Tetris® Forever Steam Charts & Stats

gut

yeah. . . . not my cup of tea. yeah it has multiple versions of Tetris including the very first version witch was somewhat the selling point for me, but the other varients of Tetris are just boring. for starters the timeline shows versions of tetris for the dreamcast and other consoles but wont let you play them so no Tetris TGM, there is no online multiplayer and the controls are just different for each game. so unfortunately I'm gonna have to give this a hard pass (for now) and i get it, some versions of the game were licensed to other developers, but it would still be nice to have them available.

This series needs to continue. Video games are a relatively new medium, and many major game companies do NOT want the video game medium to receive the same level of scrutiny and understanding as other media.

A Documentary about the story of the world's most iconic Puzzle Game with supplementary material to play with! (Played mostly with a Xbox Controller) Tetris Forever is both a collection of various Tetris games from across the early years of the franchise also including one brand new game, as well as telling the story of how Tetris was made and the battle to get it's rights back to it's creator. It's best to view this collect as a documentary first, game collection second as while the ratio of games to the price is overall okay, there totally could have been more games included in the collection that fall under both early and weird versions of Tetris that aren't readily available. As I firmly believe that the production value and information given from some of the key members of the franchise is engaging enough compared to simply watching a video about the same story narrated by someone else. Gameplay of Tetris Forever could be split into two categories, Documentary and Games. On the Documentary Side of Tetris Forever, you have 5 chapters chronicling the journey of Tetris' creation and it's battle for it's rights. This is showcased mainly with short videos paired with scans of relevant imagery, scans of advertisements and game boxes. These videos are well made and just the right amount of short-medium length to get you engaged but not make it not feel like you're watching just a film. On the other side of the spectrum (holobyte) you have all the games in the collecting, at the time of this review it is between 15-20 games. Mostly featured are emulations of lesser recognizable versions of Tetris as well as adjacent puzzle game series/variations such as Welltris, lots of Hatris, and a TON of Bombliss, my personal favorite Tetris variation. Also included are two completely new versions of Tetris. Firstly a recreation of Alexey's original version of Tetris on the Electronika 60 computer, which aims to recreate the most primitive form of Tetris in practically perfect accuracy. Down to the basic control scheme and old scoring system. Secondly is Tetris Time Warp, a basic by the numbers version of Tetris with all the modern features in a Tetris game with the unique gimmick of the Time Warps. Which, well, warp the player to different versions of Tetris being the Electronika 60, Gameboy-like, and Bombliss to complete a short mini challenge to gain a point bonus and generally a break from the constant Tetromino Dropping of the main mode. It's a pretty short loop but considering how many other games are included having something completely new included in Forever is commendable. While Tetris Forever DOES have quite the sizeable collection of different Tetris and adjacent puzzle games. There's mention of so many other weird and unusual Tetris games in text but for whatever reason are omitted for either obvious or not clear reasons. Listing some of these titles: The NES and Gameboy versions of Tetris are omitted. This is likely due to them being on Nintendo's NES/Gameboy service on the Switch's Online program. But it's so odd having both titles, especailly the Gameboy version having such a pivitoal part of Tetris' Story and Legacy and have it not be included. At least Time Warp does have a creation of the Gameboy version and the Famicom version is include in the game collection. Wordtris is another one of those random games that's branched from Tetris, like Bombliss or Welltris. Basically building words as they fall from the top of the screen. It was published by one or more of the companies who's other Tetris games are featured in this collection so it would be a fine additive variation of Tetris to include. Especially since all version of Hatris of all games managed to make the cut. Lastly there's other games that are only mentioned in the collection but not included without any clear justification on why. Such as oddball games like Tetris CD-i which is both highly notable thanks to it's music, is featured as a text blurb, but not included at all. Even though there's nothing really obvious that would suggest it wouldn't be possible to add, outside of maybe emulation reasons. This goes for basically the 4th and 5th chapter of the game as most to none of the games other than Tetris Time Warp mentioned are playable. Granted some of them are Arcade exclusive but it feels weird how they just tease them without really elaborating on them with some exceptions. Overall, I think Tetris Forever succeeds with what it's trying to do. Be both a documentary on the story of Tetris while at the same time providing access to older and weird titles the franchise has to offer in a convenient collection with some new exclusive games mixed in. While I can get behind people complaining about the price to game raito as a bulk of the titles are just re-releases. But if you look at this game as a documentary first with it's video material and other niffy features PLUS the bonus of having playable games I think it hits it's price mark decently but I would obviously still recommend getting it on sale. If anything I'm just glad there's a LEGAL and EASY way for more people to play Bombliss and discover how really good Hatris surprisingly is. And at the time of this review the game is still getting more games added to it so maybe some of my omission criticisms will hopefully be void. All in all, Play Tetris!