Game Boy Game Recommendations | mariteaux

[#] Tetris DX (Nintendo, Game Boy, 1998)

It's all about the little details.

Now this is more like it! The original Game Boy Tetris might be a classic, but it's also kinda blah, with a fairly unforgiving engine to make long marathon games untenable. DX fixes all those issues in spades. More forgiving, more customizable, more modes, more colorful (unless you're running it on an original Game Boy, of course), high score saving, this is such a massive leap forward that it doesn't just make the original Tetris obsolete—this might be my favorite retro version of Tetris period, and it's certainly my idle go-to 3DS time-waster.

The single change that makes DX infinitely nicer to play is that blocks are not immediately dead once they hit the phalanx. You can spin and rotate blocks along the sides of the playfield or along the phalanx as needed, giving you serious breathing room up into the double digit speeds, and making trickier completes possible. Seriously, I can play this for a half hour straight, maybe longer. Pair that with the fact that it saves high scores, and it means you can play DX as more of a marathon puzzler, not just a quick sprint that dies the moment you make a mistake.

DX adds some additional complete variations, like a time attack mode, a timed 40 line clear, and a surprisingly tricky against-the-computer mode, for variety and replay value. While nowhere near as fancy visually as the Tengen NES Tetris, DX is easy on the eyes and has some cute little space shuttle animations to celebrate a particularly high score. It's hard to say much else! It's Tetris, no fluff, but everything you want. Maybe the lack of holding a block will keep some people from embracing Tetris DX. Spoiled fucking children.