Get to Know Your Gameboy. |
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Decisions, Decisions.... |
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The opening screen. The Russian pageantry, both visually (with the breathtaking graphics) and aurally (with the Tetris main theme), is almost overwhelming. Somehow you'll have force yourself to press 'Start' and play-- but believe me, the game is much better than the opening screen. |
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| If you have a friend that also has both a Gameboy and Tetris, I highly recommend you give the 2-player option a try. It provides for endless hours of entertainment and can bring even the most bitter of enemies together. However, you will notice that I will concentrate on the 1-player mode throughout this website. | ||
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Choose your poison. Which is better? Game A or Game B? Music A or Music B? Nintendo and Bullet-Proof Software leave the dilemmas up to you. Game A is a game of endurance, where one can aim both for high scores and line totals. Game B, meanwhile, determines how well you stack under pressure-- it mainly tests for building ingenuity and points. I prefer Game A because of... er... its lasting power. Game B tends to have better game endings, though. |
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| One enormous advantage Gameboy Tetris has had over the years, at least in my opinion, is the music. Taking advantage of the Gameboy's stereo 4-channel sound (in itself being somewhat revolutionary in 1989), the developers created a luscious soundtrack, derived from Baroque and traditional Russian folk dances, that the PC platform, being in the pre-SoundBlaster days, could never really match. Even the NES version of Tetris didn't hold a candle to the Gameboy. My appreciation of the Gameboy Tetris music extends to the fact that I have fully arranged and 'remixed' three Gameboy themes via MIDI, located in Kobashikawaland. | ||
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How high can you go? The higher you set the initial level, the more points you will probably accumulate. Likewise, you will have to deal with the higher speeds these levels demand for a longer period of time. You may want to build up your reflexes (maybe play frisbee for a while or something) before you tackle anything higher than Level 5. (I prefer Level 8 myself as an optimum starting point.) Refer to the Points Table for more specifics on scoring. Of course, if lines are all that matters to you, you're better off starting at Level 0. |
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| The Aftermath. | ||
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Endgame. When the computer tells you not to despair over your loss, and for you to pick up the shattered pieces of your existence and gradually rise back from the flames like a phoenix, you better do as told and play again! As you can tell from the left, I had a pretty solid game going before I was so rudely interrupted.... |
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Leaving your mark. After your game ends, your score and name can potentially end up in the high scores list for all to see! At least until you turn the Gameboy off; Tetris doesn't have a battery backup. Make sure you throw in a bunch of hearts in there, like I did. That shows how much you love the game, of course. |
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| TETRIS 101: | OBJECT | GAME PLAY | HISTORY | POINTS FOUR | INVERTED R | SPOILERS | SEXTRIS |
| THEORY: | TETRIS 101 | TETRADS | FAQ | LINKS |
| GB TETRIS: | THEORY | TECHNIQUES | FUN & GAMES | KOBASHIKAWALAND | (MAP) |