We’ve been hearing a lot about Tetris this week at E3, and I bet a lot of people would have loved to hear about a sequel to a little game called Tetris Attack. I know the rebranded Panel de Pon with Yoshi’s Island-stylings introduced a lot of Westerner’s to a really great game, a popular one that later became Pokémon Puzzle League. It’s really fantastic!
However, I would have never thought that Tetris Attack might be seen as a blight on the Tetris name. Well, it looks like this might be the situation, as during my interview with Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers, I asked them about this game. Says Rogers:
When Nintendo came to us, and said “we would like to take this Japanese game called Panel de Pon, and rename it Tetris Attack, I’m saying, “it’s not Tetris”. But my partner’s saying “but it is money!” So, uhhhh, so, we, I, reluctantly agreed. In retrospect, we should never have done that. I don’t think that’s a good idea. It dilutes the brand, it’s like naming another cartoon character Mickey Mouse just cause you need the money. It’s just a bad idea. So I wouldn’t do that again.
Pretty surprising, huh? Of course, Rogers and Pajitnov go on to say that the game is rather good, but it’s so interesting to find out all these backdoor discussions. I mean, what would have happened if Tetris Attack didn’t have the branding? The mind positively reels. Check out my full interview with these two next week!
Wow. This, to me, is the most surprising news of the show. Really, "Oh no! We let an excellent game use our name! The brand is diluted!" It doesn't make any sense to me.
Tarvu: Tetris Splash is a pure tetris game on XBLA. And it is still good and has plenty of people who play online (if you are into that versus thing the kids talk about)
I suck at Tetris to bad to really get excited about where the game is going, but it is interesting to have someone be so candid. Its Itagaki style bridge burning with Tetris!
Being associated with one of the best puzzlers (hell, my personal favorite puzzler) is not a bad thing in the least. Sure, it's nothing like Tetris, but that brand name tricked a lot of people into buying an excellent game.
Tetris Attack is one of the all time greats of the SNES. Had bugger all to do with Tetris but goodness was it addictive. I wonder if it's on the Virtual Console yet. They should rebrand it and release it as Yoshi's Blocks and it would still be awesome. The name had nothing to do with its greatness, the gameplay was fantastic.
My wife LOOOOVES Tetris Attack. So much so that when I introduced her to it she actually got so into it that she has go at anything similar - like Henry Hatsworth for example.
I've never understood why they tacked on the name Tetris Attack to it and then failed to follow up with calling it that. It's had so many guises that when the games come out I have to be really on the ball to spot them..... it's had Panel de Pon, Tetris Attack!, Pokemon Puzzle League, Planet Puzzle League it's bloody mental!
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3:30 PM on 06.03.2009
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Bah, he never explicitly said that he actually hated the game, so I guess it's still just me until further notice.
I've never understood why they tacked on the name Tetris Attack to it and then failed to follow up with calling it that. It's had so many guises that when the games come out I have to be really on the ball to spot them..... it's had Panel de Pon, Tetris Attack!, Pokemon Puzzle League, Planet Puzzle League it's bloody mental!
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