My wife and I love to play multiplayer Nintendo DS games against each other, usually in bed right before going to sleep. The real stand-out titles for us are Mario Kart, Planet Puzzle League, and especially Tetris DS (TDS). This version of Tetris was only available from 2006-2007, and is now out of print – I have heard something about Nintendo’s license to publish it expired, so they had to pull it, but I’m not sure why it had such a short run.
Now, Tetris DS’s most unique quality is that it remains the only DS game that allows 10 players with one game cartridge. It’s also got lots of Nintendo themes like Mario, Link, Yoshi, and Metroid, and the music is remixed from those games, too, not the canned, klinky “Russian” stuff that they normally use.
Because Tetris DS is now out of print and therefore rare, it’s more valuable. It usually goes for $50-100 online, and I have read several stories of people who get a copy on eBay and it won’t run on their DSi’s or other newer systems (ahem, piracy).
Now, 3 years later, a new company’s got the license to sell Tetris on the DS, and it was released today: Tetris Party Deluxe (TPD). The bottom line? TPD is a good game, but TDS remains one of the best handheld games ever made, and is definitely still a better game than Tetris Party.
TPD is fun, of course, but often too plain. Multiplayer is now capped at 8 players, and after a few dozen games, we’re getting used to the new items (weapons that you use against opponents, powerups you use on yourself) and they’re pretty cool. TDS used familiar Nintendo icons for items and they were totally different than these. Unfortunately, the majority of the multiplayer modes in the new game require each player has their own copy of the game. TPD makes no use of the touch screen on the DS whatsoever, not even in the menus, though occasionally you blow in the the microphone for defense. Tetris DS at least had “Touch Tetris” mode. Oh, and Tetris Party defaults to the aft-mentioned klinky “Russian” music.
In the end, Tetris Party Deluxe is good, fun, and worth the money. Tetris DS, however, is still amazing, brilliant, and worth double the price – which is about what you’ll pay for it. If you find it.
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