I am starting a new feature for the blog. Every Saturday I will reach back into the past and highlight one of my all-time favorite games. I start with one of my favorite multi-player games of all time.
The New Tetris is the best multi-player Tetris game that was ever made. Even
Tetris DS with its Wi-Fi capabilities still does not surpass The New Tetris when it comes to multiplayer (though it does have such a wide variety of options and gameplay modes that it is the definitive Tetris so far).
This was the first Tetris game in America to feature 4-player head-to-head games.
Beyond merely trying to outlast your friends head-to-head, the game also features a garbage system. When you got a Tetris four incomplete lines are sent the bottom of anther player's screen. If you clear three lines at once, two incomplete lines stack up under another player. When garbage was turned on, three options existed for how the garbage was distributed. The first would just go to the player to your right. Second, is the "hot potato" setting; all of the garbage goes to a random person until that person is able to clear a line, then all the garbage goes to someone else until they clear a line. Finally, the greatest garbage mode: directed garbage. You are able to select which person will get your garbage. This mode is great for doing two-on-two battles, or for trying to take down the superior Tetris player by ganging up on him 3-1. My fondest memories of this game is staying up late at a bachelor party and taking down Jeff Wassom with three people.
One of the best features of this game, that has not made it into any subsequent game, is the block making feature. If you made a 4x4 block with any four Tetris pieces they would merge into a gold or silver block.
If you then cleared lines with a gold or silver block a much larger amount of garbage would be added to the other player. It usually ended up being a high risk - high reward trade off. Many times you would be so focused on creating a block and would end up allowing your screen to get so high that you were very susceptible to attacks from others.
Also present in the game for the first time in America was the ability to swap out one of the falling Tetris pieces. This allows you to save up a straight piece and work on getting a Tetris. The addition of this feature added a whole other element of strategy to the game.
Although this is a classic game I doubt that it will ever make it to the Virtual Console. There is currently a Tetris game in development for WiiWare. Tetris Party will feature 6-player online play and likely some form of motion control. I would love to see the return of block making as well, but I doubt that it will be included. Some rumors also speculated that balance board support is being added to the game as well. Either way hopefully it will create some great multiplayer game play.
This track game included 100m dash, 110m hurdles, long jump, and triple-jump. I loved playing this game against people. As most people know the secret to success in this game is not running but merely vibrating your feet as fast as possible without your feet leaving the ground. By doing this you can easily get incredible times below 5 seconds. 
But by far the best thing about this games was the commercial for it. Absolutely amazing. But as you can see the gids in this game haven't learned how to run yet.
It was really enjoyable to play through the game. The difficulty ramed up nicely. Cameroon, the first nation you play, is easy to beat. Their team spends most of the game laying on the ground. Germany, on the other hand, is a very difficult team to beat.
This weeks game of the week is Super Monkey Ball 2. The Super Monkey Ball game series is a really weird idea for a game, but it works. Instead of just having a marble roll around on a platform maze you make the marble a clear ball and put a monkey in it. Pure genius. 
The game play was great, and the puzzles were super challenging. However, I beat all of the game levels except for the very last one, where you manuver around on a Gamecube.
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While the racing on this game was excellent, it was the multi-player soccer matches that really stole the show. I know how wierd playing soccer on a motorbike sounds but it is incredibly fun. I love how loud and annoyning the announcers were: "Vicky Steele gets a soil sample!"
Beyond merely trying to outlast your friends head-to-head, the game also features a garbage system. When you got a Tetris four incomplete lines are sent the bottom of anther player's screen. If you clear three lines at once, two incomplete lines stack up under another player. When garbage was turned on, three options existed for how the garbage was distributed. The first would just go to the player to your right. Second, is the "hot potato" setting; all of the garbage goes to a random person until that person is able to clear a line, then all the garbage goes to someone else until they clear a line. Finally, the greatest garbage mode: directed garbage. You are able to select which person will get your garbage. This mode is great for doing two-on-two battles, or for trying to take down the superior Tetris player by ganging up on him 3-1. My fondest memories of this game is staying up late at a bachelor party and taking down Jeff Wassom with three people.
If you then cleared lines with a gold or silver block a much larger amount of garbage would be added to the other player. It usually ended up being a high risk - high reward trade off. Many times you would be so focused on creating a block and would end up allowing your screen to get so high that you were very susceptible to attacks from others.