Puzzle games in general have one thing in common: they are conceptually easy to grasp. The better puzzle games are deep enough to compel you to keep playing to learn new strategies.
Tetris Attack is one of those games. The credits of Tetris Attack say that the game was inspired by the original Tetris. I’m pretty sure this is a… slight fabrication. As far as I can tell, the only thing that this game has in common with the original Tetris is the title. It seems to me that they just tacked the word ‘Tetris’ onto this game to sell more copies from name-recognition. Slightly underhanded, but that’s fine. This is a good game on its own merits.
Like a good puzzler should, Tetris Attack has an easy-to-grasp concept: multi-colored blocks rise from the bottom of the playfield, you have the ability to move them left or right, and you make them disappear by lining up three or more of the same color. Easy. And indeed, you could play this way and have a good enough time. Keep playing and you’ll discover that with careful arrangement of your pieces you can set up chain reactions or groups of far more than three to be cleared at a time, both critical moves to know in multiplayer mode.
Perhaps the thing that makes puzzle games compelling is that there is no defined end. The game lasts until you can’t last any more. You can always do just a little bit better, and are really competing with your self for the high score. Unless you’re playing multiplayer mode. Then you’re competing against someone who desperately needs to be taken to Tetris Attack school.
Yes, I like this game. I like it enough that I have four versions of it for four different platforms. And if there’s ever a Wii version, I’ll probably have that too.
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