[Tetlee]

I must be one of the only people that has never been a fan of Tetris, buuuut, it's one of the few games my missus is a fan of and having just discovered that the up-coming Tetris Party feautures co-op play(as well as a load of other modes) I'm sold(Zuma has been outstaying its welcome lately)!

IGN: Tetris Party Preview

^Very interesting 3 page article detailing the various play modes, looks like being the definative Tetris release. Apparently the IGN review is due next week.

Tetris Party is all about adding new modes, but not just throwing things in there for the sake of adding false replay value to the package; we're talking actual, competitive (and some casual) offerings that really make this Tetris product stand out. For 1200 Wii Points, players will be getting more in Tetris Party than we saw on Xbox 360, and yes, more than what's offered with Tetris DS. It's packed.

Managed to source another US 2000 Wii Points card for a tenner off ebay so I'm all set(releases next Monday on US WiiWare, not sure the European release date).

[Tetlee]

Well, downloaded this earlier, worked out at £6.00 exactly after buying the points card from ebay and well worth that money I think.

Shed loads of game modes in here for single & multiplayer(including online & tournaments), haven't even tried half of them yet but they do seem well thought out rather than being a load of pointless modes to fill the game out as you'd typically expect.

Sadly the missus isn't too keen on the co-op, it works flawlessly but being a bit of a Tetris perfectionist she finds my random dropping of blocks kind of irritating especially when I drop a block right in an area she had plans for

Anyway, she does seem to like it overall so all is well in the Tet household. Probably my personal favourite mode so far is the climber mode(probably not the official mode name there BTW) where you have to help your little man climb to the top, he can only climb one block at a time and needs to collect pre-located flags on the way up, quite good fun and kinda hectic when you have two players + a couple of comp opponents battling it out.

If I have one critisism so far with Tetris Party it's the small playing screens, they're big enough to see what you're doing but I would have liked the option to zoom in more to make the playing area bigger rather than waste so much of the outer screen.

Will be playing this quite a bit over the next few days I expect, see what the other modes are all about as reading the IGN preview that I linked to above some of them sound like being alot of fun.

[Tetlee]

Being released on European WiiWare this Friday(again priced at 1200 points), nice to see one of the better games release the same week both US & Europe for a change.

For those interested, the IGN review went up last night & they awarded the game a glowing 9/10 IGN: Tetris Party Review

Closing Comments
Tetris Party isn't a perfect game, but it is yet another must-have WiiWare title. For 1200 points and 244 blocks of Wii space, players can sink their teeth into a download that feels more like a packaged game, and less like WiiWare, with over a half dozen new modes to play, leaderboards for all of it, online battle, and a whole slew of options. If this were a $19.99 boxed title (or even a $29.99 one), we'd be recommending it, but mentioning that it's be a heck of a steal to get it on WiiWare. With that already being the case, gamers now have a package that's worth nearly double its price, and one that rivals things like World of Goo for your download space, cash, and attention. If you're a fan of traditional Tetris, this is the best console version we've seen in years. It's a must-own WiiWare game.

They don't go into too much detail around the various modes in the review, for that click on the preview which I linked to in the opening post.

Spent most of the evening playing through the various Tetris modes last night, most were a hit, just a couple of modes we weren't too keen on. The old school game of squares infulenced one was our least favourite where you take turns in closing off spaces for points, sounded like a nice idea but for some reason it just didn't seem to work and the gameplay we found boring.

Oh, I did discover one more gripe with the game which seemed a bit of an oversight, no gamecube/wavebird controller support Sure enough several of the modes require the IR from the remote, but a few don't and seeing as we have three wavebirds here it would have been nice to use them in the traditional Tetris mode which supports up to 6 players locally, sadly a no go which was a bit disappointing.

If I was to rate this game out of ten it would probably be an 8/10 for me, as a person that's never liked Tetris previously though I guess that proves what a decent package this one is, certainly worth the asking price!

[The Fuggler]

Very tempting!

