At long last, Electronic Arts has finally delivered a version of the hall-of-fame game Tetris to the iPhone. Even at $4.99, it was worth the wait.
Long available on other devices, he iPhone’s version of Tetris is no slouch. It brings a fresh visual look, touch controls, and a unique “Magic” mode that may offend Tetris purists, but at the very least, it offers a different take on a classic game.
In “Magic,” the usual Tetris game is augmented by power-ups that alter the board either by allowing you to smash pieces together, shrink the piece you’re about to put down, or shake up the board by shaking up your phone.
Otherwise, the classic Tetris game remains the same. The game does look very crisp on the iPhone, and the touch screen controls are very easy to get used to. You can bring the pieces down faster by pulling on them, rotate pieces by tapping on the screen, and put your piece on hold by tapping on a separate section of the screen. There’s also a handy in-game tutorial that explains all of this quite well.
The Tetris app also keeps track of your high score, and let’s you pause and resume one game, as well. What it doesn’t do, unfortunately, is let you post that score on a leaderboard of any kind. Even though half the fun of Tetris is showing off, you’ll have to do so while limiting your bragging to your iPhone.
The $5 price tag is also slightly prohibitive, given that this is a game that almost feels like it should be given away for free as a rite of passage to anyone who loves puzzle games at this point. In the end, it’s still worth the purchase. After all, it is Tetris.
