Chances are, if I ask you to think of a falling-block puzzle game, your mind is going to go immediately
to Tetris. Sure, there are plenty of other quality games like the Puyo Puyo series, Meteos,
Lumines, Columns, Dr. Mario, Blockout, Yoshi, Wetrix, Wordtris, Hatris, Ranma ½ Ougijaanken...
I could go on. But, like it or not, Tetris is the de facto standard for the genre. Pretty
much everything since Tetris has been defined... in terms of Tetris. Market dominance does
that to a game. Even so, many have sought to build on the Tetris name by adding more
and different modes and mechanics, some worthwhile, others downright laughable.
Unfortunately, where Tetris starts to break down is in its basic nomenclature. We here
in the west already had a Tetris 2, which was known as Tetris Flash in Japan, while
the portion of this offering called Bombliss is called “Tetris Blast” in English. Confused
yet? Let me try to bring it together for you: This game has two sides. One’s a fairly
bog-standard rehashing of the classic Tetris game, except this one’s got 16-bit graphics.
Hence the “Super” in the name. The other is a... well, some would call it an abomination.
Physics don’t really work the same way. Clearing lines doesn’t actually clear the
line, in all cases, sometimes. Let me grab a beverage, so as to explain it fully.
So, Bombliss slash Tetris Blast comma, previously released only for the Game Boy, now has a
proper 16-bit version. The goal, unlike classic Tetris, is complete annihilation of the entire
playing field through the use of explosives. Those explosives come embedded in the tetrominoes
(or pentominoes or other more elaborate n-minoes) and act just like normal blocks... until the
line they’re on is cleared. That clearance is enough to detonate any bombs within, which
- in their singular form - eliminate any blocks on that row within three of the bomb itself.
So unless your bombs are well-spaced along the row, there’s a significant chance you’re
not going to hit all of ‘em. Any blocks remaining will serve to support any pieces
above it, leading to some physically dubious constructions if left unabated. Fortunately,
there’s more than one way to detonate a line. If single explosions aren’t doing
it for you, you can super-charge your bombs by clearing multiple lines at once, which
turn those 1x7 blasts into 3x7 detonatoins. And if you arrange bombs into a square, they’ll
fuse into one piece of mega-ordnance that can take out a vast chunk of the playfield
in one go.
Personally, Bombliss is one of my favorite Tetris-variants, right up there with Atomic
Tetris and Hot-Line Tetris from Tetris Worlds. But you don’t have to go importing this
just so you get your hands on some sweet block-exploding action. If you can’t find a copy of Tetris
Blast for the original Game Boy, or you can’t find your Game Boy (or Super Game Boy, or
Game Boy Player on your ‘Cube), you can find the glorious return of Bombliss on Tetris
Axis for the 3DS. Imagine! Something on the 3DS worth playing, that isn’t called Mighty
Switch Force! Oh, and there’s regular Tetris, too. But you can get regular Tetris anywhere.
Bombliss, man. That’s where it’s at. I got two turntables and an I-block. Come at
me.