The New Tetris

The New Tetris
File:The New Tetris N64 Box art.jpg
Developer(s)	H2O Entertainment/Blue Planet Software
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Release date	July 31, 1999 (NA)
Genre	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Age rating(s)	ESRB: Everyone
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64 Template:Infobox/media Template:Infobox/input
Credits | Soundtrack | Codes | Walkthrough

The New Tetris is a puzzle video game released for the Nintendo 64 published by Nintendo. Although the game is based on the popular Tetris game mechanics, it made significant additions that has since then been in all Tetris games that followed. The game was released on July 31, 1999 in North America.

Gameplay Changes

Single player node, with a silver square in the lower-left corner.

In order to differentiate from other variations of Tetris available (such as Magical Tetris Challenge, Tetris 64, and even Tetrisphere, The New Tetris features significant changes made to the core gameplay.

The New Tetris was the first game from the official licensed line of Tetris that removed the concept of leveling by lines and points, due to the fact that The New Tetris' line clearing system rewards players with creating gold/silver blocks. Instead, the diffculty level and the speed of the tetris blocks now depends on the number of lines cleared since the start of the game, the length of time of the game being played and the type of the blocks used to clear those lines.

For example: If two players both have 600 lines cleared, it is possible that player A is at a higher level because they have completed that many lines in a shorter time, or they were able to clear those lines while using more gold/silver blocks. The same can be said for any of the three criterias.

However, the concept of level remains in in the game as each player profile stored in game is given a level rank based on their past performances. Beginning players start at Level 1, and can increase their rank up to Level 30 (the maximum reachable in the game).

Gold/Silver Squares

The 29 possible combinations that can create Silver Squares.
The 6 possible combinations that can create Gold Squares. *Note: T blocks have two different orientation.

In The New Tetris, players are rewarded if they create 4x4 large square blocks using 4 tetrad shapes. The 4x4 blocks must be constructed from whole tetrad shapes, and there are two variants: Gold Squares and Silver Squares.

When the player creates a 4x4 square using miscellaneous tetrads, a silver square is formed. Examples of this include using 2 of both variants of the "L" blocks, or two squares and two "I" blocks. In total, there are 29 combinations (ignoring orientation) that can form Silver Squares.

When the place creates a 4x4 square using the same tetrads, a gold square is formed. Due to the nature of the "z" and "s" blocks, it is impossible to construct a gold square from such shapes. In total, there are 6 combinations (ignoring orientation) that can form Gold Squares.

When a line containing a gold or silver square is cleared, a bonus line clear is rewarded. A line containing a gold square counts as 25 lines, and a line with silver counts as 10 lines. If a line contains more than one set of gold/silver blocks, an additional 5 lines is added for every line cleared.

This new addition creates a much more interesting strategy and changes the dynamics of how each block can be used. While in traditional tetris, the "L" block and the "I" are used as fillers to cover up gaps, many players in The New Tetris may favour using these blocks to create gold/silver squares. This important risk/reward tradeoff (keeping the playfield empty vs. high scoring) adds more depth to the simple mechanics found in the original Tetris gameplay.

Block Preview

The New Tetris, along with The Next Tetris, were the first official Tetris games have multiple piece previews, showing the player the next three blocks in play. This addition allowed players to make new strategic decisions based upon the upcoming blocks.

In traditional Tetris, block preview is limited to just one tetrad, which limits the player's ability to plan ahead, creating a more reflex-oriented puzzle game. With the new three block preview, players can now plan their next few steps, which is a vital feature when combined with the new Gold/Silver blocks and Hold Block.

Swap Block

If the piece in the storage area is more desirable than the currently falling piece, the player can press the L button to swap the currently falling piece with the stored piece. This combined with the block preview can open up some interesting play tactics, such as reserving the "I" piece for strategic positioning.

Block Spin

One other feature is that certain moves that are "physically impossible" are permitted, whereby pieces can be slipped into certain types of empty areas by rotating "over" the other pieces. In certain cases, this causes all the squares above and/or below the "slipped-in" piece to "disassociate" from their original pieces and fall down, possibly clearing many lines and filling in empty spaces in the bottom portion of the play area. Unfortunately, the "disassociation" process causes 4x4 squares to become ordinary pieces again and so they no longer carry their multiplier when cleared.

Shadow

Blocks now cast a shadow at the bottom of the pile projecting it's final location. Although some players have complained that this addition made the game easier, it has since then been adopted into the official line of Tetris products.

Quick Drop

Players now have the option of quickly placing a block by pressing Up on the D-Pad instead of holding Down on the D-Pad until the block slids into place. This new method allows players to quickly place a block and move on to the next one. However, this move will negate the Block Spin, as the blocks will be locked in place at the bottom of the pile.

Four Player Hot Potato Mode.

Multiplayer Garbage

In multiplayer mode, players can choose between three different garbage settings: None, Directed and Hot Potato. Garbage lines are given to a player when a opponent clears two or more lines in one drop. The number of garbage lines passed on is one less the number of lines cleared. For example: Clearing two lines gives another player one line; clearing four lies gives another player three.

• None: No garbage is passed on to opponents when lines are cleared.
• Directed: By toggling the C buttons, players can direct which opponent they target their garbage towards.
• Hot Potato: Like a game of tag, one player is selected as "it". All garbage lines will be directed to that player until they clear more lines than the combined total of lines all other players have cleared during the time the player was "it".

Modes

Marathon

Marathon is the name of classic continous mode found in any Tetris games. As mentioned before, the old rankings and leveling system has been replaced by an ambiguous level system which increase depending on time, the number of lines cleared, and the methods of how those lines are cleared. Due to this new scoring algorithm, in addition to the other gameplay changes made in The New Tetris, it is hard to compare the diffuculty settings between the this game and other iterations of Tetris.

Sprint

Sprint is one of two new modes created specially for The New Tetris. Given a One and a Half Minute (1:30) timer, players are given the objective to try to clear as many lines as possible.

Ultra

Ultra is the other new mode created for The New Tetris, and it's objective is the exact opposite of Sprint. Players are given the objective to clear 150 Lines, and the quickest time is logged and ranked accordingly.

Special Features

Two Player Vs Mode.

In addition to changes in gameplay mechanics, The New Tetris included extra features that does not improve the core gameplay mechanics by enhanced the game experience.

Music

One of the key factors that made The New Tetris more addictive than the original is its techno themed soundtrack by Neil D. Voss, the composer behind the music of Tetrisphere.

Interesting note, while the music in The New Tetris is regarded as some of the best sampling work done on the Nintendo 64, it is still composed in MIDI.

Wonders of the World

Another interesting differentiation that The New Tetris features a "Wonders of the World" collection. Upon completing a certain amount of cumulative lines in any of the game modes, the player is rewarded by a "Wonder of the World", a scenic fly-bys of famous structures (such the Sphinx or a Mayan temple). However, it was evident that the development team at Blue Planet Software and H2O Entertainment did not place heavy emphasis on this area, as the realtime scenes suffered from horrendous framerate problems, along with blurry textures, low polygon count and heavy fog usage. In the end, it was a low point to what otherwise a perfect puzzle game.

Praises/Criticism

Praises:

Criticisms:

Wonders of the world have choppy framerate. New additions to the game makes it too easy Scoring system is different, hence, not comparable.