part of the plan. Maybe this is some scheme to reach out to other life forms. It’s not

like anyone on this planet hasn’t played Tetris, so maybe the repackaging of this game

is like the precursor to some kind of new Voyager program.

Only this time, instead of gold records, we’re sending Tetris: Axis.

Of course, that wouldn’t be a very nice gesture on our part. I don’t know very much

about interstellar diplomacy, but I think sending a weaker Tetris might be step one

in starting a cross-galaxy war.

Just to be safe, maybe we can send Tetris DS instead.

It’s not that Tetris: Axis is a bad game. It’s pretty hard to screw up the greatest

puzzle game of all-time, so any game built around Alexey Pajitnov’s elegant masterpiece

is an inherently good game at heart. The thing is, when it’s been rereleased as many times

as Tetris, the quality of the release really hinges on the quality of the package.

And in that respect, Tetris: Axis—while decent—is also a bit of a letdown.

The first thing you notice with Tetris: Axis is that the game seems to have more modes

and content than it knows what to do with. There are more than 20 different ways to play

Tetris in Axis, scattered across a menu system that is anything but intuitive. You feel like

you have to dig for a lot of them, navigating submenus until you find more modes you probably

won’t play more than once before going back to the original.

Among the several new ones are modes like a thinner Tetris grid, a Tetris game with

bombs in the blocks and even a falling-block race of sorts. The game also supports the

3DS AR cards for some augmented reality Tetris, which is cool...but for the most part, a good

deal of the modes feel half-heartedly tacked on.

Speaking of half-hearted, perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Tetris: Axis is the

game’s presentation. Two of the best recent Tetris games for Nintendo consoles were Tetris

DS and Tetris Party for WiiWare, each of which packaged cool gameplay with equally well-conceived

aesthetics and designs.

Tetris: Axis has neither.

In fact, the game almost looks thrown together...as if there’s no coherent idea here beyond,

“Hey, we need a Tetris game on the 3DS.” Even the Mii support, which is an excellent

addition at first, feels empty. He just...stands there. And dances. That’s the kind of thought

that went into Tetris: Axis. Let’s just stand there and be Tetris.

Fortunately, there are a lot of multiplayer options. You can play up to eight players

locally and online, and best of all, Tetris: Axis also supports download play. Your pals

don’t even need their own cartridge to play a little Tetris: Axis wirelessly, which is

an excellent addition in any 3DS game.

It sounds like nitpicking, but at the same time, there has to be a basis of comparison

somewhere. Games like Tetris DS and Tetris Party paired awesome presentation with cool

new ways to play. Tetris: Axis lacks the former, and although it packs a punch in terms of

content, a lot of it just feels thrown together. In fact, many of the options actually existed

in other games first.

I can’t tell if this is a new Tetris or a greatest hits collection.

The only problem with that is that Tetris: Axis isn’t even the greatest hits. It’s

like a Metallica show in which they only play stuff from Load. It’s still Metallica, but

it was better before.