3D Tetris

3D Tetris is a 1996 puzzle video game developed by T&E Soft and published by Nintendo for the Virtual Boy.

Players control multiple falling blocks, rotating and positioning them to clear layers in a three-dimensional environment similar to Tetris's gameplay.

The play field, called a well, contains 5 vertical layers that players fill with falling three-dimensional blocks.

[1] The HUD displays a radar which provides information about each of the well's five layers, as well as the next block to fall, which is represented by a character.

[4] In the 3-D Tetris mode, a layer disappears when it is filled with blocks, scoring players points which are displayed in the HUD.

[5] Points are gained based on the number of blocks in, the complexity of, and the height of the symmetrical layer.

[10] Like all other Virtual Boy games, 3D Tetris uses a red-and-black color scheme and uses parallax, an optical trick that is used to simulate a 3D effect.

[11] The game contains 30 different block types, and renders each one as a 3D wire-frame model until they fall to the bottom of the well, where they are filled in.

[18][14] Staff for Game Informer argued that a 3D Tetris had potential, but it was not executed well, criticizing its slow pace.

[17] Dave Frear of Nintendo Life agreed that it started out too slowly, but noted that pace increase in higher difficulties made it much more fun.

The bottom left corner of the screenshot shows a block with a face and limbs, and the gameplay field is displayed in a combination of solid graphics and wire-frames, the latter which represents blocks still falling. On the right side, a two-dimensional view of the gameplay is shown.
Players move falling blocks to fill up a three-dimensional well.