Tetris lovers, I have a game for you called 1010! (The bang is part of the name.) 1010! is clearly rooted in the tradition of Tetris, but it changes some things around. It’s fun, challenging, and has that just-one-more call.
Gameplay
1010! is built around a grid playing field. The player gets different shapes of blocks, and your job is to fit them with blocks already placed to complete lines. That’s the part that’s like Tetris, but you get many more shapes and sizes than in Tetris, you can’t rotate them or move them once placed, and you, the player, place them. They don’t fall, even when you complete a line.
You also get three blocks at a time and choose which order to place them. Once you’ve placed all three, you get three new ones. Like Tetris, the goal is to complete as many lines as you can and keep the playing field empty. Once you don’t have room to place a new block, your game is over.
You get points both for placing a block and then again for completing a line, either horizontal or vertical. In the screenshot below, I played one of my pieces and have two more to go. Note that most games are far from this neat and orderly.
Like and Not Like Tetris
1010! obviously borrows from Tetris, but it took me a while to stop playing it as if it was Tetris. No matter how hard you want it to happen, those blocks aren’t going to collapse to the bottom of the screen.
I realized my gameplay was centered on the bottom of the screen, even when I had blocks that had built up higher on the field. My scores improved when I started looking for the optimal spot for new blocks on the entire playing field.
Your mileage may vary.
Fun and Addictive
I was going to write a Cool Stuff Found for this game until I realized I had so much to say. I played this game frequently for several weeks, but that turned into “obsessively” a few days ago. 1010! is fun and addictive. It’s enough like Tetris to trigger that same puzzle-solving feeling, but different enough to provide new challenges.
It’s also a free download. The only in-app purchase is the option to remove ads for US$1.99—which I quickly did. That makes the game a bargain.