Tetrisphere is a falling block puzzle game for the Nintendo 64. Developed by Canadian company H2O Entertainment, a nearly complete version of the game was originally slated for release on the Atari Jaguar in early 1995. After Nintendo obtained its publishing rights, Tetrisphere was reworked for the N64 and released on the platform in North America on August 11, 1997 and PAL regions in February 1998.

Tetrisphere is a variant on Tetris in which various shapes are shifted across a wrapped three-dimensional grid resembling a sphere, and then destroyed. The objective of the game changes depending on the mode, but generally consists of removing layers of shapes to reach the playing field's core. Despite very little domestic advertising, Tetrisphere enjoyed moderately good sales and a mostly favorable critical reception. Reviewers praised the game's originality and the musical score composed by Neil Voss.

In most Tetris titles, a player's score is incremented as a result of completing "lines", where a row of brick pieces that is without gaps is removed from the 2D playing field. This both earns points and removes the completed row, making room for further pieces. However, in Tetrisphere, the goal is instead to remove bricks by forcing three of the same type of piece to touch as a result of a "drop". A drop is achieved when any brick falls, either as a direct result of the player releasing the currently held brick, or when the brick which supports it from below is removed by any method. When three bricks of the same type touch, this triggers a "reaction". When a reaction occurs, the three bricks will glow brightly and implode, removing themselves from the field of play. Any other same-shaped blocks which are touching that reaction will also be removed in a chain reaction. For example, if a player has lines of nested "Z" pieces, and then drops another "Z" directly on top of one of the nested "Z"s, the one which was dropped will cause the piece below to implode, in turn causing all identical pieces touching that piece to explode, and so on. The only exception is that the pieces involved (including the original three) must abide by the rules which dictate which pieces are "touching". For example, any two matching pieces which are stacked must be exactly on top of each other, if they are both to be removed. Laterally, each piece obeys the rules specific to its shape. As an illustration of this point, "O" pieces (a 2x2 square, colored blue) and "I" pieces (a 3x1 or 1x3 rectangle, colored green or yellow) must have full contact on one side with one full side of another piece of the same shape, but all other pieces are considered "touching" if any part of them is in contact with another of the same shape.

Source.

Platform

Nintendo 64

Developer(s)

H2O Entertainment

Publishers(s)

Nintendo

Genres(s)

Puzzle

NA Release Date

August 11, 1997

EU Release Date

February 16, 1998

AUS Release Date

February 16, 1998

ESRB Rating

Everyone

MVGL User Score

5.6 by 18 user(s)

MVGL Difficulty

-

Composer(s)

Neil Voss

Added by

26 User(s)

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