Another misleading description for an XBLA game (Tetris)

I shouldn't have purchased Tetris Splash, but after realizing I had 5000 points on my account and another 1600 point card not even entered yet I purchased it. The description listed "Modes of play: Three different modes of play including Tetris, T-Spin, and Combo, plus a unique screensaver mode." and being the puzzle addict I am my interest in the alternate modes was piqued. Too bad they don't exist.

There is Marthon (normal), 40 lines and multiplayer. T-Spin is just an action you can do with a 'T' shaped block. Combos are just consecutive lines on consecutive pieces. There are no gameplay variants.

In fact you can't even disable the ghost piece or hold queue settings until you unlock enough achievemnts. Thats right, you can't play normal Tetris from the start. Only the updated version aka easy mode.

Sigh...well at least you all can learn from my mistake.

Oh the base game only seems to include 4 fish and two basic aquariums, but they don't affect gameplay in anyway so most people probably won't care. You can't really see it while playing and if you are watching the backgrounds something is wrong anyway. Also of note is that for online multiplayer there is no guest option, which just seems silly considering it is a good family game.

To put it real politely: Microsoft needs to tighten their ship.

Misleading descriptions such as Tetris. Wrong feature badges for Sonic 2. Approving blatantly misleading trial wordings in Mad Tracks. Listing games as high-def when they are not. Releasing first party and MS published games without promised features.

MS is burning up a lot of goodwill fast. I don't know how the competition is doing relatively, but MS games division is getting far too lax at their jobs.

I am in the US. The only way to tell if it is or will be available in your region is through your regions xbox.com.

Of course that doesn't necessarily mean that anything Microsoft lists is accurate as evident in the misleading game description.

I guarantee that the weird availability of this game is directly related to the business development suits in europe that own the rights to publish Tetris games there.

Do you know how difficult it was to get the retail Tetris published in the US? Very. And that's also why the US did *not* get the same game as the Japanese.

Stupid suits have to ruin everyone's fun. Well, mostly Europe's fun actually.

Yeah, what IS with the requiring of achievements just to change option settings?!! How many people are beginners at Tetris that would actually need a compulsory tutorial and the ghost piece thing? I find that distracting and actually a hindrance! Very disappointing especially after the superbness of Puzzle Fighter.

Very disappointing - on a big telly the gameplay area (sorry, the 'aquarium) is still tiny.

That's the only thing that worries me about the amount of promised TATE games like Ikaruga as they're 'optimised' into widescreen.

Rob

Puzzle Fighter is superior is superior in almost every way (but PF:HD is not actually HD...grr). However, Puzzle Fighter isn't Tetris

Online multiplayer makes the play area absolutely tiny as you said. About 13" or so diagonal or so on a 45 inch TV. ( I might be remembering that estimate inaccurately, but it is tiny and the aquarium wastes so much space there is no reason to have a tiny play field.)It was exceedingly difficult to see the area on my 36" TV more than 10' away and the couch is about 15'. They need an option to remove the aquarium effect and zoom in on your play area, everyone ele's really isn't that important anyway. If you need to counter attack with lines you play area lets you know and the rotation of who is attacking who makes it impossible to gain any insight from the other players fields. They just take up space.

You can spin a piece back and for for exceedingly long periods of time holding up gameplay but boosting your time and associated score (not a massive score increase, but still exploitable).

Even if the game description was accurate at 800 points the only thing Tetris Splash has going for it is that it is Tetris. Every additional feature or gameplay adaptation has been done better in other versions.