I'm not nearly as good at Tetris as I thought.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/39093/tetris-ultimate-review
Tetris seems to switch hands every few years. In 2011, Hudson Soft developed Tetris Axis, a game I liked well enough, and before that, Nintendo published the wonderful but short-lived Tetris DS. Tetris Ultimate is an Ubisoft product, and its focus is on competitive online Tetris. Did you know Tetris could be competitive? Not only can it be competitive, but people who are NOT me are incredibly good at it! Previously, I’d been under the impression that my Tetris skills were pretty good, but now I’m convinced I’m the worst Tetris player ever.
Tetris Ultimate features plenty of offline single-player modes that provide a twist on classic Tetris gameplay. Along with the standard Endless Mode, you can try and get to Level 15 (in which blocks basically appear directly on the top of the stack), clear 40 lines in the shortest amount of time, get the highest score you can in 3 minutes, and take part in some interesting battle modes which I’ll talk about in a minute. There are brutal but unique Challenge modes that unlock the more you play, too. The first two alone are virtually impossible: fixed-position Tetris, where you can’t rotate the blocks, and Invisible Tetris, which is exactly what it sounds like. These modes are not fun, but they do offer interesting, masochistic challenges for the extremely skilled Tetris player.
But it’s the online play that’s going to draw you in the most. Depending on the mode, you can play with up to seven other people and even set up communities, like in Mario Kart 7. Connecting is very simple—you get online and join a random game type. Unfortunately, for all of the multiplayer I played, 90% of it took place in normal Battle mode. Nobody was playing in other modes, and I quickly learned that I suck at online Battle mode. It’s a little like Puzzle League: clearing lines and getting combos sends junk blocks to your opponent’s screen. Turns out, everybody is better than me at competitive Tetris.
Thankfully, as long as you’re connected to Wi-Fi, you will have constant access to a Friends List leaderboard, which gives you both something to strive for in the single-player modes and also something to cry about once you realize that your friends are much better than you at Tetris. It even gives you a “next score to beat” notification, like Geometry Wars 2 did. It’s satisfying and not as soul-crushing as competitive online Tetris.
The graphics are, you know, Tetris-appropriate. I’m happy that the Tetraminos are made up of individual blocks and aren’t solid shapes as they were in Tetris Worlds from 2002. They look a little bit like the NES “bubble blocks,” which I appreciate. The music is not fantastic—bizarre techno-remixes of classic Tetris themes. The music in the Game Boy game is better than this.
If Tetris is your thing, this is a great package, and the online component—especially the leaderboards—are welcome and robust. I just wish people were playing more game types than Battle mode. While it doesn't offer the zany game types or interesting visuals of Tetris DS, this is a better offering than Tetris Axis by far.
Topic: Tetris Ultimate Review (Read 1386 times)
