If you think Tetris Evolution is the kind of slick marketing-driven title derived to trick you into thinking that you are not just buying the same old title for a newer system, give yourself a pat on the back. The game provides another entry into the age-old debate, 'how many times do you want to pay for a retro title?'
The game is exactly as you remember it, simple, yet frustratingly difficult. One of the first true puzzle games, Tetris can be a good time for those who have not already tried it on other systems and moved on to more complex puzzlers. The idea is to make solid horizontal lines out of falling blocks of varying shapes, steadily falling vertically from the top of the screen. When a solid line is made, a line is cleared. Should one of your blocks touch the top of the board, it is 'game over'. As gamers clear more lines, their level goes up; as does the speed with which the blocks fall. The addictive and challenging game has stood the test of time.
The game boasts eight different game modes, but you will likely spend more time wondering what is so different about them than actually playing them; as none of them feel markedly different from one another. The familiarity of the classic game would be nice, but when a game title boasts 'Evolution', you should expect an exciting new development, which this game fails to deliver. Some modes separate themselves by lasting a set amount of time, or by having barely-visible benchmarks on the board to clear. Sadly, the depth of gameplay offered here is far less than on Tetris DS. Most gamers will again spend the majority of their time in the old standby, Marathon.
The game's controls hold up decently enough for the early portions of the game, but when things really start moving the 360's mushy controls again rear their ugly head. The high-speed with which the blocks fall later in the game makes precise controls a necessity that neither the d-pad nor the left stick provide. You will make enough mistakes in the higher levels on your own, without needing any extra challenge from the controller. This is one retro game where the stale gameplay will cause you to stop long before frustration over the controls will, however.
The game purports to have 'intense HD graphics', but the claim is a bit of a joke. Nothing on the game looks impressive even for a last-gen game, and could have been pulled off with ease in the early stages of Playstation One. The background camera's flying view of what appears to be a Tetris planet is a decent touch, but never really wows you with dazzling graphics as promised. The tried and true (and tired) Russian themed background music remains, leaving the only possible update for the 360 version of the game to be its play over Live.
If the 360 version of Live has one chink in its armor at this point, it is its frustrating inability to handle a simple puzzle game properly. Suffering from the same sluggish play as Lumines Live, Tetris Evolution is too frustrating to stomach playing over Live. Somehow, Microsoft can allow gamers to run and shoot fifteen others with incredible precision and accuracy over games like Gears Of War, but getting just two players to play a rapid-fire game of Tetris online is a struggle. The game has the infuriating stench of lag, a definite deal-breaker for a speedy puzzle game.
