Tetris‪®‬ 4+

The game itself is pretty good. Classic Tetris and a few variations to unlock as you go along. That’s where the positives end unfortunately. The controls are ok, not perfect but that’s to be expected on an iPhone. (Although there does come a point, and much sooner than in any other version I’ve ever played, where it’s physically impossible to move and rotate the blocks quickly enough. Unless you’re the Flash. Also sometimes I find that it’s too easy to over-rotate which is a pain, especially as you can only rotate one way.)

The menus are pretty cluttered and not very intuitive to navigate, which brings me to my biggest gripe of all. The adverts. There are so many of them. I get the in-game purchasing model, I even get the optional ads to earn some junk. But forcing the player to sit through ads before every game? Come on, that’s just greedy, pure and simple. It wouldn’t be so bad if you could buy an ad-free version for a fiver. I’d probably pay that. But they’re trying to charge £8.99 for 6 months ad-free. £18 a year? For Tetris? I’m sorry but that’s ridiculous.

Anyway for casual gamers who just want to jump in and waste a bit of time now and again, I’d say this is great. But for more serious gamers and Tetris fans, I’d probably advise you to steer clear unless you’re some kind of sadist who loves adverts.

3 month review, lvl 29 Pros: -I started a team and it is now full of people with a queue of applicants, which is kind of cool. It is easy to start a team. -Seasons are a cool idea and weeklies are nice. -F2P is entirely possible, I would say there is almost 0 incentive to be P2P. -Season goals are quite addictive and can be stacked. -The avatar customisation can be engaging. Cons -Teams do not tie in properly to seasons and many players join a team but have 0 incentive to contribute. -Team goals are wildly inconsistent, some take an amateur team 4 hours, some take a week. This is a real game ruiner. -There is no tiering/seeding to team competition matching, there is always one team full of max lvl online 24/7 vs remainder casual amateur teams. -Dailies are a fairly rewardless chore. -Ads are inescapable and long ads feel like a punishment. -There are some seasons where not a single reward is interesting. -You cannot tab to other apps during an ad or while queueing. -The interface is quite bad and I have lost many a game because the game did not do what I gestured. This is a game ruiner.

There are two modes, classic Tetris and something that seems to be based around a league table and levels where you can win ‘coins’ to keep playing or buy ‘coins’ if you run out. Each mode uses a different user interface so you can’t practice in classic (which seems to be purely ad funded) to maximise your chances in the league table mode. In the league table mode the game cheats outrageously. For each level you have a limited number of moves, basically turn in a piece (by tapping it) once burns one move, the game will randomly turn pieces that you’ve gotten oriented and lined up, even in the stylus is nowhere near the screen. This happens far too often to be accidental. To get more moves you have to use more ‘coins’ or watch a long advert. On the subject of adverts, these seem to be just for a handful of games that are of zero interest and way over length. Also, the game does not respond to device rotation so the only way to play is with the charger socket at the bottom which makes it difficult to play whilst charging. I know Tetris originates from 1980s, that doesn’t mean you have to limit your use of tech to what was available then.