Collection essentials #278: Tetris & Dr. Mario (SNES)

 

This cartridge combines two beloved NES puzzle games, and gives them a new look and sound. It’s sort of like Super Mario All-Stars, only for fewer games. There’s not a ton to say about it as I’ve already talked about the NES versions of these games. The nice thing about this Tetris compared to the one for NES is that this one actually has multiplayer!


Speaking of multiplayer, there is a special mode that gives this release some unique content. Two players can go head-to-head in “Mixed Match”, where both players are given a time limit and must score the most points before the clock hits zero. The game starts in Tetris’s “B-type” mode where a certain number of lines must be cleared, then a round of Dr. Mario is played until all viruses are cleared, and then the remaining time can be spent racking up points in Tetris’s “A-type” mode. Certainly a solid option for two friends who love these classic games.


Sadly I didn’t know about Tetris & Dr. Mario on SNES when I was a kid. For a long time we had a SNES but no NES, so it would have made a lot of sense to get it, seeing as I had seen and played the NES versions at people’s houses and thought they were really good. But alas, I had to wait until my teen years to get an NES and the original versions. It would have been cool to have this cartridge to play against friends over the years. But, hey, I guess that could happen in the future; it’s an essential after all. Hit me up if you want to have a Mixed Match showdown against me!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intro

Image
  I'm about to start a long-term personal project relating to my video game collection. It's actually something I'm doing mostly for myself, but sharing it with others is certainly a nice little side perk. As you probably already know, I have a large video game collection that would make many nerds jealous! I did the bulk of my collecting from roughly 2012-2018. Now I don't buy nearly as many games as I used to. In fact, in 2021 my collection actually had a net shrinkage because I sold more than I bought. Does that mean I've just been a hoarder all this time and I'm slowly growing to regret my life decisions? HECK no. I feel quite satisfied and vindicated with the legion of games into which I've invested time, energy and resources to assemble and I've merely reached a point of satiation. I scratched all the most important stuff from my bucket list. I purposefully was liberal in my choice of buying stuff because I knew how to find deals and I knew that th
Read more

Collection essentials #89: Ninja Gaiden (NES)

Image
Originally, Ninja Gaiden was an arcade game, but rather than simply bring that game to the NES, Tecmo decided to build an entirely new game from the ground-up, tailored for the console, and it paid off.  Ninja Gaiden is a side-scrolling action platformer that takes place across a series of linear levels. You play as Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja armed with a sword, the ability to cling to walls, and to use power-ups that you find throughout the levels which grant strong and important attacks with a limited number of uses. The controls are tight and the game just feels good to play. And what is perhaps most notable about this game are the cutscenes in between areas. Previously, the stories in most NES action games were pretty simplistic, and sometimes not even mentioned in the game itself, only the instruction manual. But Ninja Gaiden takes things to the next level in making the story an integral part of the experience, as you guide Ryu to get revenge against those responsible for his father’s
Read more

Collection essentials #106: Tecmo Super Bowl (NES)

Image
Tecmo had previously released “Tecmo Bowl” nearly three years before this game, and while I don’t own it and don’t consider it essential, it was a very good football game for its time. But fans of that game had seen nothing yet. Tecmo Super Bowl provided a major upgrade, and is widely considered the best sports game on the NES, and some would even say one of the best sports video games of all time in general. The first noticeable difference is that Tecmo Super Bowl, unlike the original, got the license to use real NFL teams with their logos, and all the real players, which maybe sounds frivolous to a non-sports fan, but believe me when I say people who like sports enjoy controlling fantasy versions of their favorite teams and athletes much more than generic made-up counterparts! When making a sports video game, there are different ways a developer can go about it. The most obvious path, perhaps, would be to try and make it as realistic and true to the real thing as possible. That’s oft
Read more