3D Tetris

Overview

3-D Tetris is a falling-block puzzle game developed by T&E Soft and published by Nintendo for the Virtual Boy exclusively in North America on March 22, 1996.

A spin-off of the Tetris series of puzzle games (and the second adaptation for the system after the Japanese-exclusive V-Tetris), 3-D Tetris changes the classic formula with a game board that is in full 3D, requiring players to rotate and manipulate falling pieces in three dimensions to fill up entire "layers" of the 5×5×5 board.

Similar to some of Nintendo's other Tetris offerings at the time (such as Tetris Attack and Tetrisphere), the game bears little resemblance to the original Tetris. A Japanese release of the game, known as Polygo Block, was cancelled.

Gameplay

Unlike standard Tetris, the game utilizes falling pieces of various shapes and sizes, including non-tetrominos, disconnected single blocks, and blocks of different heights. Each piece type in the Next Piece preview has unique personifications.

Having a block top out causes the bottom-most layer of the 5×5×5 board to be removed from the game (along with the offending blocks), and the game ends once all layers are removed.

Game Modes

• 3-D Tetris - The standard score-based mode, either in an "endless" setting (Type A) or in a stage-based setting (Clear It!). Clearing higher layers and multi-layer chains grant more points.

• Center-Fill - 3-D Tetris with a twist: the center-most space cannot be filled normally. Instead, players have to use blocks to make a symmetrical pattern on the layer (utilizing full rows, columns, and/or diagonals), and then fill the space to clear the layer. Along with the standard Type A mode, the game includes Type B (in which a layer of garbage blocks are added both at the start and after each layer clear) and the stage-based Clear It! mode.

• Puzzle - Stage-based mode where players attempt to form multi-layered designs from a pre-determined queue of pieces. There are 20 puzzles in total.