Tetris 3DS review

Made2Game Tetris 3DS review score: 7 out of 10
Formats: 3DS
Format reviewed: 3DS
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Hudson

Before Brain Training or Wii Sports Bowling leagues in retirement homes there was Tetris, the game that made your mother buy a Gameboy for herself back in the early 1990's. How is she going to cope with Tetris when it’s presented in 3D, includes online play and has Augmented Reality features? More importantly, what can the Nintendo 3DS add to Tetris, a game that regularly has a spot in those ‘10 best Videogames Of All Time’ lists?

Colourful, clear, good looking graphics for a start, with a nice selection of backgrounds that show off the 3D effects of the little handheld, which is a nice feature because although you are able to tilt the playing area in 3D space (by pausing the game at any time and using the thumb stick), you’ll mainly be wanting to lay the 3DS flat in order to play properly. There’s a top quality selection of music, too, with both remixed versions of classic tracks and new ones. It could easily be compiled and sold as a full game soundtrack. We’d buy it.

We’ve chosen “smug dance 1” for our Mii. There is only 1 “help, I’m failing” expression to choose from though…

Gameplay wise, as well as containing the classic single player Marathon Mode (blocks keep dropping and speed up every time you clear 10 lines) and the multiplayer Battle Mode made famous by the Gameboy edition (clearing lines on your screen inserts blocks at the bottom of your opponents screen, pushing them upwards and ever closer to death), Tetris 3DS introduces some additional modes, many designed to take advantage of the 3D functionality in some way. Or at least that’s what you’d hope…

There are nine new games in Party Mode. While most of these games still use a flat play area with a 3D background and set you different goals, two of them alter your angle of view to utilize the 3D. The best of these is Tower Climber, in which the flat plain is replaced by a cylindrical tower. The player rotates the tower as they place blocks in an attempt to create stairs for a little stick man to climb, the rather obvious aim being to reach the top of the tower. He also collects hearts as he goes. Tower Climber uses the classic Tetris model to create a different puzzle that requires different thinking and is quite cute into the bargain.

Up to 8 player battles work online, in local and download play. The “Screen Swap” item pwns in all of them. 

Hudson obviously knew Tower Climber was the best of their new modes as it is also used as one of the two Augmented Reality modes. AR Climber is best played with a poster-sized reprint of your AR card in the middle of a large and well lit empty space, possibly a school playground on a sunny day when nobody else is at school. In these ideal conditions the game becomes something rather wonderful, the AR tower protruding from the card and your little man scurrying ever higher up its stairs. Outside of these ideal conditions, however it can be a bit fiddly and will involve you falling over furniture and losing the AR card on your 3DS screen. Oh, and best to turn off the 3D while playing it unless you have a steady cam holder strapped onto your body for your 3DS.

What about the online? No game can be complete nowadays without some fun online multiplayer and Tetris 3DS doesn’t fail to deliver on this front. The Online Battle Mode supports up to eight people at a time and in addition to the classic battle play you might be expecting it throws in a few new ‘items’, which when collected and activated can be used as defenses or weapons against your opponents. You can practise against a CPU opponent before attempting online domination, and this is highly recommended, at least until you figure out what each of the pick up items are and how to use them properly.

Tower Climb is the best new mode & works in AR too. Squashing the cute stick man doesn’t give you bonus points but is very funny.

Still, the CPU won’t prepare you fully for battling up to seven other humans. Humans are much more sneaky and come up with evil tactics, the most prevalent of which seemed to be collecting the Switch Screens item (which allows you to select an opponent with whom to trade play screens with) and then filling up your own screen to a point where it is impossible to play, at which point you use your item to jump onto somebody’s nice clean play area, leaving them to suddenly about to die without any chance or warning. It feels cheap and annoying the first few times it happens to you but once you figure out what is happening and start doing it to other people, it gets kind of fun. Some of the items make you blow into the 3DS’ microphone, which makes you look and feel silly not to mention it making you light headed.

The central core of Tetris 3DS is still a compelling and addictive game experience and Tetris 3DS has the best graphics and sound of any version of Tetris. However, the functionality of the 3DS is severely underused. Yes your Mii dances and there is an option to turn Spotpass on, but the online is patchy at best (we were connected to a working game 50% of the times we tried) and the vast majority of the additional mini games hold very little long term interest and will serve only to confuse your mum or gran.

 

Words by Simon Downs (Twitter: @SDDowns)

 

Extra review bit: Would your mum/gran like Tetris 3DS?
To find out how your mum will cope with it we got out Made2Game Gran™ and locked her in a room with nothing but a 3DS and a copy of Tetris 3DS. After first getting lost on the 3DS home screen (she attempted a system update at one point) Made2Game Gran™ eventually found and started Tetris 3DS after 5 minutes. Once there she quickly got confused by playing one of the party games, that wasn’t the marathon mode she had been hoping for. After 2 games she realized her mistake and tried to head back to the main menu. This caused problems as she didn’t seem able to understand how to use the buttons to control the menu screens and was using her finger on the touch screen (and the 3D screen occasionally too) to try and navigate.

We were a bit disappointed in Made2Game Gran™ at this point as she is a regular DS player and we thought she might have been able to cope a bit better than this. We stepped in and set her up a marathon game (which was the only thing she was interested in trying) and offered to turn the 3D screen on. She didn’t like that at all and the 3D was turned firmly to the off position for the rest of the session after it made her eyes “go funny”. This was possibly something to do with her bifocal glasses…

Once she got going Made2Game Gran™ was a bit of a machine and quickly rattled off some respectable high scores, the highlight of which was an 84 lines game after which Made2Game Gran™ decided it was time she put on the Sunday roast because “the boys will be back from football soon”. It was a Tuesday and her boys are now 34 and 37 years old, one is a graphic designer (married with 2 children) and the other is a librarian who mainly looks after their 3 disabled kids. Neither still live with her, in fact since they sold her to us they haven’t even visited her at our offices. Made2Game Gran™ went back in the cupboard we keep her in until we need to use her again.

Made2Game Gran™ Quotes: “”Oh bum”, “Oh you stupid thing”, “Oh, I’ve mucked it up. I’ve had it now, I need a long one!” and “Ooh, I don’t like the 3D when it moves…” 

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