'Mino' – Internet Multiplayer Enabled Tetris
posted by Eli Hodapp on July 31st, 2009 3:42 PM EDT in $2.99, Free, Puzzle, Reviews, Wi-Fi Multiplayer, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Xio Interactive's Mino [App Store] has all the gameplay of Tetris (and all the other associated clones) with one distinct advantage: Really cool real-time 5-player internet multiplayer.
At its core, Mino is the same line-clearing game you've been playing for years with two basic single-player game modes, standard and glacier. Standard mode offers a straightforward version of Tetris but with the addition of the "slow" button at the top of the screen. As you clear lines the bar on the right side of the play field slowly fills up which controls how long you can have the "slow" mode enabled. It's kind of a cheesy feature, but it has saved me from a few game overs in my time with the game.
Meanwhile, Glacier mode works has you dealing with near-constant intrusions of garbage rows of random blocks to clear at the bottom of the screen. There is also a "freeze" button that can be used to briefly stop these additional lines from spawning.
The bread and butter of Mino is in the multiplayer which can be played either over the cellular network or WiFi. Multiplayer pits you against up to four other people. As your opponents clear lines, garbage rows of random blocks are sent to your board (and vice versa). So your play directly affects other people's boards. While you can play with up to four other people, finding that many people online looking for games at once can be challenging. A newly release multi-player enabled Lite version, however, may improve that. When you do actually find a good game, it's just as fun as you would expect and the chat room you can brag in between games only adds to the enjoyment.
I could go on explaining this game, but I'd really recommend watching this demo video released by the developer which details every feature of Mino:
Obviously in a game like this, online community is everything. When I asked the developers if they felt gamers had anything to worry about with Mino being pulled from the App Store (and its community along with it) like most other games similar to EA's Tetris, this is what they had to say:
Xio Interactive is dedicated to protecting the online Mino community from any threats, legal or otherwise. We are prepared to use any and every resource at our disposal to ensure that Mino and Mino Lite remain on the app store, and that our game servers remain running at all times, including substantial monetary and personnel resources. Our customers can rest easy with the assurance that we are here to stay.
Either way, Xio Interactive also has a surprisingly full featured lite edition available. Mino Lite [App Store] has both the standard single player mode and you can play 30 matches of online play. So if you like these kinds of games, at least give Mino Lite a try.
App Store Link: Mino, $2.99 – Mino Lite, Free
wait… whatever happened to the cease and desist stuff? Doesn't anyone else remember Tris, which was much better then EA's tetris app getting pulled back at the beginning of the app store?
I like this game Mino better than EA's Tetris
So wait, is this is a Tetris clone or Tetris variant?
@andrew – I think a lot of Tris's problem was their name was also very similar to Tetris.
I hope the developer makes tons of money and EA sees the oportunity they let slip away for not adding multiplayer to the Tetris game currently available for the iPhone.
The game is attractive, and the online play is amazing – but man does this game suck as a Tetris clone.
The game is so easy that when a block lands, I can literally set my phone down, pick it up again, and *still* be able to move the block that\'s just landed. But it gets worse!
Because of this slowness, it\'s extremely common to tap the screen and move a block at the last second (when it appears to already be set in position), which can completely ruin your game.
The online play is to be praised, but it plays *nowhere* near as well as the official Tetris app, and is hardly a challenge even at top speed.
Oh man – just last night I was thinking if only EA's Tetris had multi-player, then this Mino along. Unfortunately, the comment from Fooruman has reverted me back to daydreaming… "if only EA's.." lol
Wait, after seeing the demo — I think I'll have to get this! The video looks impressive..
Give the lite a try. Its pretty good.
Give teh lite version a try. Its pretty good.
Either people browsing the app store do not know that Mino is a Tetris clone, or Tetris' day is really past. There are some bugs, such as seeing rooms 0/5 full labelled as "game in progress" that crash the app when you enter them, or appearing as both "watching" and "playing" a game, but otherwise online works as advertised. I for one had not played Tetris in almost a decade, so it was a pleasure to reacquaint with it through the added excitement of online multiplayer.
Please completely disregard my last post. This app is horribly unstable online. In fact, it may be the most buggiest and most crash-prone app I've purchased to date. The only app that crashed as much as this one was Real Racing until they fixed that. This will be the first app out of more than 75 paid apps for which I'll attempt to get a refund. If you're going to rip off someone else's game design then at least make it work right before you release it.
What kind of device are you playing on? I haven't had a single issue on my 3GS.
2nd gen ipod touch with OS 3.0. There is always at least 45mb free before running the app, and my airport is close at hand.
Find out more reviews, news and all about iphone apps in
http://www.appsd.com/iphone-app/mino/315238201