Tetris

"Addictive gameplay, you'll still be playing this when you're 80"

Graphics: 6/10
Not really much to judge here, all the things in the game are squares. All the pieces have some sort of design on them, I think that is a nice touch, and the rockets and dancers look good enough to make it worth playing for a few hours to get them. I especially like that there were three different types of rockets, even if one of them did look like a crayon, nothing horrible, nothing astounding, everything is as good as it needs to be, not much better.

Sound: 7/10
I love the music in this game, and you will too if you play it for as long as I have, Do Do Do. To say it simply, nothing is annoying, nothing is going to make you weep with tears of joy at the beauty this game is creating. The clearing lines sound effect is really great to hear as well, although I'm not that partial to the sound effect made when one piece lands on another, especially when it is going really low speed.

Story: 1/10
Ya... the problem with the story is that there isn't one, but don't worry, once you start playing you won't care. But, if you really do, you could mull over the ending cinematics of either a rocket taking off, or a group of men dancing, and think about what this could me. Could tetris be the fuel NASA uses to launch it rockets, maybe, do grown men need the inspiration of a difficult game of tetris to dance? Quite possibly. All in all, you can afford to excuse this games story.

Control: 9/10
Everything is responsive, and you feel certain that the piece is going to move if you tell it to move, it is pivotal, and it succeeds in what it does of course, that isn't to say it works 100% of the time, sometimes the piece doesn't go quite as far as you thought it would, and it can cost you. But all that is excusable, because more times than not, everything will work perfectly.

Gameplay: 10/10
This game is genius in its simplicity. Blocks made of four square pieces fall from ths sky, and you have to arrange them into lines to clear them away. So much strategy goes into it, and so much fun comes out of it. Every ten lines you clear the pace of the game increases, and pieces fall faster and faster, the more pieces you clear at a time the more points you get, and the faster the pieces fall the more points you get. There are two gameplay modes, type ! and Type B. Type A is straight tetris, no gimmicks or anything, just blocks falling from the sky and you clearing them away, prolong the inevitable. Type B is more goal based, you are charged with clearing a certain number of lines, before you lose, this is not that difficult by itself, but when you throw in the adjustable starting height of blocks and speed, it gets really crazy. The rewards system is great too, after clear away pieces for half a hour you are treated to a 20 second little cinematic where either a rocket takes off, or there are a bunch of men dancing. Awesome, all in all, gameplay makes this game worth Buying, playing, and getting addicted to.

Final Score: 9/10 (tilt)
Although the sound and graphics won't blow you away, the gameplay is perfect enough for it not to matter to you. All of this games flaws are forgivable, because the game is actually just that fun.

Summary
Do you want a fun, compelling game, where you will get addicted almost instantly? Then look no further than tetris. Do you want a graphicly stunning, amazingly detailed game, that will grab you with a heart wrenching story and never let go? Then pass this one up. To someone with some money to spare, just looking for a fun video game, look into this one, because it ut paces many console games in both complexity and fun.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/05