5 board games to try if you've defeated Tetris and need a new challenge
Plus, Euro Disneyland: The Game, Taskmaster: The Board Game and Electronic Arcade Crazy Golf feature in the review round-up
Thirteen-year-old Willis Gibson became the first human to ‘beat’ Tetris earlier this month, after reaching its ‘kill’ screen on level 157.
Well done, Willis. And well done Justin ‘Fractal’ Yu who joined the ranks of the Tetris defeaters shortly after.
Well, they’ll both be pleased to hear we at The Generations Games are providing perhaps the most niche public service available: suggestions for board games similar to Tetris to try your hand at once you’ve defeated the classic video game.
I suppose the rest of you can also feel free to give these a go, even if you like Alexey Pajitnov’s block-busting puzzler but can’t even get off the opening level.
Drop It
Kosmos’s 2018 release sees two-to-four players take it in turns dropping wooden squares, circles and triangles of various colours down a plastic vertical game board. Points are awarded based on where they land, including on whether they land on small bonus areas. They’re lost when touching items of the same colour or shape.
A firm favourite at chez Generations Games, it’s a simple-to-understand and set up game that’s full of family-friendly strategy.
It replicates Tetris’s tension when the board is mainly filled, because that’s where the big points lie – so it’s important to keep some of your best pieces in reserve and knowing when to release them without your opponent(s) destroying that scoring opportunity you’ve been working hard to create.
Patchwork
A tricky sell, but great mechanics, those who aren’t put off by the rather dull-sounding premise in Uwe Rosenberg’s 2014 game can find a delightful game underneath the covers.
Players take turns to place Tetris-type shapes on to their own personal 9x9 board on which their quilt will be created, purchasing these patches with the game’s currency, buttons.
Points are earned in a variety of ways, including meeting certain requirements on each player’s time tracker. Once quilts are finalised, points are also awarded based on how many buttons are in each player’s ‘bank’ and are removed for any missing tiles on each quilt.
IQ Fit
One for the solo puzzler, this Smart Games contraption features 10 3D pieces for gamers to fit onto a 5x10-hole board to create a flat abstract image.
Compact and easy to carry in its portable case, it’s one that has occupied many hours of our holidays.
It’s far harder than it looks on first sight, even though there are scores of solutions. As such, the game comes with its own booklet depicting 120 challenges of varying difficulty to complete.
Tetris Dual
When in doubt, go straight to the source.
Ideal’s almost straight adaptation from 2017 sees humans face-off in a race against time against one another rather than the computer, with points scored for blocks of the same colour touching, or for completing a row. They’re deducted for creating holes in the pattern.
Project L
Boardcubator’s tile-matching abstract puzzler takes Tetris’s shapes and runs off with them, incorporating them into its own game mechanics.
Plastic tiles are used to build bigger shapes to score and earn points on various scoring recessed, tactile grids.
Players have nine shapes – including the ‘L’ from the game’s name – to choose from when laying their piece down and, with three actions per turn choosing, say, whether to focus on one or several puzzles or upgrade playing pieces, this 2020 minimalist gateway release provides plenty of easy-to-explain strategic thinking.
Review round-up
This week, me and the kid have mostly been playing…
Euro Disneyland: The Game
Consider this collector's item a biting social satire on the boredom of theme park queues.
Read the full review…
Taskmaster: The Board Game
Following-up from the latest UK’s Champion of Champions show, we look at this tabletop spin-off. With bonus Little Alex Horne! content.
Read the full review…
Electronic Arcade Crazy Golf
Mini-golf in down-sized tabletop-game form. Complete with battery-operated crocodile.
Read the full review…
Know a game we should review? Let us know in the comments…