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Reviews » Tetris DS [DS]

When it was announced earlier this year, I was completely convinced that there would be no possible way for Nintendo to screw up Tetris DS. I got slightly concerned when I heard about the Nintendoification it was going to be going through, but remained fully optimistic. Nintendo had never personally screwed up a Tetris game, sure, they've published some pretty horrible abominations like the Tetris games for the Virtualboy, but they never actually developed a flop themselves. So I fully expected this one to be no different, especially since it was going to have multiplayer and furthermore have WFC multiplayer. Luckily for me and everyone else, the game turned out just as wonderful as I expected.

So. Tetris DS. It's just Tetris, right? Well, yeah. But it's NES-themed, and has several alternative play modes new to Tetris DS. Before getting into the different modes, let's talk about the changes throughout all assorted modes of the game. First some customizable changes: ghost piece and hard drop. Ghost piece is a translucent guide-piece showing how the piece you've currently got active would end up if you dropped it right then. It's sorta like Tetris training-wheels. You can turn this off if you're hardcore. You can also turn off hard drop, if you're up for the classic Tetris feel. Hard drop just immediately drops the piece you've got and locks it.

Now for stuff that can't be turned off. First up there is the piece preview. Tetris games have over-time started to include a preview of your piece queue. Back in the day we just knew what our next piece was going to be, but over time that piece has gone from one, to three, to five, to now in Tetris DS a whopping six pieces. Tetris DS also brings in another two features that've been around in some of the more-recent incarnations of Tetris, hold and infinite spin. Hold lets you save a piece for when you need it. You get one swap per piece. So if you get a line, you can swap that to your hold slot and bring your currently held piece into the field, but you can't then swap your line back into the field until you get a new piece out. Infinite spin is the depressingly easy-to-abuse ability to just keep mashing the rotate button and never have the the piece lock. As lame as this feature is, it's pretty much required to get to the later levels, as once you pass 250-300 lines, pieces drop almost immediately.

Some Tetris purists may see these changes as unwelcome changes to perfection. I disagree. I tried going back to standard GB Tetris and even Tetris DX after spending a good amount of time with Tetris DS, and I just don't know how I survived before. Sure, Tetris DS has some problems with being too easy thanks to things like infinite spin and hold, but it just feels much more slick. So anyway, with that explained, lets get into the modes.

Standard mode has several sub-modes: Marathon, Line-clear and Vs CPU. Marathon is straight-up Tetris. It has one of the few "goals" in the game which is to hit 200 lines. Once you hit 200 lines in Marathon mode you unlock the Endless Mode modifier that lets you go on and play forever. Line Clear lets you set the level (speed) and height (number of scrambled lines), with the goal of clearing 25 lines. Vs CPU is exactly that, five difficulties of standard Vs Tetris against Computer opponents, the fifth of which is clearly a precognitive bastard. The first 10 levels of standard mode, comprising the first 100 lines of gameplay, are Mario themed, generally based on Mario 1 and 3. The specific theme changes every 10 levels, the music changes from one remix to another and the scenario being acted out on the top screen changes level or game or something. Past level 10, the theme changes to a different NES game, ranging from The Legend of Zelda to Metroid to super-obscure Japanese fighting games and finally ending up on Tetris. Tetris-Tetris. Classic music and a space shuttle and everything.

Classic mode is where I spend most of my time in Tetris DS. If I want to get myself straight into The Zone, and have some time to kill, it's all about Endless Mode, where I've managed to break the line-counter (it stops counting at 999 lines). If I want some quick action, Vs CPU is an easy choice, as rounds tend to go by pretty quick.

The other modes all have single themes. Push mode is based around Donkey Kong. It's a purely Vs Mode where you and the computer share a playing field, connected at the bottom. If you clear a line, the field shifts down one line, apart from clearing the line. The idea is to, through building up your end and clearing lines, push your opponent off the top of his screen.

Touch Mode is themed around Balloon Fight, and has two sub modes. In both modes you're given a screen full of Tetrominoes that you can manipulate by dragging them around with the stylus or tapping them to rotate. In Tower Mode you're presented with a tower of Tetrominoes that stretches far off the top of both screens. Your goal is to drag and flip them around to clear lines, eventually bringing a cage full of balloons to the ground level. Harder difficulties remove the ability to rotate pieces, so you're left only able to drag them left or right. Touch Puzzle Mode has the same kind of setup, but works like Columns puzzle mode, where you have to finish a specific goal like "clear all these pieces in a two-move chain" by dragging the pieces around.

Puzzle Mode, not to be confused with Touch Puzzle Mode, is a Yoshi's Cookie-themed mode where you're presented with a partially-played screen of Tetris and have to pick from limited pieces to clear the screen. I'm not a huge fan of this mode, because gee, we already have ONE puzzle mode, and this one requires me to click around on the touchpad a lot. The other Puzzle mode is far better.

