Tris

Sorry, lawyers have run Tris out of the App Store. See the Tris update for details.

If you got all excited to see Tetris ® in the App Store and then screamed OMG WTF at EA’s ridiculous $9.99 price tag, you definitely weren’t alone. If nothing else, you had Noah Witherspoon on your side.

Tris is pretty much right on and the gameplay is 99% identical to the falling blocks game we all know and are hopelessly addicted to. However, it is very important to note that Tris is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or in any way associated with The Tetris ® Company or any of their products. Once again, it’s NOT AFFILIATED so don’t you dare go all lawyer on our hero Mr. Witherspoon.

The 1% of difference I just alluded to is in the way the falling pieces move horizontally. Unless you’re new to this planet, you know that falling pieces in this game usually move in kind of a clunky way when you maneuver them left or right. Pieces in Tris do more of a sliding thing which seems weird at first but it’s very easy to get used to. Tap to rotate them and you can still put pieces wherever you want.

Like any high-quality game, Tris remembers your place if you get interrupted and it has a high-score board so you can show your friends what an awesome stud you are. It also has a global scoreboard for worldwide bragging rights, but apparently the sudden rockstar popularity of Tris is pushing Noah’s shared hosting resources to the limit which he’s working on fixing. Give the guy a break, the game’s free and it kicks ass!

The one thing Tris lacks entirely is sound, but that’s very forgivable considering how great the gameplay is. Some would even call that a bonus since the sound effects for this game have always been pretty stock to begin with.

If you like “falling blocks” games you should be installing Tris right this second. The pieces may “slide” instead of “clunk”, but if that doesn’t bother you (and it doesn’t bother me one bit) then the game is just about perfect.