Tetris (CD-i) ISO

Tetris is a cultural phenomenon that has been around since the late 80's and continues to see releases and variants sold and/or downloaded to this very day. The game honestly doesn't need much of an introduction on a website like this because it is one of the bestselling games ever made, even being enjoyed by those who normally have an aversion to video games due to its simplistic-yet-addicting gameplay that helped define puzzle and casual games. Considering that by 1992 it had already taken the world by storm, seeing multiple successful releases across consoles, handhelds, personal computers and even in the arcade coin-ops, I guess it was inevitable that Philips would want a piece of that action on their still-new Compact Disc Interactive console (more infamously known as the CD-i).

This version of Tetris was published by Philips themselves under their "Interactive Media" branch, and developed by their in-house development team, Philips POV, which was responsible for developing six other games for the CD-i and DOS/Windows PC's during the early to mid 90's. When you start up the game you may notice that this version of the game is both incredibly unique and barebones in presentation. The game doesn't have a proper title screen, and the main menu lacks any options for multiplayer or any mode other than marathon going from levels 0 to 9. Due to this being an early game for the fledgling CD based console, and earlier models only having one controller port, I can understand this version of Tetris not having any multiplayer support; but considering the Game Boy version and both NES versions of the game were already released at this point, and remained as standard versions of Tetris for most of the 90's, it's a little disappointing to only have the one gameplay mode to say the least.

The game itself plays decently, if not a bit janky due to most of the first and second party controllers made for the CD-i being utter crap and hell to deal with. If you're a daring soul who wants to burn this game onto a CD-R and play it on real hardware, I would recommend using the CD-i mouse, Mega Drive inspired Gamester LMP pad, or any homemade controller solution (like the MD/Genesis mk-9 to CD-i converter) above the rest if you want to play it without going into a blind rage. At the very least, assuming those options are not easily accessible, I would not use the remote control with the awkward thumbstick or the spoon controller that comes with the console, as they are hot garbage that are as frustrating to use as they look.

If I have one legitimate complaint about the gameplay in this version Tetris, it would be that the unique presentation I commented on above is very contrarian in ease and feel compared to literally every other version of it commercially released. It'll be kinda difficult for me to convey this over text, so I'd recommend watching any of the few gameplay videos on Youtube to corroborate what I'm going to say in the next paragraph.

In most versions of Tetris, the play-field remains in a static position on the screen, and going up from level to level is usually just indicated by a quick tone or change in background music and seeing the level number go up. The gameplay isn't halted or interrupted during this, and the only indication is that the tetriminos start dropping at a steadily faster rate. Someone at Philips didn't like this for whatever reason, so every time you clear 10 lines to go up to the next level you get this title screen flashing "LEVEL #" in shiny blue letters that have visual effects akin to early 90's VGA screen demos (kinda fitting, honestly). Once this is done, you get a completely new background with the play-field where the gameplay is happening moved to another part of the screen entirely. This, along with the drop speed increase and change in music, becomes a bit jarring and can be disorienting to those who are used to keeping their eyes in one place playing a game like this.

The last thing I want to make note of is the most unique element to CD-i Tetris: the soundtrack. The soundtrack to this game is, in my opinion, the only reason to play this game. The 11 song score was composed by Jim Andron, who has made music for a fair number of games including a couple other games on the CD-i and a lot of work for Namco later on. The best way I can describe the songs are that they are beautiful tracks that sound more like they belong in infomercials, elevators and call holding business tapes from the time than they do a puzzle game like Tetris. They sound New Age-y or like a precursor to Vaporwave, serendipitously enough. The full soundtrack to the game has also been dumped onto Youtube, with a couple people even providing download links for them if you'd rather just forego the game and listen to the songs yourself.

Overall, Tetris on the infamous Philips CD-i is a weaker rendition of the game that's hampered by lack of gameplay options, developers choosing aesthetic over function, and control issues (though that's mostly the console's fault, to be completely fair). The major strength of this game is that it looks and sounds gorgeous, and being one of the better games released early on in the CD-i's run. It's probably the first version of Tetris to be released on the then-new medium of the compact disc; beating out Tetris Plus on PS1 by about 3-4 years, and Tetris Worlds by 9-10. Still, the aesthetics and novelty of a fairly obscure version of one of the most widely played games ever made doesn't make up for the head-scratching design choices and inherit control problems of the platform.

Grading on a curve here, but for a CD-i game: 4/5
Overall: 3/5

Tetris was popular for worldwide,which created by Alexsey Pajitov on platform Elektronica 60 in year 1984.In 1988,1989 and 1990,Tetris was released on platform NES or Famicom or Dendy (that's was NES on Russian) and is was revolution for gaming.In 1992 and 1993 Tetris was released on CD-I(one of worst gaming console in 90-es). This one was just like original Tetris, but in 16-bit version.Now Let's talk about about good things and bad things.Good thing is,this is Upgraded Tetris, that was in original NES version(which is 5 stars). The bad thing is it's was ported in worst gaming consoles ever.So Tetris for CD-I gets 4 stars.