Tetris Worlds

"Tetris, que pasa?"

Tetris Worlds

Tetris is the great-grandpappy of all great puzzle games. It's legacy includes a generation of people who instantly experience carpal tunnel syndrome from listening to it's theme song.

I found this in my local Walmart's bargain bin...and decided to take a chance. My thoughts were that "They can't screw up Tetris - can they?" Another thought intruded as I recognized the THQ logo..."What if they managed to screw it up?" My logic circuits argued for fifteen minutes, and then I gave in and brought it home.

THQ tries to refresh gamer's memories with a new version of Tetris, aptly named Tetris Worlds...let's get on with the review, shall we?

Story - 1/10

There is no story in the gameboy advance version of this game. Upon playing the PC version, I found a primitive story attached to this Tetris game. The Minos (the blocks with eyes) need you to terraform planets by powering the process by clearing lines in game.

I really don't understand why Tetris Worlds on the gba had to be storyless. It just takes a few kilobytes of text to explain, and a couple more minutes of simple programming.

Gameplay - 4/10

Six modes and six different ways of getting your Tetris fix. Or so I thought. Each mode somehow has roots in another. Fusion tetris has roots in Cascade tetris and vice versa. Fusion tetris's gameplay quirk is that same colored blocks melt together to form a huge block. Cascade tetris has gravity, and the unsupported blocks fall into gaps. Fusion tetris also has gravity, so it feels like THQ made some redundant decisions about gameplay.

Graphics - 3/10

Who said Tetris needed more color and more animations? Tetris, being a game of reflexes doesn't benefit from having flashy backgrounds to distract from the action. And yet, this is what THQ did. For example, in the forest background...a tree starts growing suddenly. It's extremely distracting, and can cause a few gamers to misplace the block they are currently manipulating.

Sound - 3/10

It must be a Pavlovian response, but I really miss the sound of getting or deleting four lines at once. Getting a tetris used to be rewarded with a great "zoop" sound effect. Now, the word TETRIS is popped up onto the left hand side of the playing field.

Tetris's catchy theme music remains, but it transmuted by a techno beat. Ah, well...at least you can choose what song title to listen to.

Control - 8/10

Controls are the same for each Tetris game. You turn a block by pressing A or B, force a block down with the DOWN directional button, and press UP for a instant drop. Easy, and the response time between buttons presses is really fast.

Multiplayer - 5/10

Could be better. Two players only...but the gba link cables can afford to add up to four! Gosh darn it, I was so looking forward to challenging four of my buddies to a game of Tetris.

Upon booting up the game in multiplayer mode...I found that it was halfway decent. The blocks fall at an reasonable rate, and competitive Tetris is always fun. However, the same problems that plague the single player experience are still there, but the fun of utterly defeating an opponent with a rain of blocks is apparent.

Final Thoughts - 3/10

No, please don't even think of renting this! Trust me on this one. THQ didn't do a half-***ed job on this, and you'd be throwing your money in the drink if you purchase this. Say it with me "Save money to play better games!"

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 04/17/06