Navigatris

Infobox VG| title = Navigatris
developer = Sheeparcade
genre = Arcade
modes = Single player
platforms = Windows

"Navigatris" is a new attempt to make Tetris style/genre of arcade game more interesting. Navigatris is developed by Sheeparcade, company which develops casual [http://www.sheeparcade.com/ computer games] (another their title I am aware of is GeBall).

Plot

The aim of Navigatris is to use tetris blocks to repair your ship (which is constantly falling apart), so that you can keep your ship floating long enough to reach it's destination. There are three stages in Navigatris, each spanning a different time period (Ancient, Industrial and Modern). Each stage consists of 7 levels, giving the player a total of 21 levels at three different difficulty levels.

Gameplay

Each level may focus on a different aspect of game play, some requiring speed with the placement of blocks, while others require précising in matching the blocks to the gaps. There are many different types of power-ups that you can acquire (by catching various colored fish) during the level to help make the process easier, and on more difficult levels, these become absolutely essential to completing the level.

However, here’s where the differences from Tetris begin to emerge. Firstly, every stage in Navigatris has a time limit, and so you must ensure that the ship completes its journey within the specified time limit, otherwise it will simply run out of fuel (we believe), and sink to the bottom of the ocean. You can extend this time limit by obtaining power-ups that will add to the time limit. Secondly, the speed at which the speed travels depends on the integrity of the ship structure. That is, as the numbers of gaps begin to increase, the ship will slow down and cease to sail along. Once you start filling those gaps, the ship will resume its journey, but valuable (and precious) seconds will have been lost. Once again, there are various power-ups and Magic Blocks (you will come to love these) that will make the process much simpler.

Critics

Many say that although the game itself has much improved classic tetris game, it is somewhat repetitive. Problem of repetitiveness is not noticed in original Tetris because it is meant to be repetitive. However in Navigatris you have feeling like the game progress will give you new game play and different items (like in many other games) while it does not change until the last level. This makes this attempt questionable since many people still like old classic Tetris more.