Mobile Game Review of "Tetris Pop"

Image via CrunchBase,
source unknown Tetris Pop is still Tetris, but this time, instead of fundamentally reinventing Tetris like WellTris, or Tris 3: Faces, or SubMerged, EA instead offered up a collection of Tetris variants, and fed it to you in smaller but increasing harder doses. The result is surprisingly playable, almost as addictive as the original, and still manages to be somewhat fresh.

So how many Tetris variants are there? Total of 16. Here's a full list:

* vanilla -- i.e. original
* ball -- a ball randomly bounces in the field, messing up your pieces
* circuit -- complete the circuit with the specified color pieces from left to right
* detonator -- link the detonator to the dynamite pieces before time runs out
* erosion --
* filler
* flood
* furnace -- drop all the pieces as fast as possible to "heat up" the field
* ledges --
* limbo -- keep all pieces BELOW the line
* meteors
* replicator -- assemble pieces to resemble the given shape
* scanner
* split -- field is divided vertically into 2, pieces dropped alternately
* stacker
* touchdown -- drop a Tetromino (tm) onto the bottom pad before time runs out... (except there are random blocks and lines you must clear!)

Well, the game itself doesn't tell you about the variants until you play them, so when you see a new variant, it may take you a couple attempts to do it. I am afraid that I can't describe every variant. I can tell you that I did play them, as I'm at least 50 percent into the game in Pop mode.

The "main" game is Tetris Pop, or "Pop mode", which are these minigames grouped into "levels" of "worlds". There are like seven worlds, each have several levels. At each level you need to play three to four variants to complete the level. And you are graded by your completion score/time and awarded a medal thus.

There is also Pop Chrono, which is basically a timed mode. If you prefer to play only ONE variant, there's "Pop Mix", which lets you choose exactly the variant you want to try. You can only play the variants you've unlocked in the Pop mode, of course.

In each of the variants there is an achievement, and you can check if you've done them in the statistics section. Such as forming a "Tetris" (clear 4 lines together) and so on. Some can be quite tough.

The music is somewhat based on the original theme, but rearranged to be not as annoying. Background animation is rather minimal, but the whole dancing menu can be annoying after a while. Graphics are not the strong suit here as this is merely a Tetris game, but the blocks are clear and nicely animated.

All in all, Tetris Pop is a worthwhile addition to the Tetris family. You can play the vanilla version (which is the official version, including hard and soft drops, hold, and more), and 15 variants, and mix and match, plus timed, "campaign", and so on. It is a lot of game in one little package.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10
Pros: Tetris, Tetris, and more Tetris, in small doses, are good
Cons: that's all? We're STILL doing Tetris variants?