It took me by surprise when I found out that the first Wednesday after the summer of XBLA would have three releases instead of one. I was only surprised until I played them; only one of the three is worth looking at. In the never ending quest to charge money for things that are free (and possibly better) elsewhere comes Gin Rummy.
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COLUMNS
By Zvi Finklestein on August 31, 2007 in DS
Players: 1-4
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Genre: Puzzle
Review By: Zvi Finklestein
“About as much as you could fuck up Tetris.”
In 1991, with the release of The Next Tetris, The Tetris Company decided to change one of the basic gameplay mechanics of the game, and allowed players to rotate and move tetrominos left and right infinitely, even if they’re already hit the bottom of the playing field. From Alexey Pajitnov’s original design of the game in 1985 until this point, Tetris’ gameplay was about as close to perfect as in any video game. Tetris DS follows the more recent design The Tetris Company forces all Tetris games to, and ultimately is a disappointment for it.
More annoying changes from the original Tetris formula are present as the game shows you not just the next piece that will drop, but the next six. This allows players to plan out their moves too far in advance, and ruins any spontaneity the game had. Also differing from old school Tetris is the “ghost piece” which shows exactly where your next piece is going to land, and the “hard drop” which allows you to press up at any time and instantly drop the falling tetromino to the bottom of the screen. The hard drop isn’t a bad feature, but working in conjunction with the ghost piece, it makes the game play too fast and not leisurely enough in the early stretches. Thankfully, though, there is the option to turn off both of these features.
In addition to standard Tetris are a variety of modes new to the series. Mission mode is standard Tetris with specific goals, and is not an improvement over the original. The Metroid-themed Catch mode, where you control one central block, and try to catch falling tetrominos to form four by four squares, is too slow and not at all interesting. The Donkey Kong-themed Push mode, where two players are playing in opposite directions on the same playing field, and try to push each other downwards by clearly two or more lines at a time, is really fun and inventive, especially when played multiplayer. The Yoshi-themed Puzzle mode, where you have to use specific pieces to clear a screen full of garbage blocks, is too easy and pretty boring. And the Balloon Fight-themed Touch mode, where players manipulate a stack of tetrominos with the DS’s stylus to clear lines, is the best new mode, and the most interesting take on Tetris maybe ever.
The Nintendo theme that’s plastered all over the game’s menu and gameplay screens and music selection is pretty cool, especially for hardcore fans of the company. The remixes of classic Nintendo tunes, with sound effects from the 8 and 16-bit eras thrown in, are all good, but some players might find them to be too upbeat and annoying. The Bowser battle track from Super Mario Bros. that starts playing when you hit level ten (one hundred lines) in standard mode, though, is undeniably excellent.
Despite the disappointments, Tetris DS is still exactly that - Tetris, and you can only fuck up Tetris so much. The original Gameboy version of the game is still king, and there’s plenty of puzzle games on DS to buy first, but Tetris DS is an all right game.
“Steps Toward an Elitist Critic Future” at Rock Paper Shotgun
I went into this article expecting the “elitist critic future” to be presented as a negative thing, but no. Kieron Gillen is openly admitting here that he likes it. I think he’s buying into the idea that games need what you could call “indie cred” (not his words) to be worthwhile. I love Earth Defense Force 2017, but no, Kieron, it’s not better than Gears of War.
Lower the price of the hard drive, Microsoft. I want to give you more money, all you have to do is let me.
“EA Partners Is A Murderers’ Row - Who’s NOT On This List?” at MTV Multiplayer
This is a good bit of investigative reporting from Stephen Totilo. With last Thursday’s announcements by Electronic Arts of deals with Grasshopper Manufacture and Epic Games, they now have at least half a dozen major partners, and that’s not counting the smaller companies they have outright purchased over the last couple years.
I have become amazed at what XBLA has done in the past few weeks. It started with Geometry Wars 2, a game Jim Canapa described perfectly in the previous column (he should know, since his high scores are far better than mine). Bionic Commando, another great game I will go into detail about later, was the most recent addition. But in the middle was Braid, the first game to ever cause an internal conflict for me.