Some things just aren't meant to be.
One of those things is possibly a recent re-released version of Tetris (for PC, PS/2, Xbox and others) called [Tetris Worlds], a recent re-release of Tetris for the Xbox. The first, and probably most important statement to make is this: Someone tried to give Tetris a storyline. Now, I remember when Tetris first started appearing in the arcades (my Dad kicked serious ass at that game, he was really good!), part of the appeal was that the concept made little sense, and was hard to explain, but was incredibly addictive and made for a good game! It didn't need a story line, and you'd have been hard pushed to find one that worked.
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This one doesn't work either.
The crux of the story, from what I can understand (the intro got a little tired a little quickly), is that you are a member of a strange race of alien beings, who are all shaped like cubes. Given the rest of the story, the fact that the aliens are cube shaped is completely irrelevant, and makes a strange choice of shape given that the whole game is about blocks. Anyway, the sun of the aliens planet is about to go supernova, and you are tasked to link these space portals in order to chart a path to another habitable planet. I love the way all these storylines assume that these planets are all uninhabited or the current habitants are completely willing to allow a race of block shaped cubes to integrate into their society (what sort of planet atmosphere conditions does a cube need to live anyway?). To link each section of the journey, you need to advance in a level of Tetris.
Its a pretty weak story, BUT: It gives them justification to explain why there are constant sprites of little cube creatures running around all over the screen, pissing you off when you're trying to concentrate on where the blocks are supposed to go! Theres a little cube character running about at the side of your screen, and at times the little guy (or girl?!) moves pretty damn quick, and its kind of offputting. Nothing compared to the way the screen shakes violently whenever you raise a level. Another distraction is when you get a line, a double line, or a triple line, as it plays a very deep bass sound. Admittedly that *could* be as in my system the sound was being pumped through a 500watt 5.1 system, and theres also the fact that when you get lines in time with the music it can make it sound kind of cool.
All in all, I don't know if I like Tetris Worlds or not. If there was an option called "Turn off all the stupid flashy extra crap etc" then it could be quite cool :)
Of course, I could just be complaining because I rated myself as being quite good at Tetris, and my high score when I played last night was quite crap..
