The Next Tetris
by Atari Interactive

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More than 12 years ago, a fiendishly addictive puzzle game called Tetris was invented in the former Soviet Union.   Alexey Pajitnov, Tetris' creator, had a lifelong love of puzzles and often programmed games to test new computer equipment.  In 1985 he decided to program the traditional puzzle Pentamino in real time.

After realizing that five-square blocks were too difficult to position in. real time, Pajitnov decided to use seven shapes made up of four square blocks.  The name Tetris comes from tetra, the Greek word for "four."

The game made its way to the United States in 1988 and quickly became a best-selling phenomenon as people everywhere lost track of time while playing Tetris.

Twelve years has passed since Tetris arrived in the U.S.  In that time, many versions of Tetris have been published -- too many to count actually.  There has been an Atari Games coin-op, a PC version from Spectrum Holobyte, and many console versions from Nintendo, Tengen, and others.

However, the game hasn't seen many changes in the last few years, until now.  The Atari division of Hasbro Interactive has released a new version of the world's most popular puzzle game.  "The Next Tetris" is now available for the PC, and the PlayStation.

This is not the Tetris that you are used to.  Granted, the same game of Tetris is part of this package, but The Next Tetris has some new challenges.  The Next Tetris features "Cascade" blocks.   Essentially, your blocks can fall apart based on their colors.  Think of it as a "waterfall" effect.  A Cascade happens when a line (or lines) is cleared and the blocks above that line fall, in turn completing more lines, causing a chain reaction.

Seven different shaped pieces (each made up of 4 squares) fall from the top of the screen.  Your goal is to arrange these pieces into lines by moving and rotating them.  A block is one square in a piece. A Tetris piece consists of 4 blocks, and there are 7 different kinds.

The Next Tetris pieces can be either Tetraminos or Multiminos.  A Tetramino is a normal Tetris piece, consisting of the same colored blocks.  Multimino is a special "The Next Tetris" piece consisting of different colored blocks.  Multiminos are important for creating Cascades.  When a Multimino lands, the piece separates its blocks by their color.  If the color of blocks do not match, the blocks separate and fall down if there is space below.

When you drop a Tetramino or Multimino, adjacent blocks of the same color will combine.  This combined piece is called a Polymino.  If a Polymino becomes too big, it is more difficult to Cascade.   Cascades are a special feature of The Next Tetris that make it unique.  If you completely fill in one or more horizontal lines, those lines of blocks will disappear.   The blocks above those cleared lines will fall individually, possibly completing their own lines in turn.   This phenomenon is called a Cascade.  As you get better at playing The Next Tetris, you can even clear more than 5 lines at once by using Cascades.

The space in which pieces fall is called the playfield.  The playfield itself is 10 blocks wide by 20 blocks high.   When the playfield fills up with pieces or when you've gone past the time limit, the game is over.

In all modes, except the Marathon mode, there are some "garbage" blocks at the bottom of the playfield.  Your goal is to clear the bottom rows of garbage so that you can move on to the next level.

As I mentioned above, The Next Tetris does include a version of the original Tetris.  There are several other modes of the game including a one-player mode, a two-player mode, and a marathon mode.

The one-player mode is a time based game.  The game clock is set for five minutes.  During that time, you have to eliminate the blocks that fall from the top of the screen as fast as possible.  If you beat the clock, you can move on to the next screen.  When your five minutes expire, the game is over.

The two-player mode is a two-player side-by-side battle of the one-player game.  Now, here is where the game gets to be VERY cool.  When you eliminate two or more rows of blocks, you send your opponents bin into a frenzy.  In a nutshell, it will start spinning wildly for several seconds.  The effect lasts longer if you eliminate 4 or 5 rows of blocks.   During the time that the opponents bin is spinning wildly in 3D on the screen, it makes it impossible for the opposing player to keep up with the game.  The effect is extremely disorienting, and if you time it right, you can mess up their entire game.   It is a very evil, yet fun trick to play on your opponent.

The two-player mode of the game also has a "handicapping" feature.  This allows two players with different skills to compete against each other fairly.  That way, the better player won't slaughter the other player all of the time.  This is a great addition to the game.

Marathon mode is the game I usually play.  In Marathon mode, a single player to play as many levels as possible.   Each time the player moves up a level, the speed of the blocks increases.

PlayStation Summary:

The PlayStation version of The Next Tetris is extremely cool.  My girlfriend can't stop playing this game.

