Tetris

"forget the 'improved' upgrades, normal tetris is all you need."

No matter how good the developer, how powerful the console, or how ugly and bizarre the new shapes they throw into the mix are, Tetris has never, and probably will never, be bettered.

Heralded as the most famous and addictive puzzle game of all time, the idea of tetris is insanely simple and even more insanely playable. Guide random shapes consisting of blocks down to the 'floor', make a complete horizontal line with no gaps and the line disappears, any shapes that happen to be resting on this line fall down, rather than floating in mid-air like some annoying puzzle games. Easy, no? Well is it at first, and once you've mastered it, you should be able to blast through level 9 and get that 'spectacular' ending.

The graphics do the job, they are never more than dull, but they never need to be. The introduction screen with Taj Mahal like buildings is quite nice (Is the game set in The east or something?) and the ending fireworks are spectacularly rewarding, but otherwise it's just some shaded shapes falling down.

The sound, classic is the word I think best describes it. There are three different tunes to listen to, plus the option of total silence (Why not just turn the sound down?) but the default song is as memorable and addictive as the game itself. I can't praise The musicians enough for coming up with what I consider to be the catchiest tune ever, and I'm not just talking about video games. There is also a noise when you rotate the blocks, just in case you wanted to know.

The gameplay is where many puzzlers promise, but only few truly deliver. Games like Mr driller are fine for a while and do have an air of addictiveness about them, but are more of a novelty, and this novelty inevitably wears off. So Tetris is one of the few puzzlers that has withstood around twenty years without going out of videogame fashion, as it were. Pointless remakes are made, integrating Cartoon characters dancing at the side or large un-useable shapes into the otherwise classic formula, but they fail time and time again. The main reason Tetris has become so phenomenally popular is because it is SO simple, a three year old could easily grip the concept within one go, and would more than likely get past level 1 straight away. Games like wetrix are harmless but add too many different challenges and problems to the format so as to make it fiddly and frustrating. nothing i have played is as instantly accessible and, indeed, as enjoyable as tetris. If I wrote my reviews with the category scoring format, then this would be the first ever section I gave a ten to.

Tetris will take a short amount of time to master. So it's probable that you will soon be whizzing through level nine and staring in awe at the purty fireworks. But once you've played once, you're hooked, you'll play again and again and again and..... ad nauseam, people have been playing for nearly twenty years now, and I can't see them stopping anytime soon. There is also a different mode to play, it's not half as fun, but it's worth experimenting with. It throws some random blocks on the screen making things a lot harder, you'll play and maybe like, but you'll go back to the normal mode. Also tetris is brilliant in multiplayer, for every two lines you simultaneously get, one is added to your opponent's screen, if you have a link cable this is the one you'll be playing the most.

So there you have it, one of the only puzzlers that has gone unscathed through crappy remakes without so much as a dent in it's reputation (Unlike bomberman, who's gone kicking and screaming through dull N64 incarnations). A classic in every sense of the word and an immortal one at that, I can't think of ANY game that's more enjoyable and as instantly addictive. I'd recommend it to people that hadn't played it now, but I doubt there's any people like that left.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/09/01, Updated 06/09/01