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A preview of Tetris DS
Block rotating Heaven



Info:
System: Nintendo DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: Up to 10
WiFi: Yes!
Single Cart Link: Yes
Microphone: Probably not.
Release dates: Japan: Apr 27 06 North America: 20 Mar 06 Europe: Apr 21 06


Now, everybody’s heard of Tetris right? If you haven’t, stop reading this, find out about it, then come back and start reading this again.
Right, now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s just have a think. Tetris is one of the most popular video games of all time, but its sequels generally fail to impress the critics. And that is a cause for concern, although Tetris DS certainly looks like a great game, there’s no saying that it will be any good, and they’ve added so much to it, it may even lose a ‘Tetris-y’ feel, especially for those who wasted away their lives on the original. Although with six game modes including a ‘Classic’ mode there’s not much chance of that, and the only complaint I can see is that some may find the controls awkward.
Anyway, let’s get onto the game modes themselves.


In case you can’t tell this is the title screen.

Standard Mode.


Yay, videos of Mario levels to distract you.

Pure, unadulterated Tetris. Well, the game play is, but it’s been given a Mario theme. Which, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the videos of Mario levels could prove to be a distraction. This will probably be the mode you’ll be playing the most. Especially if you can find nine friends with a DS, then you can go head-to-head against them.


Wouldn’t this be fun? Good luck finding 9 people with a DS who want to play.

Of course, if you don’t have any friends with a DS then you can always play against the CPU.

Will a CPU match give Tetris masters any challenge?

Or even play against three other people via WiFi.

WiFi Tetris should be brilliant, but will we see any lag?


Touch Mode


In Touch Mode you get a lovely Balloon Fighter theme.

Now, this mode does seem rather interesting. Basically, what you do is clear lines by moving blocks with the stylus into the empty spaces to destroy them. At the top of the blocks is a cage of balloons. If you can get rid of the pieces and make the cage hit the ground, then the cage will open and the balloons will be set free. In the early levels you can just tap the blocks to rotate them, and so can get rid of them pretty easily.
However, as the levels get harder you can’t just do this, you need to carefully plan. Fortunately you don’t have any time limit, so you can take your time planning your moves.


An example of one of the… uh… harder levels.


Push Mode


Guess what theme this level has.

In this mode players must clear lines to try to push the other player to the edge of the screen. If you clear two lines at one time the screen moves down and pushes your opponent into the ‘red zone. You can either play against someone you know over single cart play, the CPU or over WiFi. This seems as if it will be a very frantic game mode, and could with a good push or two matches could be over pretty quickly


It’s like tug-of-war in Tetris! Although it’s more like push-of-war...


Catch Mode


Metroid and Tetris. Metris?

What you do in this mode is manoeuvre the block up through the level, while collecting Tetris blocks. You also have to avoid enemies, which, if they collide with you will deplete your energy. Sometimes the block will become unmanageable, unless you can form a solid square which will explode and recover your energy.


Unlike in most games, explosions recover your health.


Puzzle Mode


Styled after Yoshi’s cookie...

Well, here, you have a set of blocks on the top screen, and on the bottom screen you have a selection of Tetris blocks. What you have to do is eliminate all the blocks using each Tetris block only once. Sounds simple, right? It’s not, especially in the later on levels. There are 200 levels here.


Who knew that Mario was a chef as well as a plumber and a Doctor?


Mission Mode


Zelda themed levels and no Tingle in sight? Yay!
This is a pretty simple mode. Just do what it says on the top screen. E.g. Use a ‘L-Block’ to clear 2 lines at once.
Mind you, you can bet your life that it’ll get much more complicated than that.
If you don’t complete a level within the time limit the game hands out a penalty and fills part of the puzzle with grey blocks.
And there’s also a two player mode, where the winner of a level gets the points, but the loser has to quickly adjust to the next puzzle.


Well, this is a hard level [/sarcasm]

Summary.

I think we can safely say that this will be a winner. I mean, even if you don’t like the other modes WiFi Tetris will be a good reason to get this game. Expect a review in April.

-master K
Predicted Score: 85%



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Author: emkay
This page was uploaded on 06/03/06

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