Tetris!

That’s right, I finally post an entry after more than a month of inactivity and it’s about Tetris. Deal with it.

Item number one on my checklist is Tetris DS. I finally managed to locate a copy and have put quite a few hours into it. It took a while to incorporate the new features into my game, but as I made use of the “hard drop” move (it basically makes a piece drop immediately) and the “ghost piece” option (which allows you to see where the piece will land and position it accordingly), I found the game more and more enjoyable. Also new to me was the ability to rotate and slide a piece infinitely after it’s landed and before it locks into position. Tetris DS is clearly geared towards fast play. I enjoyed the variety of modes and a little bit of multiplayer, but could’ve done without the Nintendo branding. It’s done tastefully, but I could’ve used an option for alternative “skins” or, better yet, music. I still can’t recommend this enough if you like Tetris and have a DS. I’ve read it can be pretty hard to find though- took me a lot of searching myself – so good luck.

While looking around for info on Tetris DS, I came across Tetris: The Grand Master, a series similar to Tetris DS in gameplay. (Although saying two Tetris games are similar to one another is as obvious as observing that Mario is a fat fuck with a mustache who gets high on shrooms.) I even managed to download a fan-made version of Tetris that emulates some of the TGM arcade versions, called Heboris. I use an unstable version for Mac, but plan to get more into it once I have access to a proper keyboard (the one on my laptop wasn’t really made for Tetris).

Here’s a video of someone who’s clearly very good at Tetris: The Grand Master. Things become really crazy 5 minutes into the session when the pieces turn invisible. Oh yes.

After that I can’t really see how my new record at Tetris for the Game Boy will make any sort of impact, but here it is: 307898. I’m improving slowly but steadily. I wanted a score over 300k so that I can focus more on Tetris DS or Heboris from now on. I’ll keep you posted on any new scores, of course.

*Edit* 9/8/08: New personal best: 335806. Yay!