Welltris - Amiga Review



Welltris
Amiga, 1990
Spectrum HoloByte – California, USA
Review originally published December 6th, 2016

*My video review of Welltris
*Full soundtrack
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*Game best played in NTSC mode with 4:3 aspect ratio

I recently reviewed the game Block Out with the intention of collecting my thoughts on that game in anticipation for the game we are here to see today. I received a request to review Welltris from my friend Stygian Phoenix , who remembered it from her childhood. Upon looking up the game I immediately saw resemblances to Block Out, a game from my childhood. Welltris is a “3D Tetris” type game originally from the mind of Tetris creator himself; Alexey Pajitnov. This is indeed the official follow up to Tetris.
^ Copy protection, main menu, credits screen

The Amiga version of Welltris seems to have been done in-house at Spectrum HoloByte, based on their 1989 MS-DOS release. They did however “up” the ante with their Amiga release, which offers quite a graphical improvement over not only DOS, but the Atari-ST as well. The game features very nice artwork from the title screen onward, as well as several great musical tracks. I ended up enjoying the music so much I recorded all the songs directly from my Amiga, which you can download here.
^Top left/right-blocks go down walls then travel to opposite side. Bottom left/right-Blocks along corner walls split directions

The gameplay itself may not be deserving of the “3D Tetris” label however. I was quite shocked when I sat down to play the game and it was nothing like Block Out. It would be much better described as Tetris with a bird’s eye view. The gameplay consists of your typical Tetris blocks going down the sides of four walls. There is no rotation of the actual blocks that can be done; you can only change the position of blocks along the walls. Upon reaching the ground the blocks will then travel without user input to the opposite side until they hit a wall or another block. There is some minor manipulation you can do on the blocks if you place them along the corners of two walls; This will cause the block to split off in two directions.

I find the pacing of the game to be quite good and the actual game to be fairly fun and addicting. While initially I absolutely sucked at the game, I did find myself getting better and better at it as I learned. You will need to learn how this game works. Unlike Block Out, which functions in 3D how Tetris functions in 2D; Welltris changes all the rules. Your goal is simply to form lines on the ground which when formed will disappear. But the actual way the game plays had me utterly confused having the idea of Tetris in my mind. The actual controls take a lot of getting used to. The game controls with the keyboard. You use the up and down keys to move along the left and right walls, and then have to switch to the left and right keys along the top and bottom walls. No matter how much you get used to those controls I believe at some point you’ll mess up at a critical moment.
^ When all four walls are blocked off in red the game is over and the high score screen comes up

What about all this other space on the screen? All these squares along the walls? Surely there are multiple levels of gameplay here? Again, it’s simply Tetris with a bird’s eye view. In a way the original Tetris was more 3D than this game because it offered levels of depth that this game does not. If a block has no room to enter the ground level it will crash and stay along that wall, blocking off that wall from play for a few more turns. If all four walls become blocked, the game ends.
^ The other game levels; offering more art/music and faster gameplay

I was not good enough to manually earn the right to see the other levels of the game. You can however select which level you play on from the main menu screen by selecting “speed”. As the name suggests, the speed will go faster with each setting. Along with that you’ll get to experience some more great artwork based on Soviet life as well as other musical tracks.
^ Amiga magazine Cyberplay review

When I first played the game I was taken aback because this was not my idea of how “3D Tetris” should play. There was no 3rd dimension in my eyes. The American Amiga magazine Cyber Play also noted comparisons with Block Out; specifically that while Welltris was good enough to keep playing, he would be playing Block Out more. I feel much in the same boat, although I believe I will find myself playing this game more in the immediate future to see how much better I can get. It becomes more and more fun as you figure it out. Even in my frustration while first playing I recognized it would be fun once I figured it out. It is hard drive installable, so I fully recommend it for your “small games” folder.

Check out my video review of the game
Download those tunes.
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