Tetra’s Escape – Xbox One Review
There aren’t many people who don’t recognise Tetris and its distinctive shaped blocks, they have been replicated in hundreds of games since Alexey Pajitnov introduced the world to it in 1984.
Now I found Tetris enjoyable, addictive and frustrating in equal measures in the past but still like to drop into it every now and again so when I saw this was linked to Tetris I was intrigued.
But…. it is only a slight link and Tetra’s escape is its own game with actually very few similarities, I was downhearted for about 20 seconds until the game pulled me into its own charms.
Tetra’s escape takes the tetraminos shapes and weaves them into a platforming puzzle game where blocks (Tetra’s) can turn into different shapes to help other tetra’s make their way to the exit collecting stars and trophies along the way.
The principal and the concept of the game are fairly simple and the game does a decent job of teaching you the difference between the different coloured blocks, what they can turn into and how to control them, each world has 8 levels with 3 stars and 1 trophy available in each level.
You solve each level by turning the Tetra’s into shapes to fit into spaces in the level to enable others to move through the level and complete the next element until one tetra can reach the exit, you need to ideally collect three stars and a trophy on each level and that’s where the game aims for replay-ability in getting players to come back and solve the remainder of the level as there are sometimes multiple ways to solve each level
The puzzles get gradually more complex and fiendish as you get further through the worlds as it introduces more shapes, bigger levels and adds more Tetra’s to the mix, however I still got to the end of the third world fairly quickly and easily on my first foray into the game
Graphically the game is fairly simplistic but the style suits the game well and the tetras are animated nicely standing around waiting and blinking while you move their buddies around.
The game has 21 achievements for 1000 gamer score and it should be fairly straightforward to work through polishing those achievements off so if you are wanting to boost your gamer score you’ll eat this up.
Overall I enjoyed playing Tetra’s Escape, it’s not too taxing and it’s good value for money, it won’t hold your attention for long periods of time, but it is a nice little game to drop in and out of if you don’t have a lot of time or just want something simple to pick up.
Developer: ABX Games Studio
Publisher: Ratalaika Games
Twitter: @abxgames_studio / @ratalaikagames
Price: £3.99
Review code supplied by Ratalaika Games