Tetris Evolution - impressions

Thread in 'Discussion' started by colour_thief, 24 Mar 2007.

  1. I just thought I'd shed the preview thread and give this game it's own thread proper. What do you guys think about it so far? I think it's...


    Well no of course I haven't picked it up as I'm skeptical of all THQ-branded releases. Especially after Elements. Anyways, my low expectations don't stop me from being curious: what's it like?



    I'll anticipate uninamous (and deserved) cursing of the standard X360 d-pad and link you to this purpotedly simple and excellent mod to fix it:

    http://www.ufighterx.com/guides/videogame/360dpadfix/360dpadfix.htm


    I'll also mention that the game is quite possibly region free. PAL gamers can use the US version. Though it is currently untested on a JP system, there is a good chance it will work with it as well.

    http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-00-3-xbox360_compatibility_guide-49-en.html
     
  2. Don't waste your time with that mod. I did it. Went out and bought all that crap, spent two hours sanding, and it still sucks. I think it's not so much the dpad hitting the wall as much as it is the dpad just sucking right out.


    My impressions:


    Game physics on par with Tetris DS. No between piece delay, but slow DAS/Line Clear, which I figure must be Guideline by now. Oh well, I shall learn to adapt again... and again and again... Two previews makes things more difficult. Classic lockdown is step reset as far as I can tell. I've so far identified two major gamebreaking design flaws for rank games. So far I haven't seen anyone exploit them. Hopefully we'll see some patches soon. No EZ T-Spins. No TST reward. Otherwise, it's the same as TDS scoring/garbage. Imperial crossing is still useful. They did multiplayer much better this time! Real random garbage! Garbage sends garbage. Ranked games are awesome. Trueskill kicks ass. I'm loving it. Players receive identical tetrominoes. Very fair play, and it's useful when teaching people new techniques (combined with voice chat: "do exactly what I do"). You can also play all single player games with other people with the same goals and everything. You can basically play whatever you want however you want with whomever you want.


    There's fixed goals and there's variable goals. Marathon, cascade, and go low have both, the rest have fixed. Fixed is fine, but variable's dumb. I figured out optimal strategy, and it's basically: doesn't matter what kind of line you clear, except when you're down to one line before level up, make a TSD (at least in marathon). So basically everyone has the exact same score on variable.


    The variable games, hotline, and perhaps go low are long and boring. Not my style. Marathon is not really time-oriented, but ultra, race, score, and eraser are very. Ultra is make points in 1, 3, or 5 minutes. Score is make 5000, 10000, or 25000 points as fast as you can. Race is 10, 25, and 40 lines as fast as you can, but it's best to start off with garbage-- so it's like drill (one of my favorite modes). Hotline is blah. Eraser is hotline, but with 4, 6, and 8 lines, which you clear one by one and once you clear them all you win. Do it as fast as you can.


    Awesome leaderboards for every singleplayer mode. Keeps track of weekly, monthly, bimonthly, annually, and all time. You may say that's redundant, but I think it's great since it also lets you watch the top game's replay in each category. Not a bad system if you ask me. You can watch top replays of all game types (there's a lot).


    All in all, I'm very happy with the game. I look forward to the future downloadable content. I already know that I'm going to spend a lot of time playing this one. Possibly more time on this than any other title/clone yet. Huge replayablity. And Xbox Live is excellently designed so you don't get bored. (Plus I have to admit that I'm getting kind of a kick out of everyone treating me so nicely.) Mass Media did a great job with it. Note that I'm not recommending anyone buy an Xbox360 and everything just for this game.


    I'm going to sleep now.


    Small note: the way this game is designed, it's like a breeding ground for future Tetris-obsessed awesome-good players. I think that's great.
     
  3. Are players given identical random garbage? (Does any game do that, come to think of it?)


    If I ignore the fluff audio visual features and fluff crappy new game modes it sounds about as good as I could've expected. Which isn't perfect (slow DAS blech) but the online stuff sounds pretty polished. It addesses exactly the issues jago was raising against previous online implementations.


    Let's see now, I'd be mostly interested in:


    Neon

    Space Giraffe

    TGM:ACE

    Senko no Ronde

    Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved

    Tetris Evolution

    maybe Devil May Cry 4


    Probably in that order. Still not quite enough to get me to buy the system... It really bugs me that after buying the system and the game and the broadband internet, at no small cost, they also charge for Live. I'm not saying Live is shit; it isn't. But it's poor value.
     
  4. mat

    mat

    i've recently had the revelation (when presented with the $70-80 base halo 3 price tag) that in the unlikely event i did get myself one of these pretty new consoles, mod chip would be an instant necessity. i think i've got pretty damn flexible entertainment consumption morals, or maybe i just make $7.50 an hour...
     

