FARGO - One lazy afternoon, in a fit of nostalgia, I wanted to play Tetris. I wanted nothing more than my iPhone to be a smaller version of the old-school, green-screened Nintendo Gameboy. I found a free app that, though it didn't provide me the nostalgia I craved, did let me stack tetrominoes to my heart's content. Tetris Blitz, for iOS and Android, comes from game juggernaut EA. It's bright, colorful and offers "extras" that the original never could. Instead of using buttons to move the pieces left or right, you tap the screen to place the tetromino in one of a handful of suggested spots. You can cycle through various options if you want to put it in a different place. (The game also has drag-and-place and swipe-placement options.) By clearing several lines quickly, you can enter "frenzy" mode, which allows you to score more points as the pieces cascade.
Each round is a timed two-minute "blitz," which keeps you from getting lost in the game, but can be frustrating when you've got a good streak going and want to keep playing after the timer goes off. To start, you can log on to Facebook to play with friends or go up against real opponents in battles and tournaments. I prefer to play as a guest in single-player mode. There, I'm given a list of challengers. I can earn coins for beating their scores. The game encourages you to use "finishers" that rack up more points for you after the round, and up to three "power-ups" that will detonate when you clear a line with a power-up piece in it. Playing without either of those advantages, I usually earn a score of 50,000 to 100,000. Once, when I piled on three power-ups and a finisher, I topped 1 million points. That skewed the next score I was expected to beat on the leaderboard (thankfully, it resets every week), and wasn't nearly as fun, as it was the boosters, not my skill, doing all the work. The game also lets you complete different achievements and challenges that are rewarded with in-game currency, and provides a bonus board, where you can earn coins, power-ups or finishers. Tetris Blitz has the same downsides as most free apps. There are frequent pop-up ads, and lots of opportunities to spend real money on the power-ups, finishers and extra bonus board chances. But it's a good app if you want to play amped-up Tetris for two minutes at a time.
