Tetris Axis is the latest entry in the long-running Tetris series of puzzle games.  Developed by Hudson and published by Nintendo, Tetris Axis takes advantage of the various features of the 3DS, such as its depth slider and its cameras, to create new ways to play the traditional game of Tetris.  Boasting over 20 modes and online multiplayer, some of these modes are great, while others are interesting until you play them for a bit.

Tetris in a nutshell is a block-clearing puzzle game.  Using seven types of shapes composed of four blocks each, players must line falling blocks in horizontal rows, upon which they disappear.  When players clear 10 lines, the speed of the falling blocks increases until the blocks reach the top (In all Tetris games, this is referred to as Marathon).

- The extensive multiplayer support is appreciated -

On a fundamental level, Tetris Axis gets the gameplay right, but due to the layout of the 3DS's directional pad, things feel a bit off compared to Tetris DS – the plus is lower than the direction pad on the other DS hardware versions and it's smaller.  This made later levels more difficult than they had to be due to accidentally making blocks insta-drop.  Additionally, the game doesn't give the option to use the slide pad.

With the main Tetris concept being so well tread over the years, what will make or break Axis is the new modes it adds, which all feel run-of-the-mill.  The new modes include Climber (helping a guy climb a tower with blocks as steps), Bombliss (bombs in blocks make other blocks near to them explode), and Stage Racer (guide a block through a stage).  These modes all seem interesting for a few seconds, but there is nothing to pull you back in to play them more.  Most of them prompt you to play them again after one level, seemingly leading you back to playing Marathon. When I attempted to play the AR (Augmented Reality) mode, an option that uses the camera and a special card to display Tetris in the real world, the game couldn’t recognize the card properly and I could not play. 

Since Tetris Axis is on 3DS, the graphics are expected to be pretty nice, and they get the job done, but the 3D effects are a bit jarring.  As soon as the game gets to its main menu there's a nifty depth of field effect that continues on into the game.  The problem is that after a few minutes the effect has to be turned off because, with Tetris being primarily a 2D game, any depth in the field doesn't help things at all.  Moreover, all the depth seems to be used in the backgrounds of the stages.  Aside from the menus, I noticed a nice effect with the blocks coming in from the CPU in versus battle.  Your custom Mii character is displayed in some single-player modes, while a variant of Bomberman is your opponent in CPU battles, which is a nice touch to the otherwise drab backgrounds.

- There are many modes, but they're not all particularly enjoyable -

Catchy music is an integral part of the classic Tetris experience, and Tetris Axis falls a bit flat in this area.  Often while playing I would instantly notice that the music wasn't adding to the experience, but was instead taking away from it.  I went to sound test, and saw that the songs were all variations of public domain songs.

As a long-time Tetris fan, what makes Tetris Axis really difficult to dig into, is that it is following Tetris DS.  Released in 2006, Tetris DS used Nintendo-themed levels, and the newer gameplay types used Nintendo properties in novel ways.  After having the ability to see the Mario Bros. being played atop my game of Tetris, seeing things scaled back in Tetris Axis is underwhelming.

GameDynamo's Score for Tetris Axis (3DS)

Stories from around the web