Is this the original tetris?? (Tetris DX. (GB))

Member Name: trussellp

Product:	Tetris DX. (GB)
Date:	11/03/02 (450 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: old but the best puzzler for the gameboy, types of cubes

Disadvantages: they say there are different levels, but they are all the same!!

Included with the original Game Boy in 1989 was a cartridge called Tetris that set the standard that all other puzzles tried to aspire to. The game has been imitated and copied many times, but until the advent of Tetris DX for the Game Boy Color, it was never technically surpassed. The original frenetic block builder remains a classic to this day, and continues to deliver a highly addictive way to spend many an hour or two or...

Fortunately you don't have to be a brain surgeon in order to understand the concept of Tetris, but as with most games of this ilk, mental dexterity is required in order to see your name appear on the high score table.

Tetris found you building lines of bricks formed from assorted block shapes that fell individually at increasing speed from the top of the screen. The blocks could only be rotated or moved from side to side, but remained static when they either reached the bottom of the screen or settled onto any other bricks below. Any horizontal lines created miraculously disappeared, and any bricks above the completed line then fell to take the space on the screen. The game was over when you were unable to create any further life saving lines, and the screen became uncomfortably congested.


A maximum of four lines could be formed to vanish at once, and this was called a 'Tetris'. A suitably euphoric fanfare was sounded when this happened and made up for any fear of reaching the top of the screen before the required block descended.

Two addictive variations of Tetris were available, entitled A-Type and B-Type. The A-Type game allowed you to create point scoring lines indefinitely, until either your concentration or the speed of the descending blocks got the better of you. Depending upon the final score achieved an appropriately sized space ship would launch to congratulate your Tetris skill. The second game simply required 25 lines to be created, but on the harder levels this was far fro
m easy, as the screen area became smaller and the blocks fell at ever increasing speed. On achieving 25 lines on level nine, you were rewarded by an assortment of animated musicians playing a tune. Although, in order to experience the complete group of musicians playing, you would have to master the dizzying speed of Level nine High five.


An excellent two-player game could also be played by linking two Game Boys together each with a copy of Tetris. Any lines created were fiendishly passed to your opponent, and the winner was the one who remained in control of the screen.

The spot effects and tunes were also superb, with the high score harmony being especially melodic.

Tetris remains an indispensable cartridge for the Game Boy, and to this day provides an excellent challenge. Hopefully as with Tetris Dx for the Game Boy Color, the soon to be released Game Boy Advance will also receive a version of this highly addictive block busting sensation.

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