"HI, I'm Don McClure, you might remember me as the producer on The New Tetris and getting my ass called out on The New Tetris."

Tetris isn't a series that undergoes radical changes, and that makes most entries difficult to talk about outside of seemingly minor and technical idiosyncrasies. Things like how the blocks connect, how the game creates positive feedback on line clears, the ease of T-spinning, just... stuff most people not in need of a neurological workup aren't going to care about.

However, The New Tetris is arguably one of the most important releases in the series specifically because of what it changes. Its mild-wall kick roation system serves a predecessor to super rotation, and the hold feature has since become a standard part of most Tetris games, at least those not explicitly designed to evoke the old Tetris, which is now in a home staring out a window through a busted pair of glasses, so far gone it needs to be reminded it used to run this town.

Mono- and multisquare pieces add an additional wrinkle, giving the player the incentive to construct larger square blocks out of many tetrominoes and then clear them as a group for a score bonus. The expanded queue and ability to hold pieces were designed around features like this, making The New Tetris a game all about planning ahead. You have to consider how to design your well instead of focusing strictly on the piece at hand, which creates a rhythm that was more unique at the time, and which felt like a genuine step ahead for the series without trading on the aspects that popularized Tetris.

It's my opinion that the Nintendo 64 was the best system for local multiplayer thanks to its four built-in controller ports and a strong library of fun, pick-up-and-play multiplayer titles, and The New Tetris is definitely within the top ten for the console. Unfortunately, I don't get to play local multiplayer anymore and that's a bummer for a lot of reasons. The New Tetris is definitely within the top ten for that, too. This was one of the main ways you'd finish constructing the game's "wonders," which depict monuments from around the world, used to track your overall progress as each wonder can only be completed after a requisite number of lines have been cleared.

Shoutouts to Grace and Justin - who previously owned my cart - for completing most of the wonders. There's still a couple left which require several thousand lines, and I hope someday I can finish up the work they started. There's something immensely satisfying about checking on wonder completion after a lengthy round of marathon mode. Watching all those individual tetrominoes drop in just feels good.

I don't think this replay of The New Tetris is enough to usurp The Grand Master 2 as my favorite game in the series, but it's easily the best version of Tetris that I have a physical copy for, and reason enough for me to buy a bunch of new contact pads for my controllers so the D-pads can remain useable.