Tetris Worlds

A lot can be said for the game Tetris. Old, boring, and slow. But you can also say original, competitive, and challenging. The grand father of puzzle titles, Tetris returns as a new Xbox title, published by THQ, and from the looks of it, promises to be a good $20 title for what you get.

I can't write much here other than opinion, because when it comes down to it, this is Tetris. Not much to see, but for a puzzle title, sometimes relying purely on gameplay is the way to go. In Tetris, you drop different shapes of blocks to form lines. When a line is complete, it vanishes, and if you complete four lines at once, it's called getting a Tetris. The difference with the gameplay here is that this time, there are six different Tetris games, and in what may be termed the most bizarre game design strategy I've ever seen, there's a single player story mode to go along.

In the story mode, which I find remarkably irrelevant but quite amusing, you're one of a brave few people (cubes, actually) chosen to go forth and solve the Tetris puzzle, which open gateways to other, distance planets. You see, you've got to escape as your own sun is about to go nova. That's all the justification you need, and from there on out, you're a puzzle fighting mutha' well, you get the point.

The different Tetris titles are fairly good twists on the original concept. Square Tetris gives you additional points for forming squares of blocks, and Sticky Tetris causes blocks of the same color to stick together, making blocks cascade. Other than those modes, there's only one thing else worth mentioning. This time, you get a small graphic representing where your Tetris block will fall, which is a great aid to gameplay. Furthermore, this game is Xbox Live compatible, meaning that your puzzle playing can take place over the internet.

Ultimately, the question you might ask yourself is this: Why play Tetris on the Xbox? My answer is the same as it was long ago, when I played Tetris on the Nintendo. Why would you play Tetris on the Nintendo? Simple, it's Tetris. This is a proven puzzle game, and THQ isn't trying to rip you off for $50 bucks. Surprisingly, this game still manages to entertain, and is easily one of the best party games I still own. I wouldn't normally recommend it so heartily, but it's inexpensive, and strong with the Force' I mean gameplay.