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The High Stakes World of Competitive Tetris
03.28.06 / 11:44PM / Joe
 One of the nice things about playing Tetris DS online is that nobody is out there cheating at it. I mean, what could you do, set it to only give you the long pieces?
Tetris DS is actually about the easiest version of Tetris I've ever played anyway. Not only do you get the "ghost piece" function, which obliterates any need to shift your penetrating Tetri-gaze anywhere away from the crucial bottom half of the dropfield, but you also get to see the next six pieces that are coming. Not to mention the hold feature, where you can stash a piece for use later. I don't know when these ideas became standard, but it sure beats the original B&W Game Boy bust-yer-ass-blind Tetris. I hope Nintendo threw another token check at Alexey.
It's the usual weird stab at online play though. Again we have to endure Nintendo's Safety At All Costs friend code setup, where even if I play a bunch of great games against a complete stranger, it's impossible for me to tag him as a friend to seek him out tomorrow. And there's only three online game modes, none of which are customizable. 2P Standard, 4P Standard With Items, and 2P Push. Why can't I choose to play 2P with items? Why can't I choose a gleeful Mario character as an avatar to stand by my board and needlessly animate? Why not 3P?
My Tetris DS friend code:
6 4 0 7 3 1
5 6 6 3 4 3
Tetris supports a longer friend list than Animal Crossing, so email me if you want to friend up.
As you may know, Tetris DS is overloaded with NES retro imagery, so much so that they could have titled it Mario Tetris and you wouldn't bat an eye. Nobody gets as much use out of their 1985 sprite catalog as Nintendo. It's easy window dressing for a handful of new ways to play Tetris, but at the least it's more fun to look at than all those dreary Cold War USSR backdrops you had on all the other Tetri back in the day. I was glad to NOT see the stinking Kremlin on the bootup screen, but I miss those three classic tunes from the hit-making GB era.
By the way, that rogue Tetrimino picture is from Mega64, a video game skit show. It's amateurish and uneven, but full of video game refs. Though I did enjoy their new Katamari skit. |
