Tetris
Can you change the way you think about a game you’ve been playing for decades?
When you try the new version of Tetris, released to the App Store last week, you’ll need to answer that question. The developer wants you to cede control over the game’s iconic falling blocks in favor of their new one-touch scheme, and making this request even more troublesome, that developer is Electronic Arts. Oy.
Let’s get a few things out of the way: the best version of Tetris is Tetris DS, this new version, hereafter called Tetris for iOS, isn’t in that discussion; its “Galaxy” mode is kinda cool and kinda infuriating; EA’s Origin should be avoided at all cost, even though you can’t play multiplayer without it, which sucks; their “T-Coin” and “T-Club” systems for unlocking new content are similarly shitty; you can play the game the traditional way, but the swipe-based controls will let you down; and just so this doesn’t seem like a litany of complaints, the game is real pretty and makes nice use of Futura Bold. But none of that is important.
Here’s what matters:
Notice that one on the left, “One-Touch”? Tap that, select a difficulty, and this is what you’ll see:
I think you get where this is going. Tap one of the numbered shadows and the block falls into place—no rotating, no dropping, no nothing. One-touch Tetris.
EA has desecrated a masterpiece by dumbing it down to the lowest common denominator. Right? If you’re like me, it’s hard to resist that reaction. I mean, I’ve been rotating and dropping blocks for as long as I can remember, and no soulless conglomerate is going to take that from me. But before we get too carried away, take a second to back out to the home screen, fire up “Marathon” mode instead—which features traditional Tetris controls implemented via swipes—and crank it up to level 10.
It doesn’t take long for my screen to fill with accidental gaps. For high level play, I find the swipe controls completely unusable. Further, I can’t see any way to make them better while still giving the player full control over the blocks. I mean, what other option is there? Tilt controls? Not precise. Virtual D-pad? Please.
So, if we want Tetris on our iPhones (and I sure as hell do) then we need a new control scheme. Is EA’s “One-touch” mode the answer?
When I play Tetris, I only want to get four-line clears (aka “Tetrises”). I’m not trying to brag (because that would be an absurdly lame brag), but rather establish that I’ve played enough Tetris to have a specific style of play. And after a week of Tetris for iOS, playing One-touch mode feels completely natural.
Unsurprisingly, the game isn’t any harder with One-touch. Even when I want to do something unusual—like create a long gap for a straight piece—if the option isn’t presented at first, it will be after I tap “cycle” to display more options. (Pro-tip: you can also just tap anywhere on the field besides the shadow blocks to cycle options.) Cycling seems like a pain at first, and it does break some of the mode’s blissful simplicity, but without it the mode would in fact be dumbed-down. It quickly became second nature for me.
But I also don’t feel that One-touch mode strips Tetris of its challenge, or at least any of the challenge that I value. When playing with a control pad or keyboard, it doesn’t take long to for the basic manipulation of blocks to burn itself into muscle memory. Once that happens, Tetris becomes entirely a game of strategy and reflex, forcing you to rapidly place blocks in good places.
One-touch mode retains that element. The game doesn’t make good choices for you, and that frantic, panicky feeling still kicks in when the timer bar plummets through the shadow blocks. Okay, so you lose the struggle of having to squeeze blocks in unlikely places when your tower grows too high, and super-twitchy manual dexterity is no longer required to play at the highest speeds. Those things never mattered to me, but if those are core elements of your Tetris experience, then One-touch isn’t for you.
A week ago, I would have told you it was impossible to make a great Tetris for touchscreen. Now, when I pull out my iPhone, tap that horrible EA-ified icon, and load up One-touch mode, I feel like I’m playing an honest, real, uncompromised game of of Tetris. And that’s awesome.
—Nick
