Tetris Blockout

You might think you know the game Tetris quite well and even be rather good at it if, like us, you've ever spent whole days completely zoned out to slotting falling bricks into gaps. But did you know there have been well over 30 different Tetris games (and not just different in that they feature Donald Duck, Dr Mario or a load of power-ups in two-player mode)?

Tetris Blockout is just one such game. You might see the Tetris name and feel reassured you're getting a slice of Pajitnov magic for your phone which is bound to be ace. And if that's the case, you might also feel pretty disappointed with what you do get – a 3D version viewed top-down and played in an area spanning 5x5 squares wide and ten squares high.

The standard shaped Tetris blocks are stacked up and released from above but that's all that's similar to standard Tetris. Slotting them into place to form planes (instead of lines) requires quite a different approach, and as a result Tetris Blockout almost feels more like a game that's testing your brain than your capacity to quickly and neatly arrange blocks in prime positions to score top points. Is it a successful variation, though? We'd say no.

Most problematic immediately is how difficult it is to see how your blocks will fit into place and which button you need to press to rotate them. In normal Tetris, where you simply rotate blocks clockwise or anti-clockwise, thinking how to get them into the position you want them doesn't come into the game at all, but in 3D you have an X, Y and Z axis to contend with, as well as an awkward top-down camera that makes it tricky to know where your blocks are falling.

Sure, with practice you begin to pick up these rotations until they eventually become second nature but it's a much steeper learning curve than that of the original game.

The other change in Tetris Blockout is the surprisingly slow speed at which it's played. It has to be slow to give you the time needed to rotate the blocks, but – even at the speed here – if you end up five or six rows high you might as well quit your game because not enough room or time is left to allow you to get back on track.

Tetris Blockout is perhaps an acquired taste and it does get better once you've accepted it plays nothing like Tetris, despite its name and the shapes of its blocks. The three modes it contains are unarguably a let-down, however.

The first, Marathon, is really the only one worth playing. It's the standard never-ending game of Tetris which keeps chucking blocks at you increasingly quickly until they fill the screen and it's game over. Your high-score is then recorded for you to try and beat at the next outing.

Ultra mode, meanwhile, gives you three minutes to score as many points as you can, which has limited appeal since there's really only so much you can do in three minutes.

Finally, 20 Planes, challenges you to complete 20 planes as quickly as possible. As with the others there are numerous settings that can be fiddled with to create different play experiences, but really Tetris Blockout feels very finite – which isn't something we'd ever say about the original.

The plus points to the game are the music (a funked up version of the original Tetris theme tune) and the game's visuals, which are quite pretty. But, while there's clearly only so many times you can keep releasing the traditional Tetris game, we're not sure we welcome this new variation. It's certainly different and brain-taxing but ultimately just leaves you wanting to play the faster, more fun and accessible original.