Hatris

We've all heard of "Tetris" the video game that really helped the Game Boy become the dominant handheld of the 1990's (and late 1980's) though what few know is that the game had a spiritual successor of sorts in Hatris. Created by Alexey Pajitnov (the man behind Tetris) Hatris was released on the Game Boy at the start of the 1990's and tried to replicate the success of Tetris with a similar sort of concept.

As the name suggests this game features hats, lots and lots of hats. The players job is simple, they need to stack the hats as they fall from the top of the screen into piles to remove them (as opposed to making a solid line across the screen like in Tetris.

Hats fall in sets of 2 and come in a variety of styles (such as novelty Christmas hats, top hats, caps and Mexican hats) with each stacking in their own way. The player needs to place 5 hats of the same type on top of each other to remove them from the screen as the game slowly gets quicker and more complex. After the player stacks a set amount of hats they will go to the "shop" and get to add another type of hat which further complicates matters and makes the stacking more and more difficult.

Whilst the game may seem a lot like a Tetris based game it's more complex and adds several new ideas, including a flame (which can burn through some hats) and the shop function, sadly however it over complicates it's self and lacks the magic of Tetris. Whilst it's certainly different it's impossible not to compare the two and when you do, this seems to lack the charm and heart of Tetris.

68%

Details:
Console-Game Boy, NES, Arcade, TurboGrafx-16
Release-1990 (Game Boy)
Developer-Bullet-Proof Software, Inc.

Genre-Puzzle
Players-1 or 2 (Link Cable Required)

Trivia:
The arcade version of Hatris features heads at the bottom of the screen include one that looks like Elvis.