Mission Mode is themed after The Legend of Zelda, and is sorta like Simon-Says Tetris. Up on the top half of the screen you'll be given a goal to accomplish, like "clear two lines with an S-shaped Tetris Block" or "clear three lines with an L-shaped Tetris Block" or "Clear two lines separated by another two lines using a Straight Tetris Block". This mode can be quite fun, as you have to switch back and forth between playing normal fast-paced Tetris, but also have a time-limit to accomplish some arbitrary goal, and sometimes the goals don't gel with normal Tetris play, like the ones that require you to foul-up two lines.

Catch Mode is probably the least-like-Tetris mode, and is based around Metroid. In Catch Mode blocks fall from above, and you have to catch them with a movable block on the bottom screen. Instead of being able to rotate blocks, you rotate the field that the blocks get stuck to when they lock. The goal is to get a 4x4 or greater perfect field, when you do this it will glow and eventually explode, vaporizing any falling blocks or metroids in it's way. When it finishes, any blocks that were part of your field, but not part of the square will squish in and reorganize, and you'll start again. The problems come as blocks start dropping faster. If you rotate through a block or let a block pass off the bottom screen, you'll lose energy. Lose it all and you die.

Say what you want about the extra modes. There's a very good chance you won't like all of them. Hell, you might not like any of them. The fact remains that the Normal Mode is so good that it just doesn't matter. The same thing goes for the Nintendo branding. If you don't like the fact that Mario is plastered all over the game, tough. It really isn't that big of a deal, because the gameplay is so unbelievably solid. If you're letting the game bother you, you're probably looking for reasons to not enjoy the game.

These are all, of course, just part of the game. It really starts to shine in multiplayer. For local multiplayer, you've got Standard Mode (which can have up to 10 players, and you can pick teams, and select items), Mission mode (where only the first person to complete the mission gets points), and Push mode which is normal Push mode. For standard mode, even players without Tetris DS can join in using DS Download & Play. Multiplayer here works a lot like Tetrinet. If you get a line, special blocks show up. If you clear a line that has a special block, you can get an item. Some items are defensive, like Shells, which clear the two lowest lines for you, or Super Stars that make all your new blocks lines for a short period of time. Most items are offensive, like Boos that hide all your opponents' block queues for a short time, or bananas that will scramble a random opponent's screen. Furthermore, like normal multiplayer Tetris, if you clear more than one line, that number of lines minus one will be sent to opponents. The only thing that sucks about sent lines in Tetris DS is that they aren't sent scrambled. So if you get a Tetris, and whoever gets those lines gets lucky and has an opening to them, they can send it right back.

On Nintendo's WiFi Connection, you have three options for multiplayer, Standard 1-on-1 with no items, Standard 4-player with items, and Push mode 1-on-1. Pick-up games are really easy to get a full game of four on, and it's even easier to find an opponent for 1-on-1. In all three modes, WFC will track your win/loss ratio, and wins or losses will be reflected in your overall Tetris Score. Initially, all players are given 5000 Tetris Points. If you win a match, you'll get some of your opponents' points. If you lose a match, you'll be giving up some points. Number of points is based on the difference between the points involved. So if you beat some guy with 2000 points more than you, you'll get a ton of points. If he beats you, he won't get many at all because you're obviously a loser and that would be mean. In random games all your play speeds are the same. If you do a Friends match, you can alter your handicap before starting, which changes how fast your blocks move. This is nice, because it means I can make my game move ridiculously fast, so Andy has some chance in hell at beating me when I play against him.

I really like Tetris DS' multiplayer. It perfectly fits how I want console multiplayer games to work. I want to be able to jump right into a game and not have to wait. And if some guy drops, I want to be able to turn right around and find some new group to beat up. Furthermore, I enjoy that I'm rewarded instantly not only to see how I'm doing in total wins but also in Wins v. Losses.

To me, Tetris DS really has it all. It has simplistic but still challenging single player, where I can have things to spend 5 minutes playing or an hour playing, depending on my mood. For multiplayer, it's easy to jump into a quick match or two, and it's easy switch between small games or large games and not have to worry about everyone running away immediately for whatever reason compels people to run away from games before they start. It has everything I could possibly want from Tetris, and executes everything in an amazingly flawless manner. I think I still prefer Tetrinet-style multiplayer when it comes to massive Tetris tournaments, but it's not easy to jump into a game of Tetrinet, so Tetris DS still has a clear niche to fill in my busy gaming schedule.

Screenshots © Nintendo

Tetris DS - DS

Presentation

I'm not sure of how to make Tetris look better than it does in Tetris DS, but I'm leaving that extra point off just in case someone ever finds a way.

Gameplay

Giving it 8.5 since there are still some things that bug me about the gameplay, and how some of the modes are boring or irrelevant. The core modes and multiplayer are amazing, though.

Replayability

It's Tetris. Do you think you're ever going to stop playing Tetris? I'm certainly not.

Value

Some of you may say "Tetris? Again? And for $30? I already have five versions of Tetris for seven other platforms, why do I need it again?" The answer is wireless online multiplayer. If you're not going to believe me, believe the thousands of people playing Tetris DS online at any given time.

Overall

Everything I could ever want from Tetris and then some.