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Weird Tetris ports / spinoffs / clones

Chas Hodges

Chas Hodges

Member
Nov 7, 2017
392
In my infinite lockdown boredom, I've started making a YouTube series about odd Tetris games.

I have a pretty good working knowledge of Tetris games, spinoffs, and clones, but am interested in any particularly interesting takes on the format.

I have plans to cover some of the official 'weird' releases like the numbered sequels or Pajitnov '-ris' games, Pokémon Tetris on the Pokémon Mini, the Virtual Boy entries, etc, but welcome any help on routing out odd titles that may have appeared on old home computers, indie titles that may pay clear homage to Tetris lineage, or console / handheld releases that innovate or change up the formula in someway, but are largely ignored.

Any help is appreciated!
 

Deleted member 2254

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If you don't have it already, Tricky Towers is basically an indie Tetris but with physics. It's pretty wild.




It's a rather different gameplay experience, but Chime is very clearly inspired by Tetris as well.




And then there's the very unknown, somewhat glitchy, but ridiculously addictive Anode, which is basically a mixture of Tetris and match-3s like Bejeweled.





I personally enjoy all 3 games greatly, and I hope they're of help :)
 
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Chas Hodges

Chas Hodges

Member
Nov 7, 2017
392
FairyEmpire said:
If you don't have it already, Tricky Towers is basically an indie Tetris but with physics. It's pretty wild.




It's a rather different gameplay experience, but Chime is very clearly inspired by Tetris as well.




And then there's the very unknown, somewhat glitchy, but ridiculously addictive Anode, which is basically a mixture of Tetris and match-3s like Bejeweled.





I personally enjoy all 3 games greatly, and I hope they're of help :)
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Chime is on my list already - big fan of the original release, but wasn't as crazy about the 'Sharp' update to it. Will have to check out the other two! I've been aware of Tricky Towers, but never played for some reason!
 
Hilbert

Hilbert

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,051
Pacific Northwest!
I had a tetras game on the Saturn with an archeology theme and an archeologist that would walk on the blocks that I put down and you had to keep him alive. It was a strange twist on it.
 
Mirage

Mirage

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,905
Chas Hodges said:
Pokémon Tetris on the Pokémon Mini
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I know someone who just got a maxout on this which as far as I know is the first. Took them over 3 hours.

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Hilbert said:
I had a tetras game on the Saturn with an archeology theme and an archeologist that would walk on the blocks that I put down and you had to keep him alive. It was a strange twist on it.
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That one is Tetris Plus.
 
Gundam

Gundam

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
12,801
Hatris was made by Mr. Tetris himself, and man does it suck.

Also, Gorby's Pipeline is a fucking trip, and happens not to be very fun.

I played a bunch of tetris style games on NES/SNES last month. Tetris Attack has nothing to do with tetris, but it was pretty good. Pac-Attack is also kind a weird and cool. Wordtris doesn't quite work for me, and tetris + Dr. Mario was disappointing.
 
sir_crocodile

sir_crocodile

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,162
Tetrisphere, Wetrix(not really tetris) and the "Grand Master" Arika arcade games are the most notable for me (as all are quality).

I used to play a weird tetris knockoff called "the wall" that had a + piece and doubled as a cassette tape player.

UXut5TT.png
 
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Chas Hodges

Chas Hodges

Member
Nov 7, 2017
392
FairyEmpire said:
If you don't have it already, Tricky Towers is basically an indie Tetris but with physics. It's pretty wild.




It's a rather different gameplay experience, but Chime is very clearly inspired by Tetris as well.




And then there's the very unknown, somewhat glitchy, but ridiculously addictive Anode, which is basically a mixture of Tetris and match-3s like Bejeweled.





I personally enjoy all 3 games greatly, and I hope they're of help :)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Bought Tricky Towers and Anode on Switch - Anode is surprisingly confusing to start isn't it?!
 
Stopdoor

Stopdoor

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,802
Toronto
I'm pretty into multiplayer games and enjoy the odd spins put on Tetris. Like Tetris Party Deluxe on Wii has a 2v2 mode where two people share an extra wide Tetris board. I haven't played it myself, but as maligned Tetris Ultimate was, it apparently had a mode where four people Vs. but share the edges of each other's boards, which is a novel idea.

Tetris Axis on 3DS also had AR Tetris, pretty sure?
 

Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
Tetris Battle Gaiden on the SNES was a versus game that had characters with special abilities.
www.giantbomb.com

Tetris Battle Gaiden (Game) - Giant Bomb

A multiplayer focused "puzzle battle" variant on the popular Tetris, released only in Japan.
www.giantbomb.com www.giantbomb.com

Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura on the PS1 was made by Arika and is based around removing all the jewel blocks from the levels as quickly as possible. It was replicated in TGM3 with the "Sakura" mode. The mechanics were based on the Sega arcade game Flash Point.
tetris.wiki

Tetris with Cardcaptor Sakura Eternal Heart - TetrisWiki

tetris.wiki tetris.wiki
 
Platy

Platy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
29,234
Brazil
ascii42 said:
Tengen Tetris on the NES had it. I never knew there was another Tetris release with co-op.
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it is much wider in tetris party

ztRwfkZ.jpg


Tetris party also has a bazillion of other modes like a mode that a small guy is climing your creation and you can't crush them


www.youtube.com

Tetris Party Deluxe (Wii) Trailer

Trailer for Tetris Party Deluxe for Wii. For more information, visit http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
Dr. Feel Good

Dr. Feel Good

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,996
I always found it interesting that for the Virtual Boy which had a tiny library pulled off two unique Tetris games that were region specific.

