Tetris: Axis

Tetris: Axis
Developer(s)	Hudson Soft
Publisher(s)	JP: Bandai Namco Games NA: Nintendo EU: Tetris Online, Inc.
Designer(s)	Tony Tran
Composer(s)	Brian DiLucente
Series	Tetris
Platform(s)	Nintendo 3DS
Release date(s)	Retail NA: October 2, 2011 JP: October 20, 2011 EU: October 21, 2011 AUS: October 27, 2011 Nintendo eShop JP: February 28, 2013 NA: April 19, 2013 EU: June 6, 2013
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single Player, Multiplayer

Tetris: Axis, released as simply Tetris in some regions, is a puzzle video game for the Nintendo 3DS developed by Hudson Soft and Bandai and was published by Nintendo. The game was released in all regions in October 2011 and was published by Namco Bandai Games and Tetris Online, Inc. in Japan and PAL regions respectively.

Game modes

Tetris: Axis features over 20 game modes, which are divided up into three modes, Feature modes, Party modes, and AR modes.

Featured modes

• Fever: The player must get as many points as possible in only a minute of time. Racking up a certain number of points as quickly as possible earns the player color bonuses which when used, alter the gameplay and rack up extra points.
• Computer Battle: The player competes against computer players where clearing lines floods the opponent's area with garbage blocks that can only be eliminated by clearing them.
• Marathon: The standard mode of gameplay.
• Survival: The player plays in an extra-narrow area while blocks are constantly rising up from the bottom. The game ends if the stack of blocks rises to the top.

Party Modes

• Jigsaw: Every piece contains a part of a picture and the piece must be correctly oriented before it is dropped into place.
• Shadow Wide: There is a picture shadowed out on the lower screen and the pieces must be dropped in to reveal it.
• Fit: The pieces are flying continuously at a wall with a hole cut out in it and the shapes must be moved to fit through the hole or else crash into the wall.
• Tower Climber: Similar to the tower climber mode in Tetris Party except that the tower is now a 3D cylinder.
• Bombliss Plus: Based on the Bombliss variant, every piece has a bomb inside and clearing a row containing one makes it explode and clear out all surrounding pieces.
• Stage Racer: Similar to the stage racer mode in Tetris Party, the player must guide a single piece through a continuously moving obstacle course, with the game ending if the piece hits the top.
• Capture: Colored stars are hidden within the playfield and the player can only remove them by touching them with blocks of the same color.
• Master Mode: A variant of the standard mode where the pieces appear on the field instantly instead of falling down.
• Sprint: The player must clear 40 lines in as little time as possible.

AR Modes

• AR Marathon: The player must clear 50 lines as fast as possible. Some block contain bombs which shift the field if activated, requiring the player to move the system to reorient it.
• AR Climber: Similar to the Tower Climber mode except the player must manually rotate the tower.

Development

The music was composed by Brian DiLucente.^[1]

Release

Tetris: Axis was first released on October 2, 2011 in North America.^[2] The game was then released in Europe on October 21^[3] under the name Tetris. The North American version was released for the Nintendo eShop on April 19, 2013.^[4]

In November 2014, it was announced that Tetris for Nintendo 3DS and the Virtual Console release of Tetris for Game Boy would be removed from the European Nintendo 3DS eShop at the end of that year.^[5] On December 31, 2014, both games were removed from the European and North American Nintendo 3DS eShops, despite there being no prior announcement of the removal from the North American Nintendo 3DS eShop.^[6]

Reception

Tetris: Axis received positive reviews, receiving aggregate critical scores of 76.33% and 74 on GameRankings and Metacritic, respectively.

References