. Bravo.

Sound – 8 – The sound in Tetris Plus is not bad in any way, there just could have been a bit more variation. The only music in Classic Mode is one song that just keeps getting faster to raise the suspense, and makes you see if you can play under pressure. Then occasionally the music will change. The important thing is the songs are not SO annoying, but I definitely never would have guessed that there would be music like this in a Tetris game. Something that does get a bit annoying is having a male voice say, “SINGLE!”, or, “DOUBLE!”, and so forth depending on how many lines you make disappear, but that's only a minor inconvenience. Remember, its Tetris. There's really nothing that absolutely has to be heard, so feel welcome to turn that stereo to full blast with some Lamb of God or Symphony X.

Storyline – 4 – I know that I keep repeating myself, but IT'S TETRIS. I don't know why JALECO tried to make Tetris have a story. It's a freakin' puzzle game! Here's the story they tried to shove upon Tetris – An archeologist and his female assistant go looking through some old pyramids with a very old map and are looking for treasure. They walk in a pyramid and suddenly blocks start falling, but somehow, they can direct where the blocks are going, and they have to try to save themselves and get to the next floor below. Besides having plot holes like “what happens when they get to the room below? Don't the blocks fill up the floor they were just on? Or do they stop falling somehow when you leave the room?”, the story just lacks something, and just doesn't feel worth it. But I guess it gave puzzle mode a purpose because that's the mode where you have to get the professor to the floor below. STORY NOT NEEDED!

Gameplay – 9 – Once again, IT'S TETRIS. Everyone's played Tetris before, and once you start playing, there shouldn't even be a learning curve time, because you already know how to do everything. Pieces slowly come down from the top of the screen, and you have to arrange them in a pattern that fits together perfectly in order to make a certain number of lines of those blocks disappear at a time. Easy enough, but besides Classic Mode, the one described above, there's Puzzle Mode, VS Mode, and Edit Mode. In Puzzle Mode, there is a set pattern of blocks on the bottom of the screen, and as you put the pieces down, you have to make lines of blocks disappear to make the professor, who's walking around on your blocks, get to the bottom part of the Tetris “Board” before the ceiling crushes him. In VS Mode, it's basically two-player Classic Mode where two Tetris “Boards” are right next two each other, and Player 1 and Player 2 compete to either see who lasts the longest, or to see who has more points by the end. Edit Mode is a fun little extra that lets you design your own Puzzle Mode “Boards” and levels. The interface is user friendly, but it's very easy to make an IMPOSSIBLE level, so you have to be careful of the way you make your pattern.

There you go. A review of Tetris Plus, another good Tetris game to add to your Playstation one collection. Although some things are not perfect, the gameplay is quick, suspenseful, and fun. But here's the thing. IT'S TETRIS, just like any other Tetris game. If you already have Tetris for GameBoy or something else, it's basically the same game, so choose wisely whether or not to buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/16/07