Tetris DX

"Good ol' Tetris..."

Sweet, sweet addiction. Tetris comes to the GBC, looking nearly perfect and good for hours and hours of fun.

Pros:
Graphics- The game pieces, the colors… none of it is straining to the eye, providing more playing time. (Of course, you should rest every once in a while, but I’m not your mom.) The pieces look smooth and the movement works well; for as long as I’ve played this game I have not seen any glitches or quirks.

Replayability- Tetris is one of THE most addicting video games ever made. (Pong comes close, but for now the fully colored Tetris takes the gold.) Since its days in the arcade, Tetris has become one of the most popular games for the GameBoy, computer, any handheld console, etc. And for good reason too. The concept is very easy to grasp and the controls, well, there aren’t that many buttons to choose from on a GameBoy. As soon as you start playing, from the very first time to the fifth hour, you’ll keep playing… and playing… and playing…

Gameplay- Well, as stated, you have the D-pad (left and right for the pieces) and the A and B buttons to rotate the piece clockwise or counterclockwise. There’s the Start button to pause the game, and that’s it. Simple, right? That’s all there is; just pick up and play.

Innovation- It’s surprising what can be done to a simple little game like Tetris. Tetris DX offers different modes like marathon (exactly as it sounds: just keep going until the screen fills up), vs. (versus computer or another person who has played and created a profile in your game). The AI “creates” an opponent based on someone’s stats and their “playing style” (single lines versus Tetris –four lines at a time-). As your opponent clears lines, lines fill up on your screen. There are also different difficulty levels, speeds, and obstacles such as “junk” blocks on the bottom that you have to work to clear.

Cons:
These are rather minor details, and they don’t take much away from the game, but they’re here, nonetheless.

Sound- The music… is not something you’d go to a concert or buy the soundtrack for, but then, when are the songs for a GameBoy title ever great? As with most other handheld games, you would probably be listening to a CD player or something. Not a huge deal.

Animations- By animations I mean the little fireworks display after you hit a Gameover. These are nice, for the first ten or twenty times, but after succumbing to the addictiveness (not a bad thing, mind you) of the game these unskippable mini-films get rather tedious. Again, not the largest worry, but just so you know.

Tetris and the GBC: the perfect combination.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/12/02, Updated 03/12/02