Tetris Worlds Online Review

Xbox owners have had a slow start to Microsoft’s unfulfilled promise at online gaming paradise. Only a handful of Xbox Live enabled games are worthy of even playing online, such as Mech Assault, Moto GP 2, Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War, Unreal Championship and NFL 2K3. All (except two) of those titles are established franchises, but only one Xbox Live title can claim that it has been around since the birth of gaming. Tetris is that very franchise that might bring a little more worth to Xbox Live. If you are new to Xbox Live, Tetris Worlds is the game that can get you started. Well, first of all, it comes for free with the Xbox Live starter kit, which currently sells for $49.99 and includes one year of service, a headset, and of the full version of Tetris Worlds and a few extra demos.

Fundamentally, Tetris Worlds is the same game as its offline counterparts. There are six types of games, Tetris, Square, Cascade, Sticky, Hot-line, and Fusion, with the addition of one feature, online play. Nonetheless, the inclusion of online play adds a ton of extra replay value and is probably worth the $20 price tag alone, for longtime Tetris fanatics.

Tetris Worlds has a story mode, which was not found in previous installments of the series. Even though I had a good time with the story mode, it is basically the same exact thing as online mode and arcade mode, except it has different backgrounds. I won’t go into the story too much, since it is ridiculously dull and stupid, but it involves you opening the “Tetrions� throughout the galaxy to help the Minos escape from their home planet. Your goal is to open the Tetrions and evacuate the Minos to six other planets that are suitable for life. If you put the story aside, you will have an enjoyable time with Tetris Worlds.

Some advances in Tetris game play include; the ability to save a piece for later use by pressing the R-Trigger button. When trying to attempt a Tetris, this will find itself as being very useful. Another convenient feature is the ability to drop your piece without further movement by pressing up on the analog stick.

Online play is the main benefit of purchasing this title. If you don’t have any friends that play Tetris (like myself), then Xbox Live is your savior. You can have up to four players in each game, along with the ability to plug in a second Controller S to be filled by a guest player. It is always fun to send garbage blocks to your opponents on Xbox Live when you clear multiple lines at once, while playing knock-out.