Released by Hashy Toys, this Tetris MiniCade Bank was mainly only available in Japan. Based on the same molds as the Excalibur MiniCades, the build quality is quite good. The controls work very well. The sounds can get annoying but thankfully there is a Mute button (labeled Sound) to play the game in peace .
The unit runs of 4C batteries and features a working coin slot on top! There is a small micro switch in the coin slot to detect coins. anything from a arcade token up to a quarter will activate the machine. The bank part of the machine has a very large capacity, there is a screw lock door on the back of the machine to empty out your moola!
The system auto powers down after 3 minutes. To activate it, you insert a coin and get 3 minutes to play the game. The screen is a back lit color LCD and is fairly clear and it plays the familiar "Tetris" song as well.
The gameplay is straightforward Tetris. you can select a starting level and speed then try to get the most amount of "lines" you can. The gameplay screen features a "preview" area showing what the next three pieces to fall will be. Below the preview area is a bonus multiplier (if you remove more than one line at a time the bonus multipler will increase to multiply your score by the number of lines you destroyed. There is also a line score (how many you have destoyed overall) and a timer that will beep at every minute interval. You control your Tetris piece via a joystick and rotate it with two rotate buttons on the right hand side of the control panel. Pushing down on the joystick will drop the piece faster into place.
Pros:
Well built housing Nice artwork, will look good on any shelf or desk Enjoyable gameplay Responsive controls Great Tetris artwork
Cons:
Game music can get repetitive rather quickly Screen can be hard to see in some orientations. Does not keep your line destoyed high score
Overall I really like this Minicade!. Granted its not VFD based like the Coleco Classic MiniCades, but it does the job well.
Rating: (4 out of 5 Minicades)
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