Tetris DS

"Solid interpretation of a classic game"

Introduction:
Tetris DS is Nintendo's latest entry into the Tetris franchise, which was created by Alexey Pajitnov. In Tetris, blocks (tetronimos) fall, one piece at a time, from the top the playing board to the bottom. The objective is to line the blocks in such a way that an entire horizontal line is solid. When that happens, that line disappears from the playing board. The blocks that were above this disappearing region fall down, freeing up space at the top of the playing board. Clearing four lines simultaneously is called a Tetris. The more lines you clear, the faster the pieces drop.

Graphics:
For this installment, Nintendo chose to give the game a nostalgic visual interface scheme reprising characters from the 8-bit NES generation. Each mode and each screen has some type of 8-bit NES character or design in the foreground or background. It's all very colorful. It's quite a nostalgic trip for longtime NES fans. The only thing that annoys me is the big, bright 8-bit sprite that appears to the right of the playing board. It's a little too in-your-face for me.

Despite the colorful Nintendo graphics, these graphics don't have a consistent visual style. It is as if somebody decorated your room with a mishmash of Nintendo wallpaper and posters. In my opinion, Meteos had a better overall design style.

Music:
Nintendo remixed many 8-bit NES tunes. I feel these remixes are very good. There is a sound test that you can access, but some music tracks need to be unlocked.

Game Modes:
Standard mode is the basic Tetris gameplay. In the original version of this game, you could see the next piece. In Nintendo's version, you can see the next 6 pieces, although you cannot rearrange their sequence. However, Nintendo has introduced a Hold Box, allowing you to store the currently falling piece for use later. This introduces additional strategic opportunities not available in the original version. For versus games, Nintendo also added items. Certain blocks will contain question-mark blocks. When you clear a line that has one of these blocks, you will get a random item. Items can either help you or hinder your opponent. This adds additional randomness to the game.

There are several modes available besides the standard game. There are also mission mode, push mode, catch mode, and several puzzle modes. The puzzle modes don't follow normal rules. They are puzzles that use Tetris blocks, but they are interesting puzzles nonetheless. One puzzle mode resembles Yoshi's Cookie. Push mode has you competing with another player or CPU in trying to shove your blocks into the other side's playing field. Catch mode challenges you to move a small seed block with your stylus to catch falling pieces to make 4x4 blocks, which get cleared. All in all, there are plenty of things for you to do by yourself.

I have played 2-player local multiplayer, but the game does allow you to play up to 10-players locally with only a single cartridge!

Nintendo Wi-Fi online mode is great. Against Worldwide players, you can choose from 2-player standard with no items, 4-player standard with items, and push mode. Unfortunately, there are no other gameplay modes. You are ranked when playing standard mode.

I think one other major flaw with the WiFi is that the matching system. Unlike Mario Kart DS, there is no "rivals" option. I'm not sure how the match algorithm works, but it seems to match you up with anybody available. So, you could go up against a complete novice or a seasoned veteran. However, the ranking system seems to have been adjusted, so that if you beat a player ranked higher than you, your ranking will increase more than if you beat a player ranked closer to you.

The other flaw is that you and your opponent's do not get the same pieces in standard mode. If one views Tetris as a game of skill to see who can place their pieces more effectively, then there can't have a "fair" game if you and your opponents get different pieces. The hold box helps to reduce this effect, but one can never be sure if they won purely on skill or simply because you had the right pieces when you needed them.

Customization:
For a puzzle game, there is a lack of rules or settings customizations. In Nintendo Wi-Fi online, you can only play the 3 modes I mentioned before, and you can't select different rules. It would be nice to be able to change the number of look-ahead boxes, toggle the hold boxes on or off, or play until somebody completes X lines, for example. I have played 2-player local multiplayer, and there aren't many customization options. You can choose to have items turned on or off and sent a drop speed handicap, but that's it.

Gameplay:
The controls are responsive and simple, so there are no problems here. Everything reacts as it should, which is critical for puzzle games like Tetris.

I think the infamous "infinite block rotation" mentioned in the Gamespot review is blown totally out of proportion, much like technique of randomly wiggling the stylus on the playing board in Meteos. It's not a game-breaking technique, since spinning a piece repeatedly only serves to waste time as the piece will never settle. However, there is a small use for this technique: when pieces fall very fast, you may not have time to react and rotate the pieces. The infinite rotation will give you time to try to set the piece in the correct orientation, but it still requires some skill to accomplish.

The infinite block rotation does not work in multiplayer or online. Pieces will settle after a set amount of time, no matter how much rotating you do.

Replay:
Many puzzle games have good replay value. Tetris DS is no different. The ability to use one cartridge to have a multiplayer game is a great boon for DS players. Online Wi-Fi competition will continue to keep the replay value high, perhaps even more so than the other online Wi-Fi games, because Tetris is an easily accessible game and less dependent on fast reflexes than Mario Kart or Metroid Prime: Hunters do.

Conclusion:
The game is a great game. It's easily accessible to many people, and I only have a few minor quibbles with it that probably won't affect the majority players. It is recommended.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/06, Updated 03/27/06