Tetris DS is One Fast-paced Open House Block Party

Tetris fans, prepare to eat your hearts out.

Nintendo has your numbers - and they've called with the great news of bringing your favorite game to their latest handheld.

That, in itself is no real surprise of any kind: after all, Tetris has a long history with Nintendo game systems - especially the handheld variety - so of course Nintendo had to distribute a Nintendo DS version as it did with the original Game Boy. And gamers who have been around long enough probably know that it was Tetris that was what geeks would call the Game Boy's first real killer app - and the most important one, at that. In fact, it was Alexey Pajitnov's clasic brainteaser that made the Game Boy a must-have among wave after wave of gamers everywhere.

And now that Tetris DS is here, months to a year after the DS first hit retail, I can say that it was worth the wait for Nintendo to bring the storied puzzler to its newest handheld - although why it didn't happen sooner is anyone's guess. Thankfully, the addictive fun of the most infamous electoronic brainteaser in history remains largely intact. The basic function of the game is to move tetriminoes about the playing field to clear lines and advance. To clear lines, however, you have to create anywhere from one-to four solid rows of tetrimino squares - and if you stack too many rows with gaps you could top out (in other words, stack tetriminos over the foul line at the topmost edge of the playing field) and end the game right then and there. Keep in mind that there are four square blocks to a Tetrimino, hence the name - after all, Tetra (from which we get the word Tetris to name this game) is a fancy foriegn term for the number four. Most tetriminos let you clear anywhere from one to three lines, and using the rare four-square stick tetrimino to clear fouir lines nets you a Tetris - the best possible move in the game - and can really help turn the tables in the local network and global Wi-Fi multiplayer competition. More on that later, though.

There are a few adjustments to the Tetris formula since the original Game Boy version that make appearances here as well, such as the clever T-spin (where you rotate the T-block in tight spaces to pull off some tricky moves), the hold space (which lets you swap a block out of play, after which you can swap it back in later at the cost of losing the the benefit of swapping it back out), and the so-called infinite spin (where you can rotate a touched-down tetrimino to move it where you want - and sometimes over other locked tetriminos - until the tetrimino locks itself and the next one drops into play). And there is also a so-called "ghost piece" that follows the tetrimino currently in play and shows where it will land, kind of like a shadow of sorts. These special features can either help or hurt you, although you can turn off the hold space and ghost piece if you so desire - however, though you may wish you can turn off the T-spin and infinite spin as well if you find these annoying you unfortunately cannot, sorry to say.

As for the game modes, there are several innovative ways to play Tetris DS, with more new ways to play than we got in Tetris Worlds on the Game Boy Advance, the GameCube, et al. Push mode, for example, is like tug-of-war done Tetris-style. In push mode, two players share a double-length playing field with the ends taken out. Two square blocks are positioned in the center to hold locked tetriminos, and any tetriminos you play that doesn't stick here falls out of play at the other player's end, and vice versa. Clearing two or three lines is reloatively easy and push the clump of blocks toward your opponent's end of the playing field - and hence his/her foul line and cause them to top out and lose - however, due to the open-endedness of this mode, creating a Tetris is next to impossible - but is potentially devastating to your opponent if you can pull it off. But be careful, because your opponent can send the big mass of blocks right back at you. Also be sure to watch the sides of the playing field from time to time for a treat - like all the play modes, Push mode has a central theme that does some hefty Nintendo-centric fan service for veteran players, in this case, there's images from Mario's first game, known as Donkey Kong, from back when the character was code-named "Jumpman." (Betcha didn't know that, did ya? Well, now you do.)

Then there's Mission mode, which challenges you to complete specific tasks as they come in order to advance without the penalty of receiving more blocks in the playing field for running out of the alloted time for that task, as indicated by a meter made up of heart symbols next to the bottom of the playing field that fits in nicely with this mode's Legend of Zelda theme. What kind of tasks should you expect, you ask? Typical tetris fare, of course, but in specific minimums or actions - such as clearing three lines with your choice of tetrimino, clearing two lines with the two-by-two square tetrimino, getting a Tetris, and so forth. Needless to say, it is truly harder than it actually sounds.