One unique aspect of the PlayStation version is the way that music is handled.  The music that comes with the game is very unique.  There are some tunes that have a decidedly "Russian" sound to them, while other tracks have a "techno" feel like many other games have been using lately.  However, if you get sick of the music, The Next Tetris has a CD player applet built in.  Start the game, and replace The Next Tetris CD with a music CD.   This allows you to play your own tunes with the game.

The Next Tetris is visually stunning.   It appears to be using the PlayStation "high-resolution" graphics mode, so the graphics are very smooth, and have a fancy 3D look to them.  I did notice that the game does slow down ever so slightly in two player mode when the players reach the upper levels.

As for bugs, I think I did find a few in the two-player mode.  Occasionally on the two player mode of the game, the bin for the second player would go through some strange color changes.  I noticed this when the first player would eliminate four or five rows of blocks and send the second players bin spinning uncontrollably for several seconds.  This would not affect the gameplay at all, and the colors would go back to normal at the start of the next round.   (Actually, my girlfriend thought that the screwed up colors were better than the standard colors of the game.  Go figure.)

Another bug in the two-player version of the game does affect the gameplay.  Occasionally, when moving up to the next level in the two-player version of the game, only 1/2 of the second players playfield would be visible.   As soon as the first player eliminated a few rows of blocks, and sent the second players playfield spinning, the screen would refresh and the game would go back to normal.  I noticed this to be a rare bug that would pop up after playing the game for an extended period of time.

The Next Tetris is a fun game for one or two players.  I would have no problem giving this game a higher rating were it not for the problems I encountered in the two-player mode.  Overall, the PSX version of The Next Tetris is a solid fun game.  If you love puzzle style games, or are looking for a fun game to play head-to-head with a friend, you will be very happy with The Next Tetris.

PC Summary:

You know, I'm not quite sure what happened here.  The PlayStation version of The Next Tetris shipped several months before the PC version, and as I noted above, I found it to be a fun game.  The PC version, on the other hand, has been an extreme disappointment.  Want to know why?

First and foremost, the game just doesn't look as crisp & sharp as the PlayStation version.  We all know that the game consoles are getting better and better in the graphics arena, but console games aren't at the point yet where they look better than PC games.  The Next Tetris is the exception to that rule.  The PC version of this game is not as graphically rich as the PlayStation version, and I found that to be somewhat disturbing.

The use of colors in this game is not nearly as good as the PlayStation version.  Take a good close look at the screen capture on the left from the two-player mode.  You will have to look REAL hard, but you are seeing what you think that you are seeing....red blocks on a red background.  It is extremely hard to see those blocks when they have been placed on a red background.   I am completely dumbfounded as to why the designers have moved away from the beige backgrounds from the PlayStation version.   In the PSX version, there is no problems distinguishing the blocks because the neutral colored background does not match any of the colors for the Tetris blocks.   So, why did the PC version of the game use a red background that is exactly the same as the red colored blocks?!?

Another issue is the controller setup.   The game assumes that you will be playing with a keyboard.  If you are not playing with a keyboard, and most people won't, then you must step through a tedious set of menus to configure your joystick.  There is no set of joystick "defaults" like most games have.  You can't just "turn on" the joystick, and "turn off" the keyboard.

One other aspect of this game that disturbs me is the playfield itself.  If you take a look at the PlayStation screen captures above, you will see that the playfield nearly fills the screen from top to bottom.   That is not the case on the PC version.  The playfield is much smaller, which makes it harder to see.  Why the playfield is so much smaller is a mystery, as there is plenty of wasted space at the top and bottom of the screen.  I've played with the video settings within the game, and I haven't been able to expand the size of the playfield. 

On the plus side, there are some features in the PC version that are not available in the PlayStation version.  For example, you upload your high scores to the Tetris World server, so you can see how you are doing compared to other Tetris players.  In order to do this, you need an Internet connection, and you will need to establish an account on the Tetris World server.

As for bugs, I really didn't notice any, and the programmers/designers should be congratulated for that.  The game installed smoothly, and I have not encountered any crashes, or any of the problems that I encountered in the PSX two-player mode.

I am at a complete loss as to why there are so many glaring differences between the PSX & PC versions of The Next Tetris.   All in all, I cannot recommend the PC version, even to the "die-hard" Tetris players.

Hardware Requirements (PC Version):

Modem:
28,800 baud for connectivity to Tetris World

For more information, visit the Atari Interactive
homepage at Hasbro Interactive