“TETRIS PARTY”

Platform: Wii (only available by download through the Wii Shop Channel)Style: one- to four-player puzzle (up to five players in Wi-Fi Battle)Publishers: Hudson Soft and Tetris OnlineWeb site: www.tetrisparty.com/uk_enSince downloading “Tetris Party” to my Nintendo Wii for $12, I have been playing it so much that I see colorful blocks as I’m drifting to sleep.It’s the ultimate multiplayer game. I call it “nasty Tetris” because in multiplayer mode, pulling off sweet moves sends blocks to your opponent’s screen. You also can score special abilities to send wrath on other players.Anyone familiar with the original “Tetris” for Nintendo knows the basics: Various shapes of blocks (“tetriminos”) drop from the top of your game play area (matrix). When you make a line of blocks from one side of your matrix to the other, you “clear” that line; if you don’t clear lines fast enough, your blocks build to the top of your matrix, and you lose.In “Tetris Party,” clearing two or more lines at once sends a stack of tetriminos to your opponent’s matrix, pushing his tetriminos closer to the top. Sometimes you win items, special abilities such as fogging up an opponent’s screen or clearing blocks in your own matrix.Among 18 play modes are: Marathon (original, single-player style), Shadow (fill in a shaded image with tetriminos). Wii Balance Board (lean left to right on your board to drop tetriminos and get a workout) and Wi-Fi Battle (connect with players worldwide).

Photo by GAZETTE FILE