Tetra Defense - Attack of the Tentacle! Review
PROS
- Unique four-at-a-time Tetris gameplay.
- Earn cash for special towers and upgrades.
- Fun style.
CONS
- Hard to feel at ease with the controls.
VERDICT
'Tetra Defense - Attack of the Tentacle' is a strange blend of puzzle, action and strategy that will appeal to some Tetris fans, but the controls will take some time to deal with.
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'Tetra Defense - Attack of the Tentacle' is an interesting collaboration between GeniApps and Mindstorm Studios to produce another 3D Tetris variant with an element of action as you attempt to stop 'Bogey the Tentacle' from invading Earth. This alien will keep throwing blocks at you, but if you can place them in to 'quads' you'll give him a shock, earning money in the process.
Unfortunately this all comes down to how well the controls respond as players are no longer working in a full 3D environment, but rather attempting to play four Tetris games at the same time. It's certainly a unique idea that's fun to explore, but moving the blocks can become a frustrating chore as the controls don't feel right for the job. Sliding left and right will move the block accordingly, also causing it to switch between each board you're playing on, but doing so can cause the game to register a 'down' move, causing the block to fall prematurely or lower than you intended.
Other gameplay elements like spending your cash on towers that can help you out are a fantastic addition, but this doesn't alleviate the feeling that you're walking on egg shells when attempting to shift pieces in to place. Also, if you're going to borrow a character design, try not to borrow from something as famous as Day of the Tentacle, it just looks tacky.
After some practice, Tetra Defense is still a playable Tetris variant, but more time should have been spent on getting those controls to work intuitively making this a hard title to recommend.
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