Tetris hasn't changed much, but fun NIntendo themes and interesting new modes bring it new life on the DS.
What makes Tetris DS special among the crop of other Tetris remakes comes down to three distinct features: cool alternate gameplay modes, huge single-card LAN play, and cost-free online playability right out of the box. Far be it from me to forget the simple fact that Tetris is already a fun game anyway, even without extra features. Among the new modes is the addictive, adrenaline-pumping Push mode which is playable against a friend or against the AI. The idea of Push mode is that two players are using the same 2D plane to stack their blocks; one player on top, the other on bottom (each player sees his own progress on their top screen, though). As theTetriminos are dropped and lines are cleared, the entire mishmash of blocks is pushed towards the end of the opposing player's screen. It's not as confusing as it sounds. In fact, it's just like having your stack of blocks reach the top of the screen in regular Tetris, only in Push mode the top of each screen is riddled with spikes. Spikes that are on fire. Obviously, your goal is to make your opponent get poked by the fiery spikes before you do, and awesome goals like that just don't come in your everyday puzzler.
Mission mode is another mild deviation from textbook Tetris wherein the player tries to achieve set goals as they clear lines. A good example is when the game prompts you to "clear a lines with piece 'X'," or "clear three lines at once." It doesn't seem like much, but it's a great way to break the monotony of Standard mode if nothing else. Catch mode is yet another unique spin on Tetris that resembles a top-down shooter. The idea is to catch falling Tetriminos with your "ship" until you form a four-by-four block that you can detonate for big points. The ship can be rotated as a whole in order to align the falling pieces with their ideal resting places on the bulging mess of Tetriminos. If your ship runs out of energy by colliding with approaching metroids, or if either side of it touches the bottom or top of the play area, it's game over. Eventually the pieces and metroids start falling faster, and your ship gets much, much bigger (see also: harder to control), which makes for some frantic puzzle gaming.
But as good as these new modes are, WiFi play might well be the key selling point of Tetris DS. There are three available modes of online play, including the pulse-pounding Push mode as well as two- or four-player versus mode competitions. Besides the available use of items in the four-player contest, not much differs between the two versus modes. The premise when playing versus mode online is easy enough to grasp. Simply outlast your opponent in a more-or-less typical game of Tetris. The catch is that when playing against someone, anytime you clear two lines or more with a single piece, a pile of grey "garbage blocks" materializes underneath the blocks of your opponent's play area, which pushes their stack to the top of the screen towards defeat.
The stat-tracking system for WiFi play is workable, if only a bit shallow. Every player starts off with 5000 points for their rank that will increase with every victory, and decline with every loss. A tally for wins is also kept, alongside the player's overall rank, but no losses are accounted for at all. It really amounts to not necessarily knowing much about the person you're about to go up against. Maybe they have a very low rank. That doesn't mean they're a bad player though, because maybe they've just played loads of games against highly skilled players. On the flip side, a player may have a terrific rank and win record, but for all you can tell they've only been matched up against easier players. The greatest benefit to the system is that since losses are not tallied up and put on display, players tend to be willing to play against the same opponent over and over even when they are getting beaten, and with the persistence of poor sports and disconnectors still prevalent in WiFi play in other games, this is a welcome gesture towards improvement.
Whether you choose a random match with a player from across the globe, or a player registered on your friends list, getting connected and into the action is a cinch. The only crippling part of playing with a randomly selected opponent is that there is no way to communicate with them or to add them to your friends list. So, if you spend an evening battling it out with someone you particularly enjoy playing against, once you disconnect, there's no way to invite them back later. The best bet is to get involved with online gaming hubs like the one at nintendowifi.com and get some people registered on your friends list. Not only will that allow you to play against people you know you like, but you can also use the site to check out where you and your peers stand on a variety of Tetris DS scoreboards.
Graphically, Tetris DS is a bit of a mixed bag. Each mode is thematically decorated in accordance with a given classic Nintendo character. Push mode is designed to recall the original Donkey Kong game. Mission mode makes thematic use of Zelda's world, and so on. And in each occurence, the pixelated images of beloved Nintendo characters are left intact for stylistic effect. Still other nifty touches prevail. As you begin clearing lines on the bottom screen in a single-player marathon, for example, Mario makes a run through level 1-1 of the original Super Mario Bros. on the top screen. He'll pretty much just goof off, walking back and forth and jumping around a bit until you actually start clearing lines. As you do, you'll not only go up in level, but Mario will progress through his stages and eventually enter new areas of the Mushroom Kingdom. Level two of Tetris on the bottom screen, for example, is accompanied by a top-screen show of Mario bobbing through level 1-2 of Super Mario Bros. More classic Nintendo titles make cameos on the top screen as you progress in level, each of which has been touched up and refined just slightly to accomodate modern tastes. Your willingness to risk error in-game to enjoy those updated visuals, however, puts into question their total relevance.
And that's where the problem is, really. The top screen is kept vibrant and lively with terrific recollections of Nintendo classics , but it comes at the cost of any appreciable variety on the bottom screen. Twenty years ago, each time you achieved a new level in Tetris, all the blocks would change colors. On Tetris DS, only the backdrop outside the actual play area changes, and even then the alterations are mostly subtle. Had more attention been given to enlivening the actual gameplay visuals, Tetris on the DS might have been a graphical marvel. Instead, the lack of all-around attention to detail prevents Tetris DS from being meaningfully better to look at than the original or any other Tetris remake to date.
It's a similar case with the aural showcase as well. Tetris DS hits hard with a killer techno beat rife with Nintendo sound effects and samples right off the bat, then continues to impress as each gameplay mode flaunts its own similarly impressive sound set. The bulk of the songs combine frenzied tempos and serious sampling of Nintendo's effects archive to bring Tetris' gameplay to life, and they do an admirable job of it. The only downside is that, once again, there is no real variety to speak of. Tracks are relatively short, and they're set on auto-repeat. What starts off as a cool melting-pot of Nintendo balladry eventually becomes a tad monotonous at best, and utterly grating at worst. The original Tetris came with three very distinct song choices when it hit the market decades ago. It seems logical, then, that since Tetris DS introduces its own brand-new musical backdrop, it could at least feature four song choices some twenty years later.
All the visual and audio upgrading and remixing in the world can't hide the fact that Tetris DS, at its core, is still just Tetris with an attractive new coat of Mushroom Kingdom paint. An annoying lack of variety in some areas is what ultimately prevents Tetris DS from being a must-have title. If you can live without playing Tetris online, and if you're not particularly enthusiastic about playing a few cool reinventions of the game, then Tetris DS probably isn't worth your wampum. On the other hand, if you're looking for yet another way to enjoy Nintendo's budding WiFi service, or if gameplay twists like Challenge or Push mode are enticing to you, then Tetris DS is sure to satisfy.