  5. i can only agree. prices for console games are exploding and are nothing else then ridiculous. lately i saw a price list for a game coming to pc, ps2 and Wii:

    pc: 29

    ps2: 39

    Wii: 59


    Wii? what the f***k ? are they crazy? the same game, with the same content, (that runs on PC in HD resolution, by the way, the Wii is incapable of) costs 30 more on the Wii? please explain it for me. the point is: Wii's hardware is so cheap, that nintendo does not need to endow their hardware via their games.


    but who knows.. maybe i'm just used to the PC price range. i buy games regularly (halflife2, hl2ep1, gothic1,2,3, eets, runaway) - and for me a fair price is 20-40. but definitely NOT 60-80. im still sitting here with my Wii, wich is fantastic in many aspects, but still have not bought any Wii game yet besides Wii sports. and a handfull of virtual console games..

    after playing mario64, the ONLY title that MIGHT be worth 59 is Super mario Galaxy. this one is worth 20 bucks more.
     
  6. K

    K

  7. No identical garbage (no game does this that I know of).


    Here's a video review of the game.
     
  8. tepples

    tepples Lockjaw developer

    Tetris & Dr. Mario for Super NES gave both players the same tetromino sequence and the same garbage sequence, although it was even "cleaner" than TDS hc1. The strategy was to tetris the other player, see where it ended up, and then clear out that hole.

    Not only do they charge for Live ($250 or more over the life of the console), but they also charge for the ability to run homebrew ($495 over the life of the console at $99 per year).

    Xbox 360 programs are thoroughly encrypted and digitally signed. Homebrewers have not yet been able to figure out how to run code on machines that aren't subscribed to XNA Creators Club. So what good would a modchip be for?

    Some of the price of a Wii game goes toward subsidizing the $250 price of the console. Some of it probably goes to Immersion for the use of its motion sensing controller patents. Some of it makes up for lost sales of accessories, as Wii uses an internal 512 MB memory card and industry-standard SD cards instead of a bunch of proprietary 251-block (2 MB) memory cards.
     
  9. That was a pretty worthless video review. Though I did like the tetris blocks made of tetris blocks in the game's splashcreens. Have you got all the achievements yet?



    Last I checked, modding the system lets you play backups but only of the region of your console. So still no ACE for you. [​IMG] And what the crap, you're worth more than minimum wage. [​IMG]
     
  10. Very useful. They seem to like it...


    One thing that I really want to see, though, is a "Dirty South Style" video...
     
  11. The acheivements were a joke. I just went through the game once, and then there were four left that I had to look up. And yeah Lardarse, it's a very friendly version to the average Joe.
     

  12. I really hate that name. [​IMG] At any rate, I've got a video of 4 consecutive tetrises in TGM1 if you really like that sort of thing. Maybe I should figure out how to use youtube...
     
  13. tepples

    tepples Lockjaw developer

    Imperial what?

    [​IMG]

    Inspired by the "bleep test" discussions here?

    Unlike some Lumines fans did for the first few months of the PSP in North America.
     
  14. Sounds more like part of the "roads" in TGMA.
     
  15. j00zt1n

    j00zt1n Unregistered

    Hello, I'm new here. Name's Justin, from Las Vegas, favorite Tetris is DX on GBC.


    I got Evolution yesterday and am enjoying it, despite the 360's horrendous d-pad. Got 770 achievement points in the first few hours, they could have made that a little harder. Though the 8-cascade one and some of the silver and gold medals are giving me a hard time.


    Just thought I'd pop in and introduce myself, didn't feel the need to make a new thread for it.
     
  16. welcome aboard. let us know if you need help with anything.
     
  17. j00zt1n

    j00zt1n Unregistered

    Thanks. For now I'm just taking in the fact that this place exists (awesome) and educating myself on all the terms I never knew.


    I had no idea Tetris was such a complicated game.
     
  18. mat

    mat

    you have my vote for best new poster of the year.

    welcome to the board!
     

  19. And what's this? He's reading up on terms without asking people to explain things to him?


    Justin man, I like you already. Hope you stick around. Seriously though, ask if you have any questions. [​IMG]
     
  20. Sully

    Sully Unregistered

    Hey guys, I'm alive. And I have Tetris Evolution.


    First and foremost, the d-pad on the controller is garbage. The transition from the Nintendo DS has been rough, but I've made leaps and bounds in just a few days. I wish I could play with my DS as the controller!


    I'm pretty pleased with the online scoreboards for single player, especially the way you can watch a replay of each top score. I don't like that the fastest way to get points seems to be ST stacking, and I also don't like that you can start with a well full of garbage in 10/25/40 line mode (ultra? I forget).


    I'm not too clear on how the ranked matches work, particularly regarding trueskill (is that what it's called?). Is trueskill a variant of the ELO scoring system? I don't really get it- the two digit score seems to be a pretty weak way to track ability.


    Nicholas- my gamertag is Smothermunch. I'm the guy beating a few of your top scores =)


    I only have three achievements left- two medals for Go Low mode and the Dirty South triple Tetris. I've played through marathon starting on level 1 at least 5 times and I'm yet to get back to back I blocks before I tetris to 150 lines. Ugh.
     

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