I think this is one of those games to keep in the back pocket for the spring / summer drought next year. Either that or a purchase after one too many ales!

Ben

[Tetlee]

It's almost going down too well in the Tet household, the missus and step daugther have now got hooked to the shadow mode(where you have to fill in the background pictures) and it's hard to get them off the damn thing

[G a f f e r]

Video Trailer here :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6dAVTzqGXM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPZUsDGKRYw

[markdavies1978]

I don't seem to be able to play head-to-head with the Mrs on this using her Mii - Only seems to work as player 2 as a guest?

Great game though..!

[Tetlee]

Originally Posted by markdavies1978

I don't seem to be able to play head-to-head with the Mrs on this using her Mii - Only seems to work as player 2 as a guest?

It isn't too obvious this and took me a while to figure out how to get my missus own Mii into the game(rather than playing as a guest). Is simple in the end, all you need do is from the main menu, go down to Create New Data and asign her Mii.

Once done it will not only allow her to play as her Mii, but it will also track individual stats when playing single player modes and you can then compare little stat charts which is quite fun. We enjoy competing for time & accuracy(it records both) in single player shadow mode, makes a nice change from the competative game modes

[markdavies1978]

Originally Posted by Tetlee

It isn't too obvious this and took me a while to figure out how to get my missus own Mii into the game(rather than playing as a guest). Is simple in the end, all you need do is from the main menu, go down to Create New Data and asign her Mii.

Once done it will not only allow her to play as her Mii, but it will also track individual stats when playing single player modes and you can then compare little stat charts which is quite fun. We enjoy competing for time & accuracy(it records both) in single player shadow mode, makes a nice change from the competative game modes

Hi Tetlee.

I have defo created her own data account, we then use my Mii to sign into the game bust still only get guest as the option when chossing a Head2Head match.

I will take another look though.

Cheers.

[vinvader]

I'm a massive Tetris fan since I first played it on my C64 all those years ago. I look forward to downloading this soon it looks great!

[goldenone]

Never been a massive Tetris fan but i agree this version looks good. Giving it serious thought about downloading this myself.

[caz2005]

I loved Tetrisphere. Wish that would come out on the VC. I'd rather it than this one.

[vinvader]

Downloaded this on Saturday and have to say I'm really loving it, great fun.

The on-line play is great especially if you get an evenly matched player, I've had a few really epic matches.

Have to agree with Tetlee about the small playing area on 1 player, would love to zoom it in a bit.

There's still a few modes I haven't played yet, has anyone tried the Wii Fit Board mode?

[goldenone]

I downloaded it at the weekend too. So far it still remains as addictive as ever although i am another who feels that the playing area is far too small and this is more noticable in certain modes.

As for online i can honestly say that i haven't managed to find a game yet so cant comment on that

[vinvader]

Originally Posted by goldenone

As for online i can honestly say that i haven't managed to find a game yet so cant comment on that

I've had quite a few using the settings of...

World Battle
Region: World
Items: Off

Sometimes I have to wait about a minute, if it hasn't found a player by then I exit and reconnect.

[vinvader]

I've been playing this loads recently, loving it. I did manage to work my way up to 3rd in the UK although a few bad defeats have dropped me to 6th now.

One negative that really bugs me though is the amount of people who turn off their wii mid game when they think they're going to loose.

[Tetlee]

Originally Posted by vinvader

One negative that really bugs me though is the amount of people who turn off their wii mid game when they think they're going to loose.

You get those idiots in most online games these days I haven't even tried the online of Tetris Party yet, is it just one on one or 6 players at once?

Bit nervous to go online in truth as I really do suck at Tetris(even the missus wipes the floor with me).

[vinvader]

I've only played the 'no items' game online which is just 1 on 1, there's also the 'items' game which is 6 player.

Give it a go online Tetlee it's great fun.

Ive dropped a load more places in the rankings and it's taking ages to build my score back up, but it's so addictive. This is my favourite version of tetris now.