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> Results: Tetris Worlds + Online Edition
Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Scroll down for our Kid Factor. Stacking blocks with fancy graphicsﾅ You canﾒt beat the longevity found in Alexei Pajitnovﾒs simple arcade classic, the immortal Tetris. Itﾒs a game that really canﾒt be improved upon; itﾒs just about perfect in every way. But that doesnﾒt mean people wonﾒt try to improve upon it. The latest attempt comes from Radical Entertainment and it appeared on shelves last year in the form of Tetris Worlds. Tetris Worlds was released for the PC, Game Cube, Xbox, and PS2, and a GBA version appeared with a few less features. All were similar enough to be recommendable only to people who donﾒt have Tetris in some other format. The new version, available for the Xbox only, adds multiplayer capability over Xbox Live. This wrinkle promises the first interesting Tetris addition in almost two decades.  In Tetris Worlds youﾒre still dropping blocks to form lines, which then disappear, keeping the game going at, eventually, and a relentless and addictive pace. Tetris Worlds starts off slowly and easily, too slow for a Tetris expert, but you can tweak the difficulty and start off on a faster level if you like. Tetris Worlds added several themed backdrops with animations ranging from barren deserts, erupting volcanoes, the tundra, underwater, and more. It also added optional aids like a shadow that shows where the next piece will fall and another that allows you to continue to turn your piece long after itﾒs already fallen into place. Interestingly Worlds also adds six different Tetris variations. Thereﾒs Square Tetris, Cascade Tetris, Sticky Tetris, Hot Line Tetris, Fusion Tetris, and regular vanilla Tetris. The modes are mostly superfluous, Tetris is Tetris and each mode comes across as gimmicky in single player. They fare better in multiplayer mode; all are available on a single Xbox, though only Square, Cascade, and regular Tetris can be played online. Over Xbox Live you can play against up to three players and doing so is surprisingly fun, especially in knockout mode where a single stacking error can give your opponents a lead. Like any Live game thereﾒs full voice support, and youﾒll find this a pleasant crowd of players. You can find games using Optimatch or Quickmatch. The former lets you find exactly the game you want to play, the latter finds a game as quickly as possible. The game ranks you and, if you like, thereﾒs also a mode that lets you play Tetris in single player while chatting with strangers.  The bottom line isﾅ its Tetris. It has annoying new quirks, animations, backgrounds, and truly awful music (you can rip a new soundtrack with your Xbox) but if you donﾒt have Tetrisﾅ itﾒs the one on store shelves. The online component works well, but you should only buy it if you have an oddly shaped hole in your gaming library, one that only Tetris can fill. Other Platforms Tetris Worlds exists in a non-online version for every platform and youﾒll probably find them at bargain prices by now. The PC version is playable online, by the way, but itﾒs not as fully featured as the Xbox Live version. Kid Factor Tetris is a terrific game for kids. Itﾒs easy to grasp, understand, and play at any age above five, or so. It inspires creative thought, planning, strategy, and doesnﾒt have a violent bone in its body. The annoying music, backgrounds, animations, and the unnecessary game modes work better with kids than adults. Kids will delight in those extras, whicb admittedly make Tetris a much less stuffy game. The multiplayer community, from what I saw, is fairly kid safe but, as always, you should exercise caution when letting kids go on Xbox Live. That said, you could always buy the older non-Live Xbox version, or the versions for other platforms. -Andrew S. Bub Age: 5+ ESRB: E-Everyone Developer: Radical Entertainment Publisher: THQ Read the review of: Tetris Worlds GBA Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Tetris Worlds + Online Edition |
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