Tetris DS is a game title so unassuming for the variety and execution of this package. In addition to several single and multiplayer modes of Tetris are two other types of puzzles that use tetriminos, all with NES era Nintendo mascots cheering you on.
If you've ever played a "bad" version of Tetris, you'll appreciate this version all the more. The sound design is snappy, the leeway for placing blocks feels forgiving, and the friction for rotating and locking blocks is satisfying. It has the subtle and important flourishes in the sound effects and animations that elevate the experience to feeling like a game and not merely solving abstract spatial logic puzzles.
As a product, you can tell they conceived of every possible angle from which someone would want to play the game. Online multiplayer, DS Download Play local multiplayer from a single cartridge, and hundreds of preset puzzle boards to clear solo offer options for any playstyle.
Push Mode is the most natural version of multiplayer Tetris I can imagine, and one that fits perfectly on the Nintendo DS. Both players have a screen with gravity opposite the other, and drop blocks onto the same central mass. Clearing a line moves the mass closer to the opponent, so the first to experience a ring-out loses. I find this so elegantly designed compared to sending junk blocks in other forms of multiplayer tetris, as there is a mechanical link between your board and your opponents besides the abstraction of junk blocks. Were it not for the limitations of the DS system, this version of competitive tetris would be great for spectators as well.
Touch Mode is a new puzzle type where the tetriminos are stacked like a jenga tower, and you must move them side to side to fall into place. It is much more leisurely than regular tetris, but has enough of the same thinking to make for a good wind-down after a strenuous Tetris marathon. Fans of this mode should look into Crashmo for the 3DS.
Touch Mode has 50 pre-set puzzles that teach you the mechanics, and compliment well the 200 puzzles in Puzzle Mode. Puzzle Mode teaches you how to play regular Tetris by showing a board and asking you to select in what order and in what rotation to place 3 tetriminos. Its the kind of applied learning I wish was included in every version of Tetris to help new players learn how to smartly approach the board with multiple steps in mind instead of scrambling to fill their latest gap or mistake.
In my rating system, 2 stars is an average, C rank game. I award Tetris DS 4 stars, a solid A rank game I would recommend to anyone. It is a delightful package with the feeling that results from hundreds of invisible design decisions made imagining how it would be to play this type of game on exactly this system. The variety of modes makes it easy to swap between game styles while still in a Tetris-y mood, and the skills you pick up in one will enforce your efforts in the others. That such inventive modes have not made it forward to other versions of the game, even on future Nintendo systems, is a damn shame.
If you've ever played a "bad" version of Tetris, you'll appreciate this version all the more. The sound design is snappy, the leeway for placing blocks feels forgiving, and the friction for rotating and locking blocks is satisfying. It has the subtle and important flourishes in the sound effects and animations that elevate the experience to feeling like a game and not merely solving abstract spatial logic puzzles.
As a product, you can tell they conceived of every possible angle from which someone would want to play the game. Online multiplayer, DS Download Play local multiplayer from a single cartridge, and hundreds of preset puzzle boards to clear solo offer options for any playstyle.
Push Mode is the most natural version of multiplayer Tetris I can imagine, and one that fits perfectly on the Nintendo DS. Both players have a screen with gravity opposite the other, and drop blocks onto the same central mass. Clearing a line moves the mass closer to the opponent, so the first to experience a ring-out loses. I find this so elegantly designed compared to sending junk blocks in other forms of multiplayer tetris, as there is a mechanical link between your board and your opponents besides the abstraction of junk blocks. Were it not for the limitations of the DS system, this version of competitive tetris would be great for spectators as well.
Touch Mode is a new puzzle type where the tetriminos are stacked like a jenga tower, and you must move them side to side to fall into place. It is much more leisurely than regular tetris, but has enough of the same thinking to make for a good wind-down after a strenuous Tetris marathon. Fans of this mode should look into Crashmo for the 3DS.
Touch Mode has 50 pre-set puzzles that teach you the mechanics, and compliment well the 200 puzzles in Puzzle Mode. Puzzle Mode teaches you how to play regular Tetris by showing a board and asking you to select in what order and in what rotation to place 3 tetriminos. Its the kind of applied learning I wish was included in every version of Tetris to help new players learn how to smartly approach the board with multiple steps in mind instead of scrambling to fill their latest gap or mistake.
In my rating system, 2 stars is an average, C rank game. I award Tetris DS 4 stars, a solid A rank game I would recommend to anyone. It is a delightful package with the feeling that results from hundreds of invisible design decisions made imagining how it would be to play this type of game on exactly this system. The variety of modes makes it easy to swap between game styles while still in a Tetris-y mood, and the skills you pick up in one will enforce your efforts in the others. That such inventive modes have not made it forward to other versions of the game, even on future Nintendo systems, is a damn shame.