For the past few weeks, I have been going over the Tetris game modes that appeared over the years. So far, I have covered, marathon, 2P, Sprint, Tetris 99, and classic Tetris. Today, I’ll be covering the remaining game modes, N-Block, party mode, and one I forgot about earlier, ultra.
As I have stated in my last blog, this game mode is my least favourite. Unlike other classic or modern Tetris game modes, this one falls some where in the middle. The game mode has features like holding and hard drop, features present in modern versions of Tetris. However, lacks other features such as ghost blocks. The game mode even holds characteristics of classic Tetris, being its sluggish feel and Tetraminos to stick together like glue. All of these quirks make Tetris feel weird to play, for me anyways. Most of the time, I go into a game of N-Block with the mind set of classic Tetris. If your don’t have a good feel for the board or your build, you can easily make a mistake with the hard drop. Most of the time, I resort to holding down the soft drop instead.
On the other hand, there is party mode, which is a staple in any modern multiplayer Tetris game. I find this game mode very chaotic but fun. Most of the time, party mode plays very similarly to 2P. However, the changes made to party mode feel very different. Usually, there are more than one opponent. Like 2P your objective is to be the last one standing while sending garbage to top others out. What makes party mode feel so different are the power ups. During the game, you can collect power us which can positively affect you, or negatively affect other players. The power ups very from game to game, but the general concepts of certain powers are wide spread. For example in every Tetris game that’s has a party mode, there is always a blinding power up in some shape or from. In Tetris friends, the blinding power up results in a completely black screen for a few seconds. While in Puyo Puyo Tetris you can still see a portion of the screen every few seconds, but this effect lasts longer than its Tetris friends counterpart. Unfortunately, sometimes the power ups feel to broken or don’t do anything. In Tetris friends, there is a power up which can clear up a messy build in an instant making it very powerful. However, there is also a power up that increases fall speed of the pieces for opponents and that is it. For any advance Tetris player, this effect might not as well exist. For me, this game mode can be very varied between games. All of these traits make the game just alright.
Finally, there is ultra mode. I like to think this game mode is the counterpart to sprint. In sprint, you try to clear 40 lines as fast you can, while in ultra you gain as many points as you can in a certain amount of time. If you are clearing for lines in sprint, then you clear of points in ultra. All of this leads player to try building a tall build and use back to back Tetris to collect the most points. However, when comparing sprint and ultra together, I honestly prefer sprint. Sprint is more widespread than ultra and it skill are transferable across game modes. I think ultra can be a fun addition game mode but isn’t necessary.
Out of these three, I believe ultra is my favourite. I find enjoyment in all Tetris games I play, but unfortunately, I find not all Tetris game modes are made equal. Overall, I have had a lot of fun talking about the Teris game modes over the past four weeks.