Tetris Attack

"It's in my SNES yet again, ten years past its original release date. Some things never get old..."

Some games do not age well at all, and some only get better with age. Tetris Attack is a prime example of how a game's age can never make it turn for the worse, and still have some of the greatest gameplay to this day.

Story: 7/10
Speaking of the story, it has to do with Yoshi and his pals such as Latiku, Raphael the Raven, Poochy, and the like. Everyone has been hypnotized under a magic spell except Yoshi by Bowser, and needs to be rescued. You'll meet up with evil minions Yoshi has met in Yoshi's Island in order to finally defeat Bowser. In all seriousness, no one really plays a puzzle game for its story; however, it works well enough to warrant playing through it.

Graphics: 10/10
I have no complaints here, even if it this game has aged ten years. It still looks extremely colorful and nothing feels out of place as you look at it. The backgrounds go well with the locations in Yoshi's Island, which solely depends on the character you selected. For example, if you pick Yoshi, you get a jungle background with a baby Yoshi on the side. If you pick Raphael, you get a space background with the moon and stars in it. As for the blocks, they also stand out making it easy for the eyes and just as fun to play.

Gameplay: 10/10
Easy to play, and hard to master comes to mind immediately. As you play, blocks will rise from the bottom, and gradually go all the way to the top. Your objective is to keep the blocks from hitting the top at all times. You control how the blocks shape up to each other horizontally and vertically. Your movement is determined by the double squared white cursor which you use in order to match up those blocks. That's the simple part, because now it gets a bit more complex.

When you match up three or more of the same shape, they disappear from the board. However, when those pieces are falling, you can attempt to match up the falling pieces with the pieces that are falling or the pieces that are below them. Doing this successfully creates a chain, which can then again create another chain should you be quick enough to recognize and order the blocks as so. You can continue to do this until you run out of possible chains should you get good enough to do so.

In Endless mode, creating a chain or matching four blocks or more in a row will actually cause the blocks to stop rising for a period of time. The announcer will say “STOP!”, and depending on how many blocks were matched or how big the chain you set up determines how long this effect will take place. This will end immediately if you raise the blocks with L or R, however. Speaking of raising the blocks, by doing that, you can easily set up much bigger chains than before, if you can recognize them in time. With practice, though, you notice chains faster and set them up in ways someone may have not even though of.

In COM mode, depending on the severity of the chain or how many blocks are matched at the same time determines how many garbage blocks drop on you. Garbage blocks are pretty self-explanatory: They exist solely to slow you down and prevent you from setting up your own chains and 4+ block combos to send garbage blocks to your opponent. Against COM, the game can get pretty intense on the harder difficulties because they eventually can do higher chains with ease. However, even that difficulty only gets so hard before you'll eventually surpass it if you spend enough time playing. The real fun comes with playing with other people...

Against a good player, matches can become indescribably fun, as you'll both be chaining up and breaking several garbage blocks off of each other while simultaneously trying not to see the “You Lose” screen. It's kind of crazy to think you're pretty good at the game playing against the COM only when you go against someone who drops that first 20x chain you've ever seen. It's the moments like that that makes this game all-so-very addicting, even with all the years that have passed.

There is a puzzle mode that can teach you more about the game mechanics as well as help you practice setting up your first chains and recognizing chains before you possibly mess them up. Nintendo also went a step further and added a very helpful Tutorial mode for those who have never played Tetris Attack before.

Music/SE: 9/10
The music is dependant on who you are facing and it kind of reminds me of background music. You don't really think about it all that much, and yet it matches the particular character you're going against. Blocks make popping sounds of all sorts and yet have a feeling distinctive to the music that is being played. You tend to pay more attention to it in Endless than against COM or another player, since you're trying to clear that garbage block or thinking up a surefire chain to cause your opponent to lose.

Length: 10/10
To master this game will take a lot of your time. From practicing in Endless to get better at creating and recognizing chains, to all the tricks of the trade, you have much to work on. Like anything that takes skill to master, the longer you work on it, the better you will be. To even say it takes a certain amount of hours to get good at it wouldn't do Tetris Attack justice, as I've probably put a couple hundred in myself.

Even if this game doesn't really have much to do with the original Tetris, it's a shining example of how Nintendo continues to be innovative with the games that they release. Of course, this may be an old game that I've gave an example with, but age has not had any impact. Long story short, if you haven't played Tetris Attack, then you've been missing out on an incredibly fun game.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/15/06