If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then a certain Russian puzzle game should really feel like the belle of the ball. No game has been reimagined, reinvented, tributed, paid homage and flat-out ripped off more often than Alexey Pajitnov's indomitable classic called Tetris.
The latest "It's Tetris, only better!" offering to appear for us Tetris addicts is Tetris Elements, which offers half a dozen varieties of the puzzle game. Five of these variations involve an extra gimmick thrown into standard Tetris play. These five gimmicks are associated with five forces (elements) of nature. The sixth is a pure "Classic" mode to keep the traditionalists happy.
Stratosphere is standard Tetris except 'meteors' occasionally come into your play field from the top of the screen. Different colored meteors have different effects. Some clear placed blocks, some add random blocks. You can use the current falling tetromino as a paddle of sorts to keep helpful meteors bouncing around, maximizing their effect. When you have such a meteor trapped, the game works something like an inverted game of Breakout.
Earthquake shakes things up (sorry, I had to) with a few surprises of its own. First off, when you clear lines, any individual tetromino squares that are left suspended over an empty square fall down, cascading to fill in the space. At first, you might think this makes the game too easy, but then the next surprise will get you. If you play too slowly - based on how many lines you're completing per minute - the pressure will build up and trigger an earthquake. You'll have to quickly clear some lines to prevent an earthquake, which really messes things up by creating cavities and generally scrambling the tetrominos you've already played.
Ice has you dodging the icecicles that form at the top of the playfield as they fall. If one hits the tetromino you are currently controlling, it will slam the tetromino into place. This can be bad if it takes you by surprise, or good if you plan for it. When the tetromino is slammed down by an icecicle, its blocks fill in any cavities in the pile below. This is more than just handy, it's vital. When a giant icecicle falls, it forms a horizontal line of ice that can only be destroyed by clearing the line directly below it...the only way to do that is use the other icecicles to your advantage.
Fire lets you clear up to eight lines at once by super-heating the falling tetrominos. You do this by hard-dropping them from as high as possible. Super-heated tetromino lines explode when you clear them, taking several extra rows of blocks when they do.
Tempest is the last of the variations. It's actually two games of Tetris at once. You play one matrix at a time, but - instead of 'holding' a tetromino - hitting the 'hold' key will pass that piece to the other matrix. You can queue up a limited number of pieces to be played on the other matrix this way. Once the wind picks up and a tornado appears, the game will spin around and you'll be playing the other matrix.
I really enjoyed the special effects accompanying the elemental theme of each variation. Each variation also has its own catchy theme music. One feature the game lacks is direct support for a gamepad or other controller, but many gamepads let you map their buttons to keys anyway. It shouldn't be too hard to get one working with the game if that's the way you like to play.
Overall, this is one of the best Tetris variations I've played. It's true enough to the original to still be Tetris, but throws in some unique twists to keep it fresh. Stratosphere and Earthquake are my personal favorites because of the depth of strategy they make possible. If you are a Tetris fanatic like me, be sure to pick this one up!
I'm a thirty-something computer programmer. I live in Delaware, but I grew up in Arkansas in a tiny town of 2500. We didn't have video arcades. Heck, it was nearly an hour's drive to anything as sophisticated as a Wal*Mart. Needless to say, my exposure to video games as a child was somewhat limited.
In the mid 80's, I cut my teeth on a used Atari 2600 bought at a flea market and a handful of games like Space Invaders and Pac Man. I was hooked in a blink. In the decades since, I've become a big fan of many genres of games. From first-person shooters to role-playing to strategy and everything in between. The only games that categorically don't interest me are sports games.
The easiest way for a game to win me over is to have a gripping story. I'll forgive a lot in a game that grabs me and keeps me interested. The inverse is true, too. If a game does not have a killer story, its gameplay had better be pretty darn compelling to make up for it. That doesn't happen very often