A clever variation on Tetris exists in Catch mode, in which you move a mass of blocks around the lower screen to literally catch tetriminos as they fall, hence the name of this mode. Anytime you create a four-by-four square section of this mass of blocks it will light up and clear from the mass, nocking out anything nearby, including the titular creatures of this mode's Metroid theme. Do this forty times and you clear the stage. Watch out, though - there is a meter at the bottom of the screen that gauges how many mistakes you can make. If you let a tetrimino miss the clump of blocks, the meter decreases a little - but if you knock out a Metroid too soon, the meter decreases a lot! However, you can refill the meter if you knock out a Metroid at the right time. Again, this can be harder than it sounds.

Touch mode is yet another creative twist on the Tetris concept. Themed around Ballon Fighter, the object is to release ballons from a crate at the top of a tower of Tetriminos. (Author's note: Although I thought this mode would revolve around a touch-based game similar to classic Tetris, I turned out to be wrong in my assumptions - but at least what we got of it is still fun and challenging.) As the name implies, you need to use the DS stylus to play this mode by dragging tetriminos from left to right on the lower half of the screen. As there are no tetriminos added to the playing field, there is no top out in this mode, nor is there even a top edge of the playing field itself - in fact, the playing field seems to go on forever, or at least until you get to top of the tower. There is, however, a more natural form of gravity in this mode a la Cascade mode in Tetris Worlds - hence you can cause blocks to cascade downward when you clear rows, creating some nifty chain-reaction combos. And once you get the crate of ballons to the bottom of the playing field, the mode is cleared. But be careful, as you can only rotate pieces (performed with a double-tap of the tetrimino or block you wish to rotate) in the lower difficulty levels, which means you can kiss piece rotate goodbye in the touch puzzles and tower difficulty levels four and five.

Speaking of puzzles, you'll find plenty of plain-vanilla Tetris puzzles in the game's Yoshi's Cookie-themed Puzzle mode. In this mode, you get the exact number - and exact types - of tetriminoes you need to solve the puzzle and clear the stage. All you have to do is choose the correct tetriminoes in the correct order - and place them in the correct position. And finally, Standard mode is Tetris as close as it comes to the way we all know it - and Tetris purists can be expected to go first. Of course, since there's Nintendo fan-service in play, there's no Tchaikovsky music here as you would expect - instead, prepare for an anthology of classic Nintendo music throughout the course of clearing the two hundred lines needed to clear this mode, from the Super Mario Bros. series from the first hundred followed by the Legend of Zelda series starting at halftime.

So that, in detail is what to expect of the various gameplay modes. But what of the multiplayer I mentioned earlier? Well, now we're ready to broach that subject. Specifically speaking, there's plenty of multiplayer action here. In multiplayer mode, you can play the Standard, Mission and Push modes with anywhere from two to ten players (or exactly two or exactly four at a time in Wi-Fi matches with only Standard and Push modes available). In local mode multiplayer, you can set handicaps, play teams and/or use items against your opponents a la Mario Kart; in Wi-Fi multiplayer, you can only use items in four-player Standard mode - and handicaps and teams don't necessarily exist in this option (after all, you might be playing the best in the world, so it's only fair that the system matches up to that expectation). If you know someone with a Nintendo DS and a copy of Tetris DS, you can get their friend code and challenge them to a Wi-Fi match any time he/she is online, just like other Wi-Fi enabled Nintendo DS games.

All things given, this is is one of the best Tetris games yet in my book. By not straying too far from the core Tetris concepts set forth two decades ago while introducing new ways to play this longtime favorite - while introducing the series to on-the-go global Wi-Fi multiplayer - Tetris DS gets a perfect 100% for its blend of creativity and classic gameplay.