Tetris Battle Impressions

Other than Snake, Tetris is far and away the most popular mobile game ever created--even several years after the advent of mobile gaming. Blue Lava Wireless, a mobile developer based in Hawaii, nailed down the Tetris license in mobile's very early days and has been sitting pretty ever since. That doesn't mean the company is unwilling to innovate on the basic model, however. Tetris Battle won't be the first multiplayer version of Tetris for mobile, but it looks like it may soon become the most compelling one.

Blue Lava showed off Tetris Battle's new multiplayer-connected mode at CTIA, which has been rife with new multiplayer mobile games. Tetris Battle is essentially Tetris with a few scoring twists--and a network framework that'll let you download a player's best round and compete against him or her internationally. You first create a profile, which records your handle, location, phone type, and carrier, as well as your running score and rank level (there are currently 15 different skill categories). The game randomly matches you with players within your skill level and obtains their best rounds, which appear in real time on a smaller game board in the bottom right of the screen.

To make things more interesting, Blue Lava has added a new way to score extra points. If you "spin" a T-shaped block into a space perfectly, you get an automatic bonus. Thus, skilled players will adopt a different build-up strategy than they would in classical Tetris in an effort to fit as many T-spins in as possible. According to your performance against your opponent, you'll proceed up or down the international rankings. Blue Lava also indicated that there will be some buddy list functionality, so you can trounce your friends as frequently as you'd like.

Blue Lava has been test-marketing Tetris Battle in the Japanese market, and the company is readying the game for release this winter.