V-Tetris in Japan and 3D Tetris in US.
 
Eoin

Eoin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,146
Hatetris is a version of Tetris, playable in a browser, that uses an algorithm to determine the worst possible piece to give you, and only ever gives you the worst.

You know, just to present the evil mirror universe version of Tetris.
 
transience

transience

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Oct 27, 2017
2,347
Came to post about Hatris.

I've been obsessed for years with Bastard Tetris (bastet), which is a version of Tetris that calculates the worst possible piece to get. It is an altogether humbling experience that will stop you from complaining about bad luck in Tetris ever again.

edit: I hadn't heard of hatetris. I'm guessing it is just bastet in web form?
 
Nilson

Nilson

Member
Nov 5, 2017
1,566
DUDE lol my friends are dying at this thread, we've been playing Wordtris on SNES for the past 5 hours. Its an incredibly solid Tetris/Scrabble sort of game.
 
Mirage

Mirage

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Oct 25, 2017
9,905
transience said:
that will stop you from complaining about bad luck in Tetris ever again.
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TTC been trying to do this since the early 2000s when the guidelines were implemented and 7 bag rng started. Which all modern releases use now which is the seven pieces repeating in a random order, so you never end up more than 13 pieces without a piece.
 

Celine

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,044
Tetris 2 + BomBliss on NES has a puzzle mode in which you need to eliminate specific red blocks with a prefixed number of tetraminos (these red blocks are like bomb and explode when the row is erased).


Though the reason why this version feel weird is that the music was composed by Koichi Sugiyama (famed composer of the Dragon Quest series) which has a very recognizable style and you wouldn't expect it in a puzzle game (he is famous for the music compositions for RPGs).
 
Nessus

Nessus

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,179
You've probably already watched it, but Digital Foundry John's video about Tetris covers a lot of great and obscure versions of Tetris:



I've always been partial to versions with significantly different rules, like the cylindrical, scrolling well in V-Tetris on Virtual Boy, the new tetriminos in Magical Tetris Challenge, and the communal pool of pieces that both players draw from in Tetris Battle Gaiden, etc.
 
bionic77

bionic77

Member
Oct 25, 2017
31,408
I am not sure what it has in common with Tetris other then the name, but Tetris Attack on the SNES was an amazing multiplayer game.
 
Mirage

Mirage

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Oct 25, 2017
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Oh if you're interested in not official stuff Not Tetris 2 is interesting, it's physics based on has 360 rotating of pieces.

 
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Chas Hodges

Chas Hodges

Member
Nov 7, 2017
392
There is some seriously good stuff in here.

So far I've made videos on Tetris S, Magical Tetris Challenge and a couple others which a scheduled but not released yet - there's loads of great ideas in this thread though!!
 

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Nov 17, 2017
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while not unknown at all, the C64 version of Tetris has one of the best soundtracks in all chiptune history
 
JustinH

JustinH

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Oct 27, 2017
10,672
Krejlooc said:
the best:

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So much of my high-school Math class was playing Tetris on my calculator with all my dorky, preppy friends at the back of the classroom lmao.

I was a Ti-82 (later Ti-85) guy though.

My math teacher hated me, lol. I had him for all four years of high school because he was the only teacher for "Honors" math at my high school.
 
arcadepc

arcadepc

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Dec 28, 2019
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There was an adult Tetris version for windows where instead of blocks you had to fit and rotate nude couples. Instead of the usual Tetris sfx it had moans....
 

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Nyet 3 is a Tetris puzzle game with themed levels like invisible blocks or snake blocks that you need to block off. You get money for beating stages, which you can then use to buy equipment to make progression easier!

Saves are one use and expensive, and no continues either. The more you save, the worse you're making things for yourself in the long run because the opportunity cost of not buying power-ups! And if you don't save often, failure will set you back a whole lot of progress and you'll never get anywhere.

There's also an exposed nipple in the game's introduction because ???
 
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Chas Hodges

Chas Hodges

Member
Nov 7, 2017
392
Sceptile said:
Nyet 3 is a Tetris puzzle game with themed levels like invisible blocks or snake blocks that you need to block off. You get money for beating stages, which you can then use to buy equipment to make progression easier!

Saves are one use and expensive, and no continues either. The more you save, the worse you're making things for yourself in the long run because the opportunity cost of not buying power-ups! And if you don't save often, failure will set you back a whole lot of progress and you'll never get anywhere.

There's also an exposed nipple in the game's introduction because ???
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Downloading a copy of this now to try and setup in DOSBox - it sounds fantastically oddball!
 
Jay Shadow

Jay Shadow

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Oct 28, 2017
2,823
When I moved from consoles to PC I remember playing Super Tetris a lot. It's an officially licensed game, but the aesthetics made it feel like a knock off.

 
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