Tetris Party

Let's face it: We're all a bunch of Tetris addicts. Some of us to point where the mere fact that it's Tetris is enough to sell us on it (like me). Which probably explains why a new version or two is released every year, almost as if they're attempting to place Tetris on every platform imaginable. And if so, then they are definitely making progress. As it has almost made its way onto all the current generation platforms, save Sony's PlayStation 3.

 
While the Wii's debut Tetris title, Tetris Party, may not be the latest version to be unleashed upon us, it is certainly one of the best versions in recent memory, thanks to a slew of new content that makes it well worth buying Tetris yet again.

But for the five (or was it six?) of you that have no prior knowledge or experience with this series, Tetris is a puzzle game that, unlike others, requires you to make a line of blocks that, upon doing so, perish and earn you points in the process, instead of matching objects of the same shape or color for the same result. This style of gameplay manifests itself in a variety of ways in Tetris Party with it's many variations. But the best of 'em is no doubt is the Marathon mode, which delivers Tetris in its purest form by simply tasking you with is making as many lines as possible before the field is filled with blocks. It's also the simplest of the ten modes available – not that the rest of complicated, of course.

Rather, they're all quite simple, actually. Hot Lines -- no, not those telephone hotlines -- for example, is simply plain old Tetris with but with one slight tweak: You must make lines at the designated areas of the field that are marked by gray lines, and the first player to do so is crowned the winner -- yes, it's one of the multiplayer exclusive modes, much like Dual Spaces – in which two players take turns placing blocks down in a attempt to capture as much of the field as possible by placing them in a way that makes it enclose an empty part of the field – and Co-op Tetris – which is just standard Tetris with two players and much larger playing field – are. They aren't radically different from the standard Tetris, but the tweaks they've made make them entertaining alternatives to the standard game.

But those aren't different enough for your tastes, then the rest of the modes should satisfy your needs. These modes are: Shadow, which tasks you with filling in a gray image by placing blocks down within the silhouette; Stage Racer, which has you guiding blocks through obstacle courses that get increasingly harder; and Field Climber, in which you use blocks to help a small man collect flags as he ascends to the top of the field. Out of them, this is one is easily one of the worst modes in the game. It's slow, boring, and, most importantly, not fun. It's just plain frustrating. How? Simple, as the game commonly starts the guy between a bunch of blocks that makes him trapped with no way for you to get him out without crushing him. It's possible to get him out somehow, but this relies so much on chance that it becomes nigh impossible to actually play this mode.

And speaking of bad and/or redundant game modes, the game also features a Beginners mode that makes the blocks much bigger, which in turn, makes it easier to make lines. Mechanically, the mode's fine, as it's just standard Tetris with bigger blocks. The problem, however, is that with how friendly the game already is to Tetris-neophytes, it becomes very redundant to have this mode, seeing as they could just play one of the other modes with relative ease. The only real use this mode has is for the balance board variant, which, while an intriguing concept, isn't very good either because of unresponsiveness of the board. The controls are pretty basic: Leaning left or right moves the blocks in one of those directions, leaning forward makes the blocks fall faster, and squatting flips the blocks. The main problem with them is that the accuracy that's present when using a controller is gone, as when you move blocks they tend to move a couple spaces at a time, making it almost impossible to place them exactly where you want or need them. The same applies to flipping blocks, as you typically have to try a few times to get it to work. But chances are that by the time you do that, the block will have already landed, causing much frustration in turn.

Thankfully, the online didn't suffer from some sort of problem like that. Rather, it delivers a great – albeit limited – online experience. The games has everything you'd expect an online mode to have, such as a mode that matches you up with random opponents, and one that let's you play against those you've exchanged friend codes with. The online works well, with no lag, and opponents being very easy to find. In fact, it only took me a few seconds to find one each time I played online. The only real problem with the online is that it's limited to the standard versus mode. A disappointing decision considering the large number of modes available. In addition to the standard online, there's also leaderboards for each game mode. Which should keep those who are in to that sort of thing (like me) occupied for long time.

Presentation wise, Tetris Party is rather weak. The game takes a very simple approach visually, delivering colorful two-dimensional graphics that, while feasible, aren't terribly great looking. It's clearer than Tetris DS's visuals in terms of color, but it looks almost identical to its handheld counterpart. It's not a huge issue, but it is a tad disappointing. The menu's have a boring look to 'em, and the backgrounds you can set during gameplay are just as boring. Most of them consist of static pictures of various locations like the arctic, and the ones that aren't static aren't much better, as they're essentially the same as the others but with a couple moving elements in them that are rather dull – much like the music is – save for the iconic theme of Tetris, that is. Too bad it isn't used very often, though. Instead you'll be listening to a few other tunes that, after a while, become rather grating. So much so that I started playing with the sound turned down.

That said, the overall package is well worth buying despite a couple shortcomings, and a lackluster presentation. The variety of modes help keep the tried and true gameplay fresh, the online play works well, as does the offline multiplayer, and at $12 (1200 Wii Points) the game is a steal, given the amount of content available.

If anyone was ever doubtful of why Tetris is revered as one of the best games ever made, they would do well to play Tetris Party, and learn just what makes Tetris so great.