Tri-Strip is a puzzle game about placing strips of triangles into a grid to make squares, which clears up space and nets you points; using the stylus, touchscreen and a single button, you can strategically drag, drop and rotate pieces into open spots. It's a style of play that requires a little bit more hesitation and thought when compared to a classic like Tetris, a game that requires you to react with haste. Still, when it comes to presentation and overall spirit, Tri-Strip – and its default, hazy green, monochromatic visuals – will make you feel like you're back in the 1990s, competing against your own personal high score on your original Game Boy. But whether or not that type of humble and limited experience contains enough substance to entertain Wii U owners for longer than a couple of hours is a serious concern.
For better or worse, Tri-Strip doesn't try to do anything that wasn't possible on the Game Boy – outside of touch screen controls, that is. There are four very similar game modes, along with some options to alter the circumstances ever so slightly, but the core gameplay doesn't really change. When it comes to setting high scores, there aren't any leaderboards, nor can you input your initials to tag your best effort; to make matters worse, high-score data resets each time you close the game or power down the Wii U. Even if the developer decided against incorporating a more modern scoring system to keep the experience pure and true to the era from which it was inspired, that doesn't mean the omission doesn't hurt the package. In fact, without some sort of goal or objective dangling in front of our face, we found there to be little incentive to keep returning beyond thoroughly testing all of the modes for review.
The four play modes are made up of Free Play, Challenge, Hardcore and Super Hardcore. The first, Free Play, allows you to choose the duration of the round, and during that time the agenda is simply to earn as many points as possible; there's really no winning or losing, only participating to surpass whatever personal goals you've created for yourself. Challenge mode functions in the same manner as Free Play, but instead of an open playfield there are five different board layouts to choose from, each restricting the amount of space available to place the triangles. When it comes to Hardcore and Super Hardcore modes, it's all about making a move within a 5 or 10 second time frame. If you fail to do so, a row of bricks will rise from the bottom of the screen, lessening your options and adding tension to the proceedings. Each of these options are serviceable, but we didn't believe any of them to be all that engrossing.
In the three paragraphs above we've painted a rather encompassing picture of what can be expected of Tri-Strip, and that should say a lot. Does the meagre amount of content and variation make this a bad game? Not necessarily. What it comes down to is that, for a brief while, the core gameplay was interesting and enjoyable. The problem is that it feels as though another layer of involvement or depth, like modifiers or modes that twist the concept in unique ways, would've turned it into something more compelling and less bland. That — along with the primitive design decisions that undeniably diminish the lasting appeal — is why we find it tough to recommend Tri-Strip. It's a nice homage to the Game Boy era but, unfortunately, it's a bit too stuck in the past to stand out much in this day and age.
Conclusion
Depending too heavily on its Game Boy-influenced presentation, Tri-Strip doesn't take the time to acknowledge that a couple of modern touches could've injected much-needed value into its limited package. What that translates to is that, without leaderboards or the ability to save high scores, there's little incentive to remain invested after a few introductory sessions. We will admit to initially finding the core triangle-matching gameplay interesting, but it's just not spiced up or built upon well enough to feel fully realized. It wouldn't be unfair to say that Tri-Strip hasn't aged well, even if the truth is that it's a 2015 game.
Comments 18
I'll never understand why you guys continue to review shovelware...
Too bad it got a 4, it looked like it was a neat little puzzle game.
Did the original Tetris on Game Boy have leaderboards or save high scores?
Just curious because I'd still give the original Tetris basically 10/10 for what it is, even by today's standards, and if it also doesn't have leaderboards or save high scores (I honestly can't recall) then I think the reviewer has been extremely harsh on this game.
I would however say that this game would have made far more sense on the 3DS; or in an ideal world it would be a cross buy title that you could purchase once and play on either Wii U or 3DS.
Edit: I just checked and Tetris on Game Boy does have a Top 3 list of high scores.
@Tops
It should have just been a choice of skin from a few options I guess.
@Teslain Because not everyone can see when shovelware is shovelware at first glance. Also, web hits.
It's hard enough looking at those screenshots. I wouldn't be able to stand staring at that image if it were on a larger display. =/
Nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia is so overdone nowadays. Unless there is a legitimate artistic reason for doing so, stick to what is better.
Have people forgotten a thing called Miiverse? I know it's not exactly a replacement for online leaderboards, but it should be acknowleged that you can always use that to show off.
@Teslain Everyone thought the first Gunman Clive was going to be shovelware. Look what happened there.
@Kirk there is no excuse for a modern title to be without a basic save feature. It's just plain lazy.
@brandonbwii then you have to scroll through all your posts to see if you bested your high score every time you boot it up
@Teslain Should they only be reviewing the great games? Yeah, that would make a lot of sense. How about only giving out 10s, 9s, 8s and 7s? That will help their readers decide on what games to get.
It's mandatory to review as many games as possible and ESPECIALLY the games we don't know yet whether they're good or not. Asking for anything else is just stupid. Yeah, let's only review Zelda games.
@faint
Yeah, I agree, but the only thing this game really needs to save is your high score imo and it is admittedly a bit silly this game doesn't have that at least.
I was just checking what Tetris did by comparison, since it is still one of the greatest puzzle games ever made (specifically the Game Boy version and even by today's standards), and even Tetris did have a basic Top 3 Highest Scores list; so I was just making sure the reviewer wasn't being way overly harsh on a game that otherwise looks pretty decent.
Sorry kudos for trying, but that "GameBoy" aesthetic they tried is just butt-ugly. Looks like it did in the 90's - unattractive, so difficult to see you practically have to squint, and like pea soup. And I'm guessing there's no contrast option which makes it even worse.
Yeeeeah, this hurts my eyes. I might've bought it on 3DS, but it just doesn't work on the big screen.
@Teslain It's sad that no one understands this anymore. Maybe NL should put its mission on the homepage banner or something.
They review Tri-Strip and Flappy Bird clones for the same reason they review Shovel Knight and Super Smash Bros. NintendoLife's foundational purpose as an entity is to review EVERY game released for Nintendo download services. And so far they've done it, which is what makes them the most comprehensive source of information anywhere on what WiiWare, DSiWare and eShop games to buy. It's also what made them experts enough to get their own section of recommended titles on the eShop for a while.
TL;DR — When you decide to review EVERYTHING, you have to review EVERYTHING.
Someone should have told these people that we liked gameboy games inspite of the cream spinache screen, not because of it. What is next, some guy releasing a N64 or playstation 1 like game with N64 and Playstation level graphics.
It's a 1.99 game and the core gameplay seems good.
I don't mind the art style. I rather like it.
And I love a good puzzle game.
But no highscore saving really hurts games like this one.
The developer should consider adding that feature in an update.
Then I'd like to get this (if it ever gets released in EU.)
The original Game Boy wasn't nearly THAT green! It also didn't look so faded, with much better contrast. Why make it look worse than the original games did?
Also, why would you release it on the Wii U instead of a handheld (3DS) like the original Game Boy? Even if only one screen's used, that would make a lot more sense.
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