A Tetris state of mind

Scuttlebutt on the internet among folks disappointed in Super Princess Peach is the next big DS game is Tetris, and of course the renewal of the collective obsession with the game would start early.

I'm on Warp Records' mailing list for downloading something from Bleep at one point or something, so they sent me this ad about some web game:

When you actually get into the game, you might notice certain similarities with a certain game of recent interest. It's a pretty nice Flash rendition, with some awesome music. The graphics used make it a little more difficult, so pick one of the higher numbered levels and it's plenty hard for regular Tetris. The music is enough to make you realize Lumines is actually a pretty cool idea.

Mentioning it caused a friend to bring up the Tetris: The Grand Master series, saying:

Basically how Grand Master works is you have two rotate buttons, clockwise and counter-clockwise. You gain levels VERY fast and you're racing to L999. At L500, it's dropping at the rate in death mode. Obviously it has that sort of float gravity to nudge 'em around once it strikes somewhere. Basically you're pressing one of the two buttons, and jerking the stick left or right and trying to just throw them into place quick.

Along with this explanation came this video of Death Mode from the game's creators, Arika. Wow. There's also this other Death Mode video from iFilm. Arika has more videos on their movies page: look for the section with "TGM" links. While Tetris: The Grand Master started as a Japanese arcade stand-up, the newest version seems to be Tetris: The Grand Master Ace for Xbox 360. They also seem to have some kind of puzzle mode Tetris with a Cardcaptor Sakura license; there's a video near the bottom of the movies page.

(Arika also made Technic Beat, a music game available in the US from Mastiff for PS2 if you can possibly find it; a friend got it at Fry's a while ago, if you're in an area where they exist. Mastiff also more recently published another retro remake, Space Invaders: Revolution, for the DS.)

While it doesn't lay phat beats and could be a little cooler if it had a Death Mode, there's enough new play in Tetris DS to show that the game is still alive and well. And remember, if there's a real outbreak of Tetris fever, be careful out there.