Favorite Tetris

[+therealbountybob]

The orignal MS-DOS version, duh. In Soviet Russia Tetris plays you!.

 

http://vadim.oversigma.com/Tetris.htm

That get's my vote - it was awesome to play, ramped up speed and difficulty, balanced scoring and superb controls, saved top 20? scores - used to play it at work in lunchtimes and even stay late as there was some serious office rivalry going on. Gameboy version was good but when you get really into it it gets disturbing and I had to give it up as was just too intense - ended up seeing the pieces at night! On the Atari ST I used to like Valgus 2?

 

Checkout the brand new Tetris release of CTetris(4g) on the Atari 8-bit (you can use an emulator!) which is a pretty darned good version, has McHammer's you can't touch this sampled and played when you get a 'tetris'. Also liked AtartrisII and Dredis for two player.

 

P.S. If anyone is interested in playing classic games the Atari 8-bit High Score Club has just started Season 8 - the first game is Ms.Pac-Man - details here Come and Play

[Eltigro]

I remember renting both the Nintendo and Tengen versions back when I was in middle school. I remember liking the Tengen version better but can't remember any of the specifics of why. I do remember something about how the Tengen version had the blocks in a random order and the Nintendo had a specific order or something.

 

Other than that, the gameboy version was great and I've played that one more than any other version.

[SlowCoder]

The orignal MS-DOS version, duh. In Soviet Russia Tetris plays you!.

 

http://vadim.oversigma.com/Tetris.htm

 

Yep. I've got that one.

[TwinChargers]

I have heard that the Tengen cart for NES is the best and want it badly.

 

Does anyone really know why this version is concidered so much more superior? Is it its rarity? Is there some type of dynamic in gameplay tht the other port just doesn't have? The mainstream NES Tetris is damn near perfect IMO.

[the.golden.ax]

Thanks to this thread I'm going to try my hand at putting scores on Twin Galaxies for my Tetris DS. I found that the high score on standard is 1.2M Before bed I knocked out a 701K (that would put me in second). A bit of obsessing and I think I could take the crown or come close. It would take a darn near perfect game of all four tall tetris for all 200 lines at the fastest speed.

 

AX

[Koopa64]

I have heard that the Tengen cart for NES is the best and want it badly.

 

Does anyone really know why this version is concidered so much more superior? Is it its rarity? Is there some type of dynamic in gameplay tht the other port just doesn't have? The mainstream NES Tetris is damn near perfect IMO.

 

I think it's because Tengen Tetris supports 2 Player simultaneous play, while Nintendo Tetris is one player only.

[iswitt]

I always liked Tetrisphere for the N64, but the NES version is awesome, too.

[pinball22]

I always liked Tetrisphere for the N64, but the NES version is awesome, too.

 

Yeah, I'm a huge fan of Tetrisphere, too. When it came out it was set up for demo play at Toys R Us... after about five minutes I stopped playing, bought it, and went home and played more. Unfortunately I don't have that copy anymore... it's one of the games that got lost when we moved (the others were Columns III for the Genesis and SNES Starfox). I couldn't live without it, though, so I bought another copy.

[jaybird3rd]

Does anyone really know why this version is concidered so much more superior? Is it its rarity? Is there some type of dynamic in gameplay tht the other port just doesn't have? The mainstream NES Tetris is damn near perfect IMO.

I think it's just because of its rarity, to be honest. I've played it through emulation, and the thing that bugs me about it is that you have to press "Down" to rotate and the button to drop. I don't know whose idea that was, but it's completely counter-intuitive to me; it seems like it should be the exact opposite. If it had been made more like Atari's coin-op version, it would have been much better. The "purists" might not like Nintendo's Tetris for the NES, but in my opinion, it's a superior implementation despite the lack of a two-player option.

 

(EDIT: I had my Tetrises confused; the above comments are actually about the JP/BPS Famicom version of Tetris and not the Tengen version, which is much closer to the Atari coin-op. Thanks to BrianC for pointing this out in his post below, and for the links to the gameplay videos.)

 

My favorite version of Tetris is The Next Tetris, published by (Hasbro Interactive) Atari in the late 1990s. I can't tell you how many hours I've put into that game over the last twelve years or so. The cascading effect adds an interesting element of strategy, and of course it's also got Classic Tetris when I'm in the mood for that. Of the three versions of The Next Tetris that I've tried (PlayStation, PC, and Dreamcast), the best version is the PlayStation version. The colors and effects are more pleasing, while the PC version seems to have a smaller playfield and clashing colors, and is sometimes a pain to get running smoothly on modern systems (it was "Designed for Windows 98"). The Dreamcast version added all kinds of spinning gears and whirling machinery graphics in the background and just went too far with the visual effects, which detracts from the game for me.

