Tetris becomes your World

Author's Rating:

Pros: Nice visuals, entrancing music, cool new modes and features, four players, customizable blocks!

Cons: Who could ask for more?

The Bottom Line: 
Any game with "Tetris" on it carries high expectations, and Tetris Worlds doesn't disappoint. I highly recommend buying this game. (also available on PS2 and Xbox)

Author's Review
Intro

In the beginning, there was no life. All was still; all was silent. Then, from out of the darkened sea, a single cube crawled onto the shore. He blinked his one big eye and got a glimpse of the world around him. The first Mino was born.

Fast forward a few hundred years. Minos are everywhere, and they even inhabit other planets. But the portals to those planets are dying. We need you, brave soldier, to play Tetris and open up the portals to the other worlds!!

Okay, so the story's a little flimsy, but hey, it's a puzzle game. They usually don't have a story at all, so don't they deserve an A for effort? ;)

These blocks are all sticky and stuff...

Tetris Worlds brings freshness to the basic Tetris game by adding new modes of play. In addition to Classic Tetris, you can also try your hand at Square Tetris, Cascade Tetris, Sticky Tetris, Hot Line Tetris, and Fusion Tetris. In addition, there is a Beginner Tetris for, well, beginners. So even the littlest of the bunch can get into the game.

Square Tetris was taken from the Nintendo-64 version of the game, and it involves making perfect 4x4 squares using the Tetris pieces. You get more points for making a "Pure" square (using 4 of the same piece) than from a "Combo" square (which is made using a combination of different types of pieces). This adds a new dimension to the game: rather than just making straight lines, now you get points for building blocks on the board.

The gravity of the situation

Cascade Tetris changes the rules a little by adding gravity to the board. This means that individual pieces can fall into cracks, rather than just hovering tantalizingly over empty squares (as what happens with classic tetris). If a piece falls on its own and clears a line, it's called a Cascade, and is worth extra points. Obviously, the more cascades you can get in a row, the bigger the bonus.

Sticky Tetris also has gravity, but it adds more complexity: pieces of the same color stick together, making it much more difficult to score cascades.

In Hot Line Tetris, the object is to clear lines on the specially-marked Hot Lines. The higher up the line, the more points it's worth.

Finally, in Fusion Tetris, the object is to fuse special "atom" pieces (made up of only 1 square each) to the glowing "fusion" piece at the bottom of the screen. The higher the level, the more pieces need to be fused. It should be noted that atom pieces never disappear, even when they are part of a line clear, which makes them ideal for making cascades.

A world of laughter, a world of fun

Each mode of play in single-player mode has its own World. For example - the Fusion Tetris world is covered in snow, while the Classic Tetris world is a lush jungle. You get the idea. The higher the "rank" you get, the more Minos you rescue from the dying portals, and the cooler the special effects look!

But wait! There's more!

In addition to new modes of play, Tetris Worlds adds a couple of cool new features available in all modes: Hard Drop and Piece Reserve. Hard Drop is just what it sounds like: it immediately sends your piece shooting toward the bottom of the board. So now when you push Down on the control pad, your piece simply moves faster than normal; it doesn't automatically hit the bottom.

That's all well and good, but Piece Reserve makes the game truly awesome. It allows you to save a piece for later use! No more waiting for that long piece to come along and make a Tetris; now you can save it and bring it out for special occasions, like the way your mom does with her nice cocktail dress.

Hey! Enough about my mom!

Sorry. Tetris Worlds also allows you to customize your Mino "character", complete with name, eye color, "skin" color (including different patterns that are applied to your blocks during play), and hair type. There's mohawks, pigtails, spiky hair, goatees, amish beards, you name it. The more you play, the more Mino customizations you unlock.

The more the merrier

Up to 4 players can play at once, making Tetris the get-together game it was meant to be (and was on the N64). In Classic Tetris, when you clear 2 or more lines, you add blocks to the bottom of your opponents' screens, making life more difficult for them. Feel free to cackle evilly.

Muhuhahahahaha!!!

There you go! When you're done cackling, enjoy the sublime techno tunes that accompany Tetris Worlds. Each planet (remember from before?) has its own soundtrack to accompany the special effects, while in multiplayer you can choose which track you want to listen to.

The multiplayer game also has an automatic handicap system. When you win a game, you go up a level, while the losers remain at the same level. Thus, over time, a more experienced gamer will be at, say, level 11, while a newbie might still be at level 3. In this way, each person has a more balanced shot at winning.

In the end

This game is packed with enough features to keep you coming back for more. "I must save the Minos!" becomes the rallying cry as you play level after level of Sticky Tetris, Square Tetris, and everything else. The feeling you get when Mayor Mino gives you the cube-shaped Key to the City makes it all worthwhile.