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Chances are, if I ask you to think of a falling-block puzzle game, your mind is going to go immediately
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to Tetris. Sure, there are plenty of other quality games like the Puyo Puyo series, Meteos,
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Lumines, Columns, Dr. Mario, Blockout, Yoshi, Wetrix, Wordtris, Hatris, Ranma ½ Ougijaanken...
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I could go on. But, like it or not, Tetris is the de facto standard for the genre. Pretty
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much everything since Tetris has been defined... in terms of Tetris. Market dominance does
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that to a game. Even so, many have sought to build on the Tetris name by adding more
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and different modes and mechanics, some worthwhile, others downright laughable.
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Unfortunately, where Tetris starts to break down is in its basic nomenclature. We here
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in the west already had a Tetris 2, which was known as Tetris Flash in Japan, while
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the portion of this offering called Bombliss is called “Tetris Blast” in English. Confused
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yet? Let me try to bring it together for you: This game has two sides. One’s a fairly
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bog-standard rehashing of the classic Tetris game, except this one’s got 16-bit graphics.
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Hence the “Super” in the name. The other is a... well, some would call it an abomination.
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Physics don’t really work the same way. Clearing lines doesn’t actually clear the
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line, in all cases, sometimes. Let me grab a beverage, so as to explain it fully.
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So, Bombliss slash Tetris Blast comma, previously released only for the Game Boy, now has a
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proper 16-bit version. The goal, unlike classic Tetris, is complete annihilation of the entire
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playing field through the use of explosives. Those explosives come embedded in the tetrominoes
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(or pentominoes or other more elaborate n-minoes) and act just like normal blocks... until the
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line they’re on is cleared. That clearance is enough to detonate any bombs within, which
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- in their singular form - eliminate any blocks on that row within three of the bomb itself.
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So unless your bombs are well-spaced along the row, there’s a significant chance you’re
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not going to hit all of ‘em. Any blocks remaining will serve to support any pieces
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above it, leading to some physically dubious constructions if left unabated. Fortunately,
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there’s more than one way to detonate a line. If single explosions aren’t doing
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it for you, you can super-charge your bombs by clearing multiple lines at once, which
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turn those 1x7 blasts into 3x7 detonatoins. And if you arrange bombs into a square, they’ll
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fuse into one piece of mega-ordnance that can take out a vast chunk of the playfield
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in one go.
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Personally, Bombliss is one of my favorite Tetris-variants, right up there with Atomic
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Tetris and Hot-Line Tetris from Tetris Worlds. But you don’t have to go importing this
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just so you get your hands on some sweet block-exploding action. If you can’t find a copy of Tetris
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Blast for the original Game Boy, or you can’t find your Game Boy (or Super Game Boy, or
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Game Boy Player on your ‘Cube), you can find the glorious return of Bombliss on Tetris
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Axis for the 3DS. Imagine! Something on the 3DS worth playing, that isn’t called Mighty
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Switch Force! Oh, and there’s regular Tetris, too. But you can get regular Tetris anywhere.
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Bombliss, man. That’s where it’s at. I got two turntables and an I-block. Come at
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me.