[Austin]

Speaking of Dreamcast Tetris games, I liked the Japan-only Tetris 4D.

[NinjaWarrior]

NES version & the Game Boy version

[the.golden.ax]

Did 962,000 before bed last night. This mornings bathroom break broke the 1 million threshold on Tetris DS, standard mode 200 lines. Twin Galaxies is showing #1 as 1.2M... almost there.

 

 

AX

[jeremysart]

Most popular, definitely Tetris on Gameboy.

 

But in the 90's I played the hell out of the Tetris that came with the Best of Windows Entertainment Pack (BOWEP) for Windows 3.1

I also had this really sweet little keychain tetris game.

 

Tetris DS is really fun because of the different modes and retro themes.

[BrianC]

Does anyone really know why this version is concidered so much more superior? Is it its rarity? Is there some type of dynamic in gameplay tht the other port just doesn't have? The mainstream NES Tetris is damn near perfect IMO.

I think it's just because of its rarity, to be honest. I've played it through emulation, and the thing that bugs me about it is that you have to press "Down" to rotate and the button to drop. I don't know whose idea that was, but it's completely counter-intuitive to me; it seems like it should be the exact opposite. If it had been made more like Atari's coin-op version, it would have been much better. The "purists" might not like Nintendo's Tetris for the NES, but in my opinion, it's a superior implementation despite the lack of a two-player option.

 

That's the JP BPS Famicom version of Tetris that has down to rotate and the button to drop, not the US Tengen version. The Tengen version has down to drop and the buttons to rotate. JP BPS Tetris Famicom also has the hard drop only. The JP BPS Famicom version is dirt common in Japan and can be found for cheap (with good reason).

 

Edited January 25, 2011 by BrianC

[high voltage]

My fave is called Hatris

[jaybird3rd]

That's the JP BPS Famicom version of Tetris that has down to rotate and the button to drop, not the US Tengen version. The Tengen version has down to drop and the buttons to rotate. JP BPS Tetris Famicom also has the hard drop only. The JP BPS Famicom version is dirt common in Japan and can be found for cheap (with good reason).

I stand corrected! For some reason, the JP/BPS Famicom version was labeled as the Tengen version when I obtained it, and without seeing the video, I never realized that this was incorrect. The real Tengen Tetris is very similar to the coin-op, and it makes me wish that it got a wider release. I'll revise my earlier post.

[Drixxel]

To build on reasons why the Tengen version is quite a neat one in the sprawling Tetris collective is the co-op mode, it's really rather unique. There's even a mode where you can cooperate with the computer in an effort to fill the giant well (but I find it oddly more entertaining to sabotage the computer's efforts and watch it struggle to change its move in the last remaining moments before contact). Then there's the overall look of the game which I personally find much more appealing than Nintendo's Tetris. Music's cooler, too. Best Tetris ever, I say.

Edited January 26, 2011 by Drixxel

[raskar42]

gameboy - plenty of features and great music

[Cynicaster]

Dr. Mario.

 

I'm totally kidding.

 

It would definitely be GB Tetris for this guy. To me, that is the quintessential Tetris experience. Two player via the link cable was awesome... nothing like slamming your opponent with 4 lines of blocks.

 

As for the Tengen Tetris, I thought that was a cool game, I just didn't like it as much as the GB version because the controls were different than what I was used to. I had a few copies of that game over the years, it blows my mind that it's actually going for $30 these days.

 

One thing about the Tengen version vs. the Nintendo version is that the Tengen version is a lot more like the arcade. I'd imagine that anybody that cut their teeth on Tetris at the arcades would prefer the Tengen version for this reason.

[pinball22]

My fave is called Hatris

 

I'm a big fan of Hatris too... keep meaning to make a video to send to TG, cause I can totally beat the high score.

[The Usotsuki]

Funny, Tengen's controls for me are the same as Nintendo's. I really dig Bloxeed though.

[Drixxel]

Hatris has never grabbed me, but neither have any of Mr. Pajitnov's falling block followups. The pace is always too slow, the objective isn't as satisfying or there's just not the same sense of high stakes as in a game of Tetris when you're waiting on a line piece. Columns, Dr. Mario, Klax, Puyo Puyo.. those are the best of the lot, I'd say, from the batch of earlier Tetris competitors.

[raskar42]

Dr. Mario.

 

I'm totally kidding.

 

 

reminds me that snes dr mario/tetris cart has a combo vs. mode. have to dig that out out and give it a try .

[bomberpunk]

original black & white gameboy version.

runner up is NES grey cart

[yuppicide]

I list Tengen Tetris as my favorite. Only because of the whole unlicensed thing and how it was worth more money back in the day.