Zzap


Tetris
By Mirrorsoft
Commodore 64

 
Published in Zzap #40

In the USSR, they take their thinking seriously...

Tetris

Tetris is another Mirrorsoft release, even more highly acclaimed than Soko-Ban. Written in the USSR, where they take their thinking seriously, it's played in an upright rectangular box, down which float coloured shapes.

The player uses a joystick to manoeuvre the shapes left and right across the box and spin them through 90 degrees so that when they finally reach the bottom they fit into the shapes already there, filling in any gaps so that they form a solid row.

When such a line is made the pile of shapes above it moves down - failing to construct rows causes the stack of shapes to build up until it hits the roof of the box and the game ends.

Again, Tetris is one of these terribly simple concepts, which make such addictive games that you wonder how and why they haven't been made use of earlier. This game, however, is like a psychological test - the brainwork doesn't slow down, and there are no breaks, because one lapse of concentration means you've suddenly messed up your whole structure of shapes and the backlog of missed linkings has suddenly mounted up.

Incredible mental stimulation accompanied by an equally incredible soundtrack.