MacBreak and Tetris for iPod
2006-10-12 01:09:54
I wrote to Leo of MacBreak Weekly, which if you dig Apple at all, is worth a listen. And if you don't... well... there's always TWiT. Regardless:Howdy Leo,
Thanks for taking the time to glance over my email. In this past week's MacBreak Weekly there was conversation about Tetris for iPod and you had mentioned "Tetris would be a good game on the iPod" and "...because you could rotate -there's not much to it." Ouchie!
The control scheme is hackneyed from our experience in attempting to play it, as to pull off maneuvers in a modern Tetris game with L-rotations and T-spins is rough enough at 20G but made downright impossible when one can't do three movements at once. There's also no "hold" key which is fine for classic renditions of Tetris such as the one that was for Gameboy that utilized a piece randomization that didn't guarantee a particular piece within 7 pieces like the newer versions, but muxing both the new rules for piece randomization with the lack of a standard hold key makes the game impossible to "play forever". It doesn't just make it harder, it doesn't even give someone a fair shot.
For an example of what some Tetris-heads say about it, here's a link to the tetrisconcept forums in regards to the iPod version:
tetrisconcept.com
The important posts, as usual, are Sully's and not my own.
Anyway, what inspired this email was the line of "not much to it", and indeed, this version of Tetris has made "not much to" the game due to an awkward control scheme and shows no progression of the evolution of Tetris. What scares me is that I know this version of Tetris will sell more copies not only of any other game at the iTunes Store, but probably more copies than even the current gold standard in America; TetrisDS for the NintendoDS, and it's, for the most part, going to leave the impression that in 20 years nothing has changed in the strategy of Tetris, when the landscape has changed so much in the last few years.
Summary: much as a chunk of us love Apple products and aesthetics, the Tetris for iPod does not reflect the latter and is a horrible example to show what mini-gaming can do for Apple and makes the modern versions of Tetris, which are oft-equated with professional Chess (even our ranking system is the same), look like Tic-Tac-Toe. Where the opponent always gets the center-square.
Thanks again for taking the time to give this a glance through, and I hope that you can let MBw listeners know that Tetris aficionados as a whole are none too impressed at what's been done to our game. Or not. :)
Usual TWiT Annoyance,
Jonathon "Phydeaux" Warden
Just a hint that I was the guy that would not shut up during the MWSF '06 broadcast. He might want to forget me, but I thought that it was worth wasting an hour of my time to be a voice of dissension... Because that seems to be all I am on TWiT. :p :D
As you were.
1
The corner squares are the key to tic-tac-toe, not the centre...
Rosti LFC - 2006-11-02 09:59:45
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