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Tetris Worlds
by Hector Cortez
Tuesday, June 17 2003
Tetris Worlds comes to the Xbox with Xbox Live compatibility.
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Title:
Tetris Worlds
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Platform:
Xbox
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Publisher:
THQ |
Developer:
Blue Planet Software |
#
of Players: 1 - 2 |
Genre:
Puzzle
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Origin:
United States
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Expected
Release:
June 17, 2003 |
Grapevine:
The first version of Tetris was available in 1987 for the Nintendo Entertainment System. |
Believe it or not, this Tetris game has a story to it... Yeah, go ahead and take a deep breath because it's a doozie. Something about Tetrions (gateways to planets) and Minos (species found on planet Hadar 4) and your mission is to evacuate the Minos and send them to six other planets. Yeah, horrible story.... Tetris doesn't need a story!
So you all probably know how to play Tetris right... 60 million sales, so you must know unless you are a new-born or have been living under a rock for the past 20 years. The basic concept is to arrange falling blocks into lines which then dissapear. You continue to do this until you make that one wrong move which ruins everything and it's Game Over for you. No worries though, there is a mode called Learning Tetris that will teach you how to play!
Something new that is introduced in Tetris Worlds is different forms of playing Tetris. There are Tetris, Square Tetris, Cascade Tetris, Sticky Tetris, Hot-Line Tetris, and Fusion Tetris. There isn't much difference in the other forms, it is still the same concept of clearing lines.
Ever wanted to play Tetris online against your friends? Sure you did! Well now the fine people at THQ have gone and added full Xbox Live support to Tetris Worlds. Play people from all over the country and keep track of your stats... will you be the next Tetris Master? Playing on Live is a breeze and the experience is enjoyable. Nothing like relaxing with a nice game of Tetris after you've been playing Ghost Recon for hours.
You'd figure that Tetris would be the easiest game to control... and it is but it has gotten a bit more 'complicated'... by complicated I mean there are more things to do. Of course the obvious is the D-Pad and Left Thumbstick which are used to move and drop your pieces. The Y button is used to 'Hard Drop' your piece. The B and X buttons are used to rotate your pieces counter clockwise while the A button is used to rotate your pieces clockwise. Last but not least, the Left and Right Triggers are used to Hold your pieces.
As far as visuals go, they get the job done. I suppose there really isn't much that you can do to make a bunch of blocks look prettier. I did like the new 3D backgrounds though. They'll vary from volcano like mountains to a forest and what is cool about them is that they actually 'evolve' meaning the longer you play the more they will change. For example, trees will grow! Overall, nothing special in the visual department... but you can't really expect bump-mapping, pixel shading, etc. in a Tetris game. So for what it is, it's A-OK.
Same goes for the audio. Not much you can do to make blocks dropping sound incredible. The background music is annoying and I didn't notice any of the original Tetris songs! A plus for the audio that really adds to the experience is being able to use your own soundtracks! Nothing like playing Tetris to the tunes of The White Stripes. :-) Overall, sound is nothing special but the custom soundtrack option saves it from being crap.
Overall, Tetris Worlds is a great game for the awesome price tag of $20 or how about free? Yup, you can get the full game free if you are new to Xbox Live and buy the new Starter Kit! Tetris is one of if not the greatest game ever made, and now with online support, Tetris enters a new generation. Great value for the price.
--- Hector Cortez
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