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The New Tetris
The New Tetris
	North American box art
Developer(s)	H2O Entertainment; Blue Planet Software
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Artist(s)	Christopher Bretz, Roland Longpre, Jon McBain, Jake Pokorney
Composer(s)	Neil Voss
Series	Tetris
Platform(s)	Nintendo 64
Release	NA: August 2, 1999; PAL: October 15, 1999;
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

The New Tetris is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo 64. The game was developed by H2O Entertainment and published by Nintendo, based on the Tetris series. It was originally released on August 2, 1999, in North America.

The game showcases scenic fly-bys of structures, such as the Sphinx, the Pantheon, Saint Basil's Cathedral, a Mayan temple, and others, rendered in real-time. Achieving this level of quality is relatively challenging for the Nintendo 64 hardware. The New Tetris features a multiplayer mode with up to four players and an electronic dance music soundtrack by Neil Voss, who also composed the award-winning music for Tetrisphere.

Game differences

There are several key differences in gameplay from the original Tetris. First, in addition to clearing lines, players can also form 4x4 large squares of four pieces to create "blocks." When a block is formed, it turns solid gold or silver, depending on its composition: a block built from all the same kind of piece becomes a golden block or "monosquare," while any other combination results in a silver block or "multisquare." Blocks can only be constructed from whole pieces; if any part of a piece has been cleared, it cannot be used to form a block. When a line containing pieces from a block is cleared, it earns additional points.

Second, to assist in planning block construction, the game displays three upcoming pieces and includes a "storage area" where a spare piece can be kept. If the piece in the storage area is more desirable than the currently falling piece, the player can press the L button to swap the currently falling piece with the stored piece. Another feature is that the rotation mechanics are much more flexible than in traditional Tetris games, allowing for several slight nudges, which players refer to as "wall kicks," before finding a position where the tetromino fits. Some of these adjustments move the pieces away from walls, even "over" other pieces. In fact, the game rewards players for executing these seemingly impossible "spin moves." If a line is cleared by performing a spin move, all the pieces above or below the spin move break apart into individual blocks and fall down, potentially clearing multiple lines and filling in empty spaces in the lower portion of the play area. Unfortunately, the spin move process causes golden and silver blocks to revert to ordinary pieces, meaning they no longer carry their multiplier when cleared.

Tetris Worlds includes the rules of The New Tetris under the name "Square Tetris," featuring even more flexible wall kick rules, although the criteria for what constitutes a spin move differs significantly.

The lead programmer on The New Tetris, David Pridie, placed a secret hidden rant within the code, which was discovered by hackers shortly after the game's release.^[2]

Reception

Aggregate score
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	82%^[3]

Review scores
Publication	Score
AllGame	^[4]
Electronic Gaming Monthly	7.5/10^[5]
Game Informer	7/10^[7]
GameFan	80%^[6]
GamePro	(Dragon) ^[8] (Hendrix) ^[9]
GameSpot	7.9/10^[10]
Hyper	89%^[11]
IGN	8.8/10^[12]
Nintendo Power	8.1/10^[13]
Official Nintendo Magazine	74%^[14]
Superjuegos	82/100^[15]
Gamers' Republic	B^[16]

The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website GameRankings.^[3]

References

^ "Entertainment News Wire for August 2, 1999 [Renaissance Online Magazine News]". renaissancemag.com. Retrieved 2024-01-19.
^ David Pridie (July 1, 1999). "New Tetris Rant". Bretz.ca. Archived from the original on March 17, 2011. Retrieved July 26, 2010.
^ ^a ^b "The New Tetris for Nintendo 64". GameRankings. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ Scott McCall. "The New Tetris - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ EGM staff (1999). "The New Tetris". Electronic Gaming Monthly. Ziff Davis.
^ "REVIEW for The New Tetris". GameFan. Shinno Media. August 4, 1999.
^ Jay Fitzloff (September 1999). "[The] New Tetris". Game Informer. No. 77. FuncoLand. Archived from the original on March 11, 2000. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ Four-Eyed Dragon (September 1999). "The New Tetris". GamePro. No. 132. IDG Entertainment. p. 146. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ Air Hendrix (1999). "[The] New Tetris Review for N64 on GamePro.com". GamePro. IDG Entertainment. Archived from the original on December 13, 2004. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ Jeff Gerstmann (August 9, 1999). "The New Tetris Review". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ Nick O'Shea (November 1999). "The New Tetris". Hyper. No. 73. Next Media Pty Ltd. p. 70. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ Aaron Boulding (August 3, 1999). "The New Tetris". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ "The New Tetris". Nintendo Power. Vol. 122. Nintendo of America. July 1999. p. 113. Archived from the original on September 18, 2018. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ "The New Tetris". Nintendo Official Magazine. No. 85. October 1999. p. 28. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
^ Nemesis. "The New Tetris". es:Superjuegos (in Spanish). No. 90. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
^ "The New Tetris". Gamers' Republic. No. 16. p. 77. Retrieved July 24, 2021.