Tetris has been released so many times over the years, you start to wonder...maybe that’s
part of the plan.
Maybe this is some scheme to reach out to other life forms.
It’s not like anyone on this planet hasn’t played Tetris, so maybe the repackaging of
this game is like the precursor to some kind of new Voyager program.
Only this time, instead of gold records, we’re sending Tetris: Axis.
Of course, that wouldn’t be a very nice gesture on our part.
I don’t know very much about interstellar diplomacy, but I think sending a weaker Tetris
might be step one in starting a cross-galaxy war.
Just to be safe, maybe we can send Tetris DS instead.
It’s not that Tetris: Axis is a bad game.
It’s pretty hard to screw up the greatest puzzle game of all-time, so any game built
around Alexey Pajitnov’s elegant masterpiece is an inherently good game at heart.
The thing is, when it’s been rereleased as many times as Tetris, the quality of the
release really hinges on the quality of the package.
And in that respect, Tetris: Axis—while decent—is also a bit of a letdown.
The first thing you notice with Tetris: Axis is that the game seems to have more modes
and content than it knows what to do with.
There are more than 20 different ways to play Tetris in Axis, scattered across a menu system
that is anything but intuitive.
You feel like you have to dig for a lot of them, navigating submenus until you find more
modes you probably won’t play more than once before going back to the original.
Among the several new ones are modes like a thinner Tetris grid, a Tetris game with
bombs in the blocks and even a falling-block race of sorts.
The game also supports the 3DS AR cards for some augmented reality Tetris, which is cool...but
for the most part, a good deal of the modes feel half-heartedly tacked on.
Speaking of half-hearted, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Tetris: Axis is the
game’s presentation.
Two of the best recent Tetris games for Nintendo consoles were Tetris DS and Tetris Party for
WiiWare, each of which packaged cool gameplay with equally well-conceived aesthetics and
designs.
Tetris: Axis has neither.
In fact, the game almost looks thrown together...as if there’s no coherent idea here beyond,
“Hey, we need a Tetris game on the 3DS.”
Even the Mii support, which is an excellent addition at first, feels empty.
He just...stands there.
And dances.
That’s the kind of thought that went into Tetris: Axis.
Let’s just stand there and be Tetris.
Fortunately, there are a lot of multiplayer options.
You can play up to eight players locally and online, and best of all, Tetris: Axis also
supports download play.
Your pals don’t even need their own cartridge to play a little Tetris: Axis wirelessly,
which is an excellent addition in any 3DS game.
It sounds like nitpicking, but at the same time, there has to be a basis of comparison
somewhere.
Games like Tetris DS and Tetris Party paired awesome presentation with cool new ways to
play.
Tetris: Axis lacks the former, and although it packs a punch in terms of content, a lot
of it just feels thrown together.
In fact, many of the options actually existed in other games first.
I can’t tell if this is a new Tetris or a greatest hits collection.
The only problem with that is that Tetris: Axis isn’t even the greatest hits.
It’s like a Metallica show in which they only play stuff from Load.
It’s still Metallica, but it was better before.