 |
| OVERALL RATING |
3.5 |
| Presentation |
 |
3.5 |
| Control |
 |
4.0 |
| Gameplay |
|
3.5 |
| Fun factor |
|
3.5 |
| User Rating |
 |
3.0 |
 |
Posted: March 01, 2007
Tetris Mania puts a new spin on the classic puzzle game for those of you who feel the need to change up the experience every once in a while. (Though I don’t know who would but I guess there are a few of you out there.) It offers three new game variants, the likes of which might cause you to leave the original version. (Ya, right.)
In Cascade, the goal is to score as many points as possible as in the familiar game, but while also generating cascades of like-colored tetriminos. In essence, while one line is created and cleared, as the remaining pieces fall and land, if they land on a like-colored tetriminos, those pieces will also be removed. It takes a little more careful planning, but the result is plenty of bonus points.
With Sticky, you must only be concerned with clearing the row at the bottom. The caveat here is that the tetriminos are sometimes comprised of different colors in each shape and therefore, whenever it comes in contact with another similarly-colored piece, it will form one bigger piece, making it more difficult to fill in the crevices needed to clear a row.
The final variation is Fusion where the goal is to activate the required number of atom blocks by connecting them to the fusion block or to another activated atom. The number of atom blocks needed to activate increases with each level. This variation as well requires careful planning and strategy and is possibly the hardest of all three.
Each of these variants is then found in two modes, Mania and Challenge where the game continues until you lose, or a three-minute timer runs out, respectively. So basically, you can play Tetris six different ways. The core game play is retained, but the difficulty is increased because of the new objectives.
Like all Tetris variations, Mania is controlled easily and is presented in its familiar form, however a slight disappointment is that the all-too familiar music soundtrack is not used, only sound effects. Whether you care about this or not is completely up to you but know that if you want to experience Tetris in a brand new way, this game might just be for you.
