Tetris
| Tetrises |
| C-64 |
| Ericsson R310s |
| Gameboy |
| MS Tetris |
| MiniTetris |
| Tetrex |
| UWindows |
One of the few games out there which, as PC Format reviewer Jim McCauley puts it, "got it right the first time round". You can't really improve the basic formula of Tetris without damaging the feel or simplicity of the game. It's the perfect "between-work-and-more-work-game", you can pop in and play for a few minutes and then (maybe) get back to work. No extreme loading times or hard drive requirements. It even fits on a single floppy disk, how about that, Unreal?
My favourite versions are the original versions for the Commodore 64 and the Gameboy. Both versions have that important feel, and also great music that sticks like glue.
Addition on March 10, 1999.
Isn't Tetris the ultimate single-player game, all categories? I mean, it's easy to learn, difficult to master and it never repeats itself. It's not bound by a story line or anything, and it consumes practically no space or processor power at all. Anyone owning anything even vaugely computer-like (like consoles, ick! ;-) can probably use it to play Tetris. It's said to be inspired by some old greek puzzle, does anyone know anything else about that?
Have another suggestion about the best single-player game (I'm including board and card games for one player too)? Mail me and tell me I'm wrong!
Addition on March 31, 2000.
Discovered another great version of Tetris: Tetris! for Uwindows. Uwindows is the Unreal Tournament interface in case you didn't know. Anyway, this version features several different skins with somewhat different difficulty. One version, LCD (which looks like Tetris for a Gameboy or mobile phone), just goes on forever with you scoring ludicrous amounts of points while Permutation gets difficult pretty fast and requires some skill to master. The skins also have different sound effects, which are a bit loud compared to the rest of the game sounds, making you want to turn down the sound a few steps when playing. The only thing I miss in Tetris! for Uwindows is a line count, I don't see why they haven't included one when everything else you want is there. Oh well, can't have it all I guess ... Anyway, you can get it at The Mutation Device.
Addition on May 8, 2000.
Isn't that more than a little bit ironic? That the Tetris-version I play the most is the one which only works inside Unreal Tournament ...
