Hatris Reviews
Despite being another Tetris' spawn, Hatris bring some cool strategy to the genre.
- Posted Jun 25, 2008 6:16 am PT
- Difficulty:
- Just Right
- Time Spent:
- 10 to 20 Hours
- The Bottom Line:
- "Just plain fun"
The Good: Good 'ask-for-help' gameplay system; varied, well-composed, non-boring music.
The Bad: Kinda-cranky controls; no multiplayer or different game mode option; low replay value.
As said above Hatris is another derivative game that came out to follow the path opened by the blockbuster called Tetris. But it's still funny, maybe because it has been developed by the Tetris' creator Alexei Pajitnov himself.
In Hatris you play the role of two brothers trying to sell out theirs hattery's stock. So in this puzzle the pieces (hats, up to six different models) fall in pairs, and you must heap up five of the same kind to get rid of them (and to get the cash). But here comes the first problem of the game: the controls are a little bit cranky.
You can separate the two hats by hanging one of them up in a pile and then releasing the other one to land in a faraway pile; but when you tap down in the control pad the hats reach the top of the pile instantly (in Tetris, for example, you can accelerate and decelerate the pieces' falling speed as you want) and that decreases the precision of controls, especially in faster levels. The same happens when you get a bunch of five hats and the game freezes a little bit to show the points you've earned, taking you out of the rhythm of the gameplay.
But the gameplay score gets higher when we start talking about the help system. As you sell more and more hats you start to earn little faces (actually icons of the two brothers) that represent a possibility of asking them for help. You can do this anytime you want by pressing the B button and each brother helps in a particular way: one can switch places of two piles, the other will throw some hats away, making the pile smaller. That's the best feature of the game since you can also sell the icons for money if you think you can handle the things the way they are, and that add some risky long term strategy to the game.
Technically the game is OK; the graphics are fair and the music is varied and non-boring (it's more important in puzzles than in other games) aside being all good compositions.
In the end Hatris is a fairly good game, but it would be better if there were some variation in the game's modes or a multiplayer option.
The Bad: Kinda-cranky controls; no multiplayer or different game mode option; low replay value.
As said above Hatris is another derivative game that came out to follow the path opened by the blockbuster called Tetris. But it's still funny, maybe because it has been developed by the Tetris' creator Alexei Pajitnov himself.
In Hatris you play the role of two brothers trying to sell out theirs hattery's stock. So in this puzzle the pieces (hats, up to six different models) fall in pairs, and you must heap up five of the same kind to get rid of them (and to get the cash). But here comes the first problem of the game: the controls are a little bit cranky.
You can separate the two hats by hanging one of them up in a pile and then releasing the other one to land in a faraway pile; but when you tap down in the control pad the hats reach the top of the pile instantly (in Tetris, for example, you can accelerate and decelerate the pieces' falling speed as you want) and that decreases the precision of controls, especially in faster levels. The same happens when you get a bunch of five hats and the game freezes a little bit to show the points you've earned, taking you out of the rhythm of the gameplay.
But the gameplay score gets higher when we start talking about the help system. As you sell more and more hats you start to earn little faces (actually icons of the two brothers) that represent a possibility of asking them for help. You can do this anytime you want by pressing the B button and each brother helps in a particular way: one can switch places of two piles, the other will throw some hats away, making the pile smaller. That's the best feature of the game since you can also sell the icons for money if you think you can handle the things the way they are, and that add some risky long term strategy to the game.
Technically the game is OK; the graphics are fair and the music is varied and non-boring (it's more important in puzzles than in other games) aside being all good compositions.
In the end Hatris is a fairly good game, but it would be better if there were some variation in the game's modes or a multiplayer option.
Hatris Quick Links
Summary | Reviews | Answers | Hints & Cheats | Forum
- GameSpot ScoreN/ANo Rating
- Critic ScoreN/ANo Reviews
Also on
Games you may like…
-
Bomberman
(NES) -
Yoshi
(NES) -
Solomon's Key
(NES) -
Solstice
(NES) -
Magic Jewelry
(NES)
Users who looked at content for this game also looked at these games.
See More Similar Games
