Published by: THQ                                                     Developed by: Mass Media
 

                                 Genre: Puzzle (Classic)                                              Number of Players: 1-4

 Who doesn't love Tetris. Many gamers grew up playing Tetris on their gameboys and moving on to each successive system that carried the franchise; and they all did. While there are plenty of games out that look better, sound better, and all together are just more modern; there's something about watching those colored shapes come down the screen and plan out your next move as you arrange line after line to rack up a higher score. This formula is almost full-proof and has seemingly forced publishers to make updated versions to shove down our throats. At least, it was a full-proof formula in past versions. You'll Notice that addicted feeling is gone the moment you start playing Tetris: Evolution. I'm not sure, but it just feels like something is missing... the fun?

 The actual act of playing Tetris is quite simple, the numerous failed attempts at recreating an enjoyable update shows that it's a lot harder than one would think to duplicate the magic of a game from 20 years ago. Tetris: Evolution seems to be following the free fall from grace that it's predecessors had began after the first version was released.
 

 To begin with, the game is mind-numbingly boring to play. Mass Media may think they had the basic idea of what Tetris is all about, program some blocks to fall down the screen, give players the ability to rearrange them in lines speed it up every level,  but the gameplay is seriously lacking that feeling fun that people got from earlier Tetris versions.
 

 You wouldn't think someone could mess up the graphics and sounds of Tetris, but give another thumbs up to Mass Media on this one. Albeit, no one expects much from a Tetris game on either count, but what is there should be clean and styled in a manner befitting the Tetris franchise. Sadly, Evolution fails to deliver either correctly. 

Graphically, it’s somewhat encouraging to see Mass Media attempting to follow in the footsteps of Lumines by including video and animated backgrounds alongside the usual plain still imagery you’d expect to find in such a title, although sadly these are so bland, that they really add nothing to the overall experience.
 

 The sound doesn't do any better. With dull sound effects that feel out of place with the game as a whole. The beat of the music is overly slow and lacks the sheer volume to really get the blood flowing.
 

 Despite all the flaws, the games not completely bad and does have some positives - like the large selection of modes, with eight varieties of the usual Tetris game in single player and three in multiplayer.
But saying that, these modes are largely similar and like all of its attributes discussed above, do nothing to fix the biggest problem of all; that Tetris Evolution simply isn’t fun to play. 
 

 Tetris Evolution really can appear to be attractive to the casual gamer who stumbles across it on a Saturday afternoon looking for a cheap game to fill their time, but they would seriously feel ripped off once the began playing, as I did, a game that doesn't come close to living up to the bar set by previous versions. There's no sense of urgency in this game like that which was felt in other Tetris titles. I seriously think if you want to play Tetris, you're better off dusting off an old copy you more than likely have sitting around somewhere. If you really NEED to experience this gameplay, go buy Tetris Online for the SEGA Dreamcast and while playing, imagine it's twice as bad as it is. That should give you an accurate idea of this game.




-It's basically the same game from 20 years ago

-Downloadable Content

-Competitive online play

-Why do they keep remaking this game?



Final Score: 4.5/10

Comments (11)