the height of the symmetrical layer. A symmetrical pattern is indicated by a symbol shown in the HUD's radar, as well as the player's score. Like the 3-D Tetris mode, layers will be lost if the blocks go over the top of the well, and the game ends when all layers are lost. One variant requires players to complete as many layers as possible, while the other is the same except with obstacles added. The variant Clear It! requires players to clear ten symmetrical layers on each stage to progress to the next stage. In the Puzzle mode, a shape is displayed in the well at the beginning of each stage. Players are tasked with getting to the highest stage possible by placing blocks in the displayed shape to progress to the next stage. At the end of each stage, a stage-ending animation is displayed. If an incorrect shape is placed, the game ends. 3D Tetris includes an option to save high scores and names entered from the 3-D Tetris and Center-Fill modes, along with progress in the Puzzle mode, to a battery backup. Development and release 3D Tetris was developed by T&E Soft and published by Nintendo in North America. A version was planned for Japanese markets entitled Polygo Block, which was to be released in February 1996, but was never released. 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. 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. It was the last game released on the Virtual Boy in North America. Reception 3D Tetris received mostly negative reviews. Aaron Curtiss, writing for the Los Angeles Times, said that 3D Tetris adds nothing to the Tetris experience and leaves players feeling "cheated." He criticized the control scheme and brushed off the 3D effects as superfluous. Staff for Entertainment Weekly had even harsher criticism, criticizing it as "eye-straining" and comparing it unfavorably to the video game Blockout. A reviewer for Next Generation panned the game, feeling that it demonstrates the inherent issues of the Virtual Boy. He found all of the different game modes to be poor reworkings of the Tetris concept, lacking the series' "simple elegance" while being harmed