Tetris doesn't suck it

GAME OF THE MONTH COLLECTION!
TETRIS DX
(Nintendo, September 1999)

Can you beat my high score?

Alexey Pavitnov's Tetris is still one of the best mind teasers out there! Its mixture of quick thinking and raw skill that can place a player in front of a screen for hours. That's why this Game of the Month is the amazing Tetris DX, my current favourite of the popular series! So whay do I love it? "Now we can finally save our high scores!" Although I loved the original Tetris for the Gameboy there was no save option to record your best score after playing the A Type game for hours so this alone is a welcome change in Tetris DX but don't worry, Nintendo added even more stuff to a already great game here.

Like past Tetris game you must move around falling pieces of blocks so you can make lines and get points. What has changed is you now have the choice of 5 different modes. The modes in Tetris DX include Marathon , Time Attack, 40 Lines, Vs. Com and Vs. Human options. Marathon is just like the old Type A mode from the older Tetris where the game continues to go faster after so many lines, the longer you survive the more points you get. Time Attack lets you see how many points you can get in just three minutes which is perfect for people think the Marathon games take too long. The 40 lines game is simple: just get 40 lines in the fastest time possible which is the opposite of the Time Attack mode.

Tetris DX was specially made for the new Gameboy Color system in the fall 1999 so there are blight and colourful looking backdrops with scrolling backgrounds that are not too distracting when you're playing a game fortunately. There are even cool screen savers if you leave the game alone for a bit that show off the new colour features of the Gameboy Color system. It's nothing too grand like in the next generation machines but it works.

The only downside to the new Tetris DX here is the awesome Russian music is now gone and replaced with three awful new corny music tracks that really shows off the poor sound quality of the Gameboy Color which was a really dumb move by Nintendo. What's Tetris without the trademark Russian music? The sound effects are nothing special either.

Perhaps the coolest thing about Tetris DX is that it's fully compatible with the all gameboy's like the Black and White Gameboy(s), Super Gameboy for you Super Nintendo owners, and of course the Gameboy Color it was designed for. That's nearly 5 different units. The only lame thing about playing this on the Game Boy Advance is that you can't Save your scores due to some programming errors.

Not only is Tetris DX very playable, Nintendo even included a very useful shut off feature you can easily turn off the power to your Gameboy and your current game (paused or not) will still be saved automatically. When the system starts up again you have the option to either continue your last game or start a new one just like that. A very useful feature especially if you have to do something else right away.

One of the coolest games ever gets the improvements it needed on the small screen! Tetris DX is now even more competitive than ever thanks in part to the new save option that records your top three scores for every speed right to the game pak. The various new modes also help to add to the replay value too here. If you love Tetris then this is one of the best to get and this is highly recommend for any Gameboy owner still out there.

Conclusion:
TETRIS DX overall rating: 95/100 Find Teatris DX on eBay here! For 1 or 2 players Rated (E) for Everyone graphics: 5/10 sound: 2/10 gameplay: 9/10 replay: 10/10 -StarSoldier1 (Ryan Genno) 2002 Other Games of the Month!