Tetrisphere
| Tetrisphere | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developer(s) | H2O Entertainment |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
| Release | August 11, 1997 |
| Genre(s) | Puzzle |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
Tetrisphere is a video game released for the Nintendo 64 in 1997. It is a peculiar variant on Tetris in which various shapes are shifted across a sphere and destroyed. The objective of the game changes depending on the mode, but generally depends on removing layers of shapes to reach the core of the sphere. Some believe that Tetrisphere's gameplay is at times overshadowed by its techno-esque soundtracksecond page composed by Neil D. Voss. Development of the game was done by H2O, located at the time in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Tetrisphere got its start as an Atari Jaguar game called Phear, and was on display in Atari's booth at CES '95. Nintendo must have spotted something valuable in it, because they bought the rights from the developer, pulled the game out of Atari's booth and released it a couple of years later as Tetrisphere. You can see the original Jaguar Phear Brochure here.
This game has the strange distinction of having the N64 logo designed incorrectly. The bases of the "N" (the yellow parts) were drawn rectangular, when they're actually squared.
Tetrisphere is sometimes labeled as Tetrisdoughnut, because the underlying topology of the playfield resembles a torus more than a sphere.
Play Mechanics
In most Tetris titles, your score is tallied in "lines", where a line of brick pieces that is without gaps is removed from the playing field, advancing your score, and diminishing the collection of pieces by the armatures which extend into the effected area.
In Tetrisphere, your goal is to remove bricks by forcing three of the same piece to touch as a result of a "drop". For the purposes of differentiation within this document, we will call this method of removal a "reaction".
A "drop" is achieved when any brick falls, either from the randomly generated inventory carried by the player, or when the brick which supports it is removed (by sliding, explosion, or reaction)
When a reaction occurs, the three bricks will glow brightly, and implode, removing themselves from the field of play. Any other same-shaped blocks which are touching that reaction will also be removed in a chain reaction. For example, if you have lines of nested "Z" pieces, and you (the player) drop another "Z" directly on top of one of the nested Zs, the one which was dropped will cause the piece below to implode, causing all identical pieces touching that piece to explode, and so on...
It is possible, with some small effort, to clear the majority of a "layer" on the globe with one, well-executed chain reaction. The fewer the number of different pieces allowed in the construction of the globe, the more likely and impressive the chain reactions will be.
The only exception is that the pieces involved (including the original three) must abide by the rules which dictate which pieces are "touching". For example, any two matching pieces which are stacked must be exactly on top of each other, if they are both to be removed.
Laterally, each pieces obeys the rules specific to its shape. As an illustration of this point, "O" pieces (a 2x2 square, colored blue) and "I" pieces (a 3x1 or 1x3 rectangle, colored green or yellow) must have full contact on one side with one full side of another piece of the same shape, but all other pieces are considered "touching" if any part of them is in contact with another of the same shape.
Removing more than three blocks with one move fills a meter will gives access to progressively more powerful assistive devices, such as sticks of dynamite, that the player may employ at any time to remove large sections of surface pieces. Each type of explosive has its own pattern of removal, area of effect, and drawbacks. This also multiplies the players score for each piece removed.
While the player tried to set up reactions, a timer counts down. When the timer reaches zero seconds remaining, the piece which is held in the player's randomly generated inventory of pieces will begin to fall, without regard to placement, and often becoming an obstacle. For this reason, it is important to take as little time as is possible when removing pieces or setting up reactions.
There is a penalty for each time a player drops without starting a reaction. The player may be penalized three times during a given play period, after which the round ends.
There are three modes of play: Missions or puzzles for single player, and two player "versus" mode.
In Single Player Mission Mode, the player is given a variety of objectives to complete, such as revealing every portion of a picture placed on some portion of the playing globe's inner core, or breaking key blocks hidden beneath the surface, often with a time limit, or restriction of some kind.
Single Player Puzzle Mode removes the Drop Timer, the combo weapons, and the infinite and random natures of the inventory supplied to the player. They must remove all blocks from the surface of the globe, given a finite number of sliding moves, and drops of select pieces. Most often, complex chain reactions and very specific placement is required for every piece to be removed.
Two Player Versus Mode is a race to be the first of the two players to reveal the set amount of core, on a globe of a given scale, with aset number of layers, and different pieces in its constitution.