Wii Game Recommendations | mariteaux

[#] Tetris Party Deluxe (Tetris Online, Wii, 2010)

More modes! More stacking! Play online! Fuck!

I've played hella versions of Tetris, so let this be of import when I say that Tetris Party Deluxe, on Wii and on DS, absolutely rules. These are my favorite "new-school" versions of Tetris. (If you don't know, The Tetris Company has standardized a lot of the gameplay mechanics of Tetris over the years, from spinning behavior to how the randomizer gives you pieces, hence "new-school" as opposed to NES Tetris or Tetris DX.) I know, it's such a simple game! How could any be good or bad if it's just Tetris? It's the the game options and playability that give Deluxe the edge.

There are a lot of game modes in Deluxe, and a lot of customization in each one. Your traditional Marathon mode can be set to end at 150 lines, which is great because it gives you a finite end to try to best in terms of your score and fastest completion. The CPU battle mode, as you send completed lines back and forth to trip the other player up, is one of my favorite Wii timewasters period. There's a "beginner Tetris" mode with a bigger grid and three block pieces, and while you think this would be pointless, it trips up my seasoned brain enough to be its own challenge. Even the more experimental modes, like Stage Racer or Balance Board Tetris, while they can be hit-and-miss, are nice additions that show an appreciated desire to experiment.

Okay, but how's the block stacking? Excellent. All the block spin maneuvers into tight spots and piece hold mechanics you could want are here. The piece holding in particular is nice with the standardized randomizer, because you can hold an S or Z (or L or J) piece when you don't need it, and then swap it in when you get another piece of the reverse that you don't need in the next few blocks, creating this sort of rhythm that makes it really easy to build ideal Tetris-scumming setups. Not to say this game can't kick your ass at the highest speeds or the highest CPU levels though! There's so many versions of Tetris that it might be hard to call any definitive, but for consoles, Deluxe might be it.