EA (re)releases Tetris on the iPhone

Electronic Arts has released yet another copy of Tetris, this time for the iPhone, and it's actually pretty good. In addition to all of the other big releases on the App Store last night, Tetris showed up and replaced EA's older version of the game. While it might seem strange to redo a game that's practically a computer programming lesson to make nowadays, EA's added a little innovation anyway to prime the game for the upcoming holiday rush.

(Note that this new version of Tetris completely replaces the old one, which EA has apparently pulled from the App Store. This new iteration of Tetris will not be a free upgrade if you bought EA's previous version, which might seem a little shady if we were talking about more than a dollar. --Ed)

The biggest addition is a mode called one-touch marathon. As each piece drops you can get a set of optional places on screen to put it, and when you touch the place you want, the piece goes there. No more twisting pieces around and waiting for them to fall in, just touch where they need to be and voila.

There's also a new "Galaxy" mode which brings power ups to Tetris, challenges to go after in a "Tetris Log. Finally, there's lots of social features and leaderboard integration with something called the "T-Club" as well as a "Tetris Rank," which you can obtain for an in-app subscription of $2.99 a month. $2.99 a month for Tetris!

In short, EA has taken one of the simplest games out there and updated it with all of the standard wacky tie-ins you find on iOS titles. EA did not add Game Center, which seems a waste, but I think EA is still trying to build up its own social networks rather than hook into Apple's. At any rate, the new game is available for just 99 cents, so while I almost don't want to encourage this kind of behavior, the game's there if you want to try it out.