Developer: H20 Entertainment Publisher: Nintendo

Platform: Nintendo 64 Release Date: August 11th, 1997

It’s a shame that so few people remember this game. But those that do have very fond memories, I’ll tell you what! Don’t forget that this game was originally called Phear by Atari, who lost it in 1995. All you Tetris purists out there probably want to know that if you didn’t already.

The concept is pretty straightforward. Tetris + Layers + Sphere = Awesome. The goal is to reach the core (complete with cute little googly-eyes and everything) by eliminating several layers that surround it. It takes a few minutes to adjust to the sphere aspect of the classic game. But when you do, you have one of the most enjoyable and engaging versions of Tetris ever conceived.

So let’s jump in and show you what you’ve been missing, yeah?

Let me say this right off the bat: this is not the usual style Tetris in a sphere shape. The rounds would take far too long to make the game any fun. So instead of the usual ‘block that fits, line disappears’ gameplay, you have to line up three pieces of the same type in order to make a section disappear. Each type of piece has a different color assigned to it. You will see the ’shadow’ of the oncoming piece on the game field. Once the proper interaction has been lined up, a nice chunk will be blown out of the sphere – including any same-type pieces on a lower layer. You will receive a penalty, however, for not causing a reaction when a piece is dropped. There is a ‘three-strikes you’re out’ take on the system, so don’t screw around too much. There is also the classic Tetris anxiety-inducing timer. Miss the first time and you come closer to crashing into the sphere. Each time missed brings you in faster until you eventually crash into the sphere and incur a penalty. Yes, it sounds weird. But after about say, thirty seconds, you can’t seem to peel yourself away. I’m talking hours here.

Now although this is the base goal of Tetrisphere, there are several different modes that really flesh out the experience and up the replay value. Rescue has the player free the core from the center the sphere. Puzzle gets rid of the drop timer and the combo weapons. And instead of the usual random nature of the falling blocks, players must remove all blocks from the surface of the globe, given a set number of sliding moves and drops of select pieces. It takes a lot more thinking to get things done in this mode. Then there are the usual Vs. CPU and Vs. player 2 options. There really is nothing better than playing with a friend for the first time and seeing the look of utter confusion on his face as you whoop his ass for the first few rounds. Or maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m just a mean little bastard.

Anyways.

So that’s the meat & potatoes of the gameplay. For those of you who still have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a little video of the Rescue mode.

It is also worth noting that the Techno soundtrack composed by Neil D. Voss won several awards including an award for “Best Soundtrack” of 1997 in the January 1998 issue of Nintendo Power. For those of you that hate Techno, however, you probably won’t give a shit. Oh well. Can’t please everyone, can you?

So there it is folks. I recommend this game as much as I did when it first came out. There hasn’t really been anything like Tetrisphere since. If you have any love at all for puzzle games, pick this up ASAP. It’s around if you look hard enough for it.

Overall- Then: 8.5 out of 10 Now: 8.5 out of 10

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