Review: Tetris Worlds (GameCube)

In this review, we go for a winning strategy in the GameCube game Tetris Worlds. We find out how well this puzzle game plays.

This game was released in 2002. We previously reviewed the Game Boy Advance version of this game. We found it to be decent, but that’s about it. So, we thought we’d give the console version a whirl to see what it’s like.

The story (yes, there is a story for a Tetris game. I know, it’s weird too) is that the citizens of the Tetris world have come together for an important announcement. It turns out that the sun in their solar system is going to go supernova much sooner then expected. After scanning nearby galaxies, they determined that there aren’t that many worlds that are suitable for sustaining life. Still, they have selected 5 worlds to immigrate to. So, they then send Tetris grids to these other worlds. It is up to you to complete the different challenges to complete the teleportation connection. Once you complete the connection, colonization can begin.

The main story mode features 6 different challenges. These challenges are Tetris, Square Tetris, Cascade Tetris, Sticky Tetris, Hot-Line Tetris, and Fusion Tetris. These are located on the Forest World, Mountain World, Water World, Fire World, Cloud World, and Ice World respectively.

The goal is to get the highest rank possible in each challenge. The maximum rank is 15. You have a time limit for each rank. Complete the objective in that time limit and you’ll rank up. Fail to do so and you’ll advance a level without ranking up. If you make it to level 15 without a rank of 15, level 15 will simply repeat until you either complete the 15th rank or you die. If you die, you can restart on the level equal to your rank. This generally gives you a chance to collect ranks in spite of a death (think of the first round after a death as a warm up because you won’t rank up at that point in the game; only after).

Regular Tetris simply follows the same rules as your standard Tetris. Complete as many lines as possible. Your goal will be shown on the left hand side of the screen.

Square Tetris varies the rules a bit. If you complete a 4×4 square using just four pieces, you’ll obtain a square. A silver, or combo square, is a square you can make with any number of different pieces. They are the easiest to get. Gold squares, however, can be obtained by making a 4×4 square using the same piece. It is much harder to get, but it is possible to obtain. If you clear a line with these squares being part of those line clears, you’ll get a bonus number of lines. Silver nets you some bonus lines while gold squares nets you the most points. Sometimes, gambling pays off in this mode. Other times, it gets you killed. So, risk assessment strategies are key in this mode.

Cascade Tetris is a different take on Tetris. At first, it looks like a normal form of Tetris. However, if you clear lines, remnants of pieces suspended in air will actually fall down. This will allow you to get a “cascade” line which generally nets huge bonuses in this version.

Stick Tetris operates just like Cascade Tetris, but with only one critical difference: like colours stick together. If you set a piece down that is all different colours, every piece will simply fall down. Lines are not required for gravity to take over. If a piece contains a colour that is part of the stack, however, that like colour will stick, preventing that part of the piece from falling down. Getting cascades will net you huge bonuses as well.

Hot-Lin Tetris is like normal Tetris, only you have to get lines on specific parts of the grid. On the grid are a series of coloured lines. If you get a line not on those lines, those lines won’t count towards your total. However, if you get a line on one of those coloured lines, you’ll have that line count towards your total. Ranking up will cause every piece to cascade down. One thing to keep in mind is that the higher the line, the more line points you get. So, if you get a line on the fourth hot-line, you’ll get four points every time. This is basically like getting a Tetris for every line you get. So, as you get higher up in the ranks, you more or less need to abuse the higher lines just to make it more possible to complete the objectives in later levels. Higher risks, but higher rewards.

Fusion Tetris represents one of the most unique modes in this game. On either the bottom left or bottom right is a fusion square that is 1×1. This mode operates similarly to cascade Tetris as well in that you can cause pieces to fall down and get bonus lines. Unfortunately, lines do not count in this mode. Instead, you need to take the 1×1 blocks given to you and make them touch the fusion block. If you succeed, the block will also turn into a fusion block. Get the goal amount of fusions to level up. One thing to keep in mind is that fusion blocks do not remove themselves once you get a line. So, you can just allow them to accumulate on the screen to make it get gradually easier to clear lines. Take advantage of this as best you can.

While there are 15 ranks, you don’t need rank 15 to be able to colonize a world. The requirements are generally rank 11 or 12. Obtaining these ranks, however, are generally get difficult.

Surviving to level 15, however, is a bit easier. This is thanks largely to the “easy spin” mechanic in the game. Easy spin allows you to reset the time delay before the Tetris piece attaches itself to the stack. This mechanic is generally critical for survival when you reach around level 12 and up. This is thanks to the almost instant gravity found on these levels. Some have openly remarked that this makes the game way too easy, however, the requirement isn’t about making it to the next level, it’s about making it to the next level within the time limit. That is a much taller order.

For me, the games biggest problem is that it doesn’t have much in the way of content. Yes, there are that many modes in the game, but each mode is only one level. Complete it or not and move on until you get as far as you can for each level. This generally takes all of a day or two to complete. Once you are done playing on each level, this game offers precious little else for you to do.

Additionally, I would say that the requirements to beat the game make this game a very hard one to beat. In fact, I would say the requirements are too steep at times. With all of my experience playing Tetris games, I personally struggled to make a large portion of those requirements. Some reviewers simply survived to the 15th level and cast it off as too easy, but chances are, they weren’t making the rank ups.

Also, the storyline in this game seems more absurd than anything else. It really wasn’t necessary as far as I’m concerned.

On the plus side, the variety in the game is nice to see.

Generally speaking, this game has solid variety and decent play. Unfortunately, the requirements to actually win are quite high, the quantity of the game leaves a lot to be desired, and the storyline probably should have been scrapped. Still, it’s a good game while it lasts.

Graphically, this game probably takes this game to the limits of how visually spectacular the game can be. There’s nice backgrounds and good visual effects on the playing field. The effects of ranking up look quite nice as well. So, I’d say the graphics are great especially given what the developers had to work with.

Audio, meanwhile, is probably the games greatest weakness. The music is present, but nothing is all that memorable. Voice acting is decent and gives the game an interesting atmosphere. Sound effect works decently as well. So, while the music leaves a lot to be desired, the sound effects and voice acting does pick up a lot of the slack left behind in this department. So, decent all around.

Overall, this game does have some good gameplay and variety. Unfortunately, the quantity of the content leaves a lot to be desired. The winning requirements are quite steep and makes the actual game quite difficult to complete. Also, the storyline probably should have been scrapped. Graphics are great and audio is decent. So, a solid game while it lasts.

Overall
Furthest point in game:
Forest World: Rank 12
Mountain World: Rank 11
Water World: Rank 11
Fire World: Rank 10
Cloud World: Rank 11
Ice World: Rank 10

General gameplay: 18/25
Replay value: 8/10
Graphics: 8/10
Audio: 3/5

Overall rating: 74%

Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.