A Brainy Workout, and a Licence to Thrill

When I first saw Tetrisphere at the Electronics Entertainment Expo back in June, my reaction was less than enthusiastic. I sort of smiled weakly as an excitable Nintendo representative extolled the virtues of a puzzle game that seemed hard to master and frankly not worth the effort.

“Is she nuts?” I remember thinking.

It turns out she wasn’t nuts, just right. Two months later, I’m the one who’s nuts for Tetrisphere, the first puzzler for the Nintendo 64. Make no mistake: This is not Tetris. Unlike the elegant simplicity of the original Tetris, Tetrisphere demands a learning curve that is both steep and long by video game standards.

Once mastered, though, Tetrisphere is every bit as addictive as the original. Imagine the old Tetris play area wrapped around a rotating sphere, with the levels stacked like the layers of an onion. The goal is to match similar blocks to bore a hole to the center of the sphere.

Sounds simple, right?

It isn’t. Players need to focus on multiple layers of the sphere and keep a keen eye on upcoming blocks. Then, it’s a matter of quick, precise maneuvering to plop the blocks into place.

Playing Tetrisphere alone is like taking your brain for a pleasant jog. It rejuvenates thought processes deadened by the mindless din of other games. I played alone for hours. But playing Tetrisphere in head-to-head mode against either a human or digital opponent is like taking your brain for an all-out sprint. It’s fun at first, but then it just becomes too much. I couldn’t handle more than a few rounds.

GOLDENEYE 007: Despite the political incorrectness of it all, no guy I know would turn down a chance to swap places with James Bond--myself included. With very obvious limitations, Rare’s Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64 allows average schmoes like me to live the life of a dashing spy.

Action is first-person, but Goldeneye 007 is far from just another Doom-Duke-Turok clone. Although gunplay consumes a considerable amount of game time, successful missions demand restraint and cunning.

Blowing away every bad guy in sight sometimes leaves Bond stuck mid-level with no way of escaping. And the choice of weapons matters. On covert missions, it’s far wiser to use a silencer to take out guards than to wake the entire barracks with the rat-tat-tat of a machine gun.

Enemies are mean and smart. They stick like glue even as players try to flee to other parts of a level. They’re also hard to kill. In a gruesomely graphic touch, game designers made sure that not all hits are created equal and it can take several shots to put down a baddie. Shooting an enemy in the hand only makes him mad.

The second game designed for use with Nintendo’s Rumble Pak, Goldeneye takes the peripheral to appropriately sophisticated new levels. For instance, the violent shaking of a machine gun differs from the single jerk of a pistol.

With such realistic flourishes, it’s hard to believe Goldeneye got a Teen rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Parents might want to steer younger kids away. For teens and adults who can tell the difference between video games and life, though, Goldeneye 007 delivers some realistic doses of fantasy.

Staff writer Aaron Curtiss reviews video games every other Thursday. To comment on a column or to suggest games for review, send letters to The Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, CA 91311. Or send e-mail to Aaron.Curtiss@latimes.com