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Tetris Plus - Jaleco by Brian Kennedy([email protected])
Lowdown:
So I'm a Tetris die-hard. That said, I was disappointed by Tetris Plus.
I would only recommend this game to those of you who, like me, *have* to
have a Tetris game on your consoles. IMO the NES version is much better,
and if I still had an NES, I would stick with that.
The game begins with a cartoony slide show tale of a professor and his
assistant who go off to explore the ancient ruins of the world. This sets
up the Puzzle Mode game and explains the ancient Egypt theme of the
background screens. Of course, you'll skip this intro stuff by the second
time you play the game.
Next, you're treated to a "main menu"-type screen, from which you can
choose your mode of play: Classic, Puzzle, or Edit. You can also go to
the Options screen and adjust which button presses rotate which direction
(though those of us "old style" players only rotate clockwise), adjust the
difficulty level (easy, normal, hard, very hard), the number of matches in
a 2-player vs. match, BGM/SE level, and console or arcade-style music (I
think the difference is that the console music is streamed from the CD.
It still sounds very computer game-ish, though. This is no WipeOut
soundtrack!).
The Classic Mode game is the same old Tetris most of us know. BTW, it's
the "A-type" (as opposed to "B-type") game of Tetris on the NES/Gameboy
versions. You begin with a blank playing area.
The first thing you'll notice is the screen is *tiny*. The one-player
game is played on the same screen as the two-player vs. game. The playing
area is only on the left half of the screen. Moreover, the game area
itself only takes up about 2/3 of that half. It is very narrow. So you
have very small pieces. This is not good, and made me nostalgic for the
large blocks of NES Tetris.
The narrow playing area gave me some trouble at first. It's a bit
difficult at first to tell exactly where your piece will drop. I'd often
make the rookie mistake of pulling down a piece, already thinking of my
next move, only to find that I'd dropped the first piece one block away
from where I thought I had. This was very frustrating, but you eventually
get used to it, and I don't make that mistake nearly so often any more.
Likewise, the control seems a little sluggish at first, but that may be
because I have been playing a ridiculously-tight-controlling computer
version lately. Still, my thumb gets very tired playing this game, since,
to get a piece to move quickly across the screen, you need to rapidly
press the d-pad. Holding down a direction won't move nearly fast enough.
The control could be improved by lessening the length of the pause after
the initial d-pad button press.
The second thing you'll notice is that the "next piece" area is at the top
of the screen, where the pieces come out. There are actually the next
*two* pieces shown, the second smaller than the first. While this is
helpful, there is no option to show only the next piece (which would be
truer to the original version) or to not show any next piece altogether.
Also, placing the next piece on the top of the screen rather than the side
is distracting when the game is moving *very* quickly, and you only have a
split second to glance back and forth between the next piece and the
blocks on the bottom. Since the play area is so narrow, there is room on
the side for the next piece, but, unfortunately, it's wasted space.
Next, you'll complete a line and hear a male voice say emphatically,
"Single!" The screen will show the word "SINGLE" and you'll hear neat SE
noises. Hmmm... not sure how much I like this. Then the guy will say
"Double!" or "Triple!" or "TETRISSSSSS!!!", accompanied by the appropriate
sound effects and flashes. I didn't really like it at first (the flashes
on the blocks you clear partially obscure what is left behind for a brief
second!), but I've gotten more used to it. Still, hearing the guy say
"Awww, NO!" when you lose is very, very annoying. There is no option to
turn off the voice.
Finally, you'll note that the level (stage) change is different than most
other versions of Tetris. It depends both on time and on how many lines
you complete. A gauge runs up both sides of the play area at a constant
rate, and you go to the next level when it hits the top (and starts from
the bottom again). When you complete lines, the gauge jumps up a certain
distance, depending on the number of lines you complete, then moves again
at the constant rate. This is a pretty neat way to do this, and I like
it, though the level change is a bit strange in that the pieces do not
always drop progressively faster. Every few stages, the pace slows up,
then begins speeding up again. This is okay, but I can never figure out
*when* the pace will slow (and the manual doesn't help here -- the manual
completely bites, BTW), which would really help. I would also prefer an
option to have the levels change like they do in most other Tetris games
(i.e., level 2 at 20 lines, 3 at 30 lines, etc.).
BOTTOM LINE ON CLASSIC MODE: This is the mode you'll probably play the
most (well, along with the two-player mode). It's Tetris, all right, not
some clone or Tetris spin-off (woo-hoo!). But it has many flaws, and
these just about kill the game (d-ohh!).
The Puzzle Mode is what the intro has set up. The story is about a
professor and his assistant searching ancient ruins. You begin by
choosing from four locations (Angkor Wat, Egypt, Knossos, Maya) on a world
map, which amount to four sets of puzzles (maybe 20 levels each? can't
remember). I think the locations determine only the background graphics
and the level of difficulty of the puzzles.
The object in Puzzle Mode is to get the professor (a little guy about the
size of a 2x2 square block) to the bottom of the screen. The guy stands
on top of the blocks, and climbs up the back of blocks that you drop on
him. He also moves from side to side, looking for a way down. In the
meantime, the ceiling drops slowly, and you lose when the professor
touches the ceiling. A triple or Tetris will make the ceiling move back
up a bit.
After completing some puzzles, the professor will open a treasure chest at
the bottom, revealing some bonus points. Pretty lame, IMO. But it is
interesting, and I've never seen this type of puzzle before. However, I
personally prefer the simpler "B-type" puzzle of Gameboy or NES (or
countless other versions), where you begin with a certain level of random
blocks on the screen.
BOTTOM LINE ON PUZZLE MODE: Interesting, but not enough to get excited
about.
The computer saves your best times on each of the Puzzle levels, as well
as your top five scores for both Classic and Puzzle Modes. The top three
of these includes the number of lines completed or levels cleared,
respectively, for each mode.
Finally, the Edit Mode allows you to create and play up to ten Puzzle
Mode-type screens. This mode is very well done. You have a series of
buttons at the top of the screen which allow you to load/save a puzzle,
clear all blocks, change the background graphic, place and remove blocks,
choose where the professor enters the screen, set the initial height of
the ceiling, change the order of play for your puzzles, and test your
puzzle during creation.
The whole editing setup is very intuitive and easy to use. The only gripe
I have is that there are only eight selectable backgrounds (and ten slots
to save created puzzles!). So you'll have to repeat some backgrounds.
This is ludicrous, IMO. The CD should have *hundreds* of background
images available. The images themselves are extremely boring, too. Not
the photo-quality backgrounds from many PC versions, but more cartoony
"ruins" theme backgrounds (e.g., Sphinx, columns, hieroglyphics, etc. --
all pretty boring and all very brown).
BOTTOM LINE ON EDIT MODE: Nice feature, but it's still the thing with the
professor. I wish you could just do your own backgrounds and play regular
Tetris starting with the setup you've created.
TWO-PLAYER GAME: Have not played, but it appears to include the dropping
ceiling. :( You *CANNOT* play one player versus the computer.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Only for Tetris die-hards. Even then, you'll ask
yourself why this game cost you so much money.
Graphics: 4
Sound/Music: 5
Gameplay: 7
Lasting Power: 7
Overall: 6
- Brian Kennedy
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