Tetris DS

Wednesday, June 28, 2006 » gaming thought

So yesterday I finally managed to claw my way into the Tetris DS global top 100 with a rating of 7581. Unfortunately, now I'm too scared to go back online with it because I know I'll inevitably mess up against some 6000-rating player and drop like 500 points. So, in the Tetris-deprived interim, I'll offer a few thoughts on this latest version of the classic game.

Tetris DS is probably the best WiFi-enabled DS game at the moment. Mario Kart is great if you're playing with three friends, but that can be hard to coordinate. On the other hand, getting into a simple 1v1 Tetris match is so quick it can be dangerous—many times I'd start it up while, I dunno, waiting for a big download or something to finish, and before I noticed it'd be half an hour later. For people who aren't prone to Tetris addiction, it's a great addition to the DS's casual gaming, pick-up-and-play library. The only thing that would improve it would be if you could start an online match from anywhere instead of being limited to wi-fi hotspots.

I thought gameplay additions like the ghost piece and infinite spin would ruin things, but their effects haven't bothered me. The ghost piece actually dramatically speeds up the game. I'm still undecided on whether the hold piece belongs in a Tetris game, but I'm leaning towards yes; it finally provides some countermeasure to being dealt an endless series of those horrible Z- and S-pieces. My main complaint about how the gameplay's changed (since the 1989 Gameboy version, anyway) is that the rapidly increasing gravity makes the single player mode pretty stupid and infinite-spin-reliant after about 10 levels, but that's easily forgiven thanks to the addictive online mode.