Tetris Effect (2018)

As a fan of Tetris and of Tetsuya Mizuguchi (especially Rez, one of my all-time favorite games), I feel a bit sheepish that it took me five years to play Tetris Effect. On paper, this should have been a day one purchase for me.

But instead, I waited. Because from the first trailer, I felt like I knew what this game would be: Lumines, except Tetris, with a higher-fidelity presentation in line with Mizuguchi's post-Child of Eden work.

So now it's 2025, the game's on sale, I buy it, I finish Journey and a handful of secondary modes. And my conclusion?

My impressions were spot-on: Tetris Effect is everything I thought it would be.

And, here's the thing: It's great! I love Tetris. I love Mizuguchi's synesthesia. It's neat to see the developers play with the tension that naturally arises from that intersection. Tetris Effect is fun, it's special, it deserves its accolades. But as a longtime fan, I did feel a limit to how much Tetris Effect could tingle my synapses without the full element of surprise.

If I'd never played any of its forebears, or if I had a VR headset, I may have had the transcendent experience I've heard others describe. Instead, I found Tetris Effect to be merely the most beautiful iteration of Tetris to date. Which isn't much of a let-down, is it?

Skies of Arcadia has a nice audio trick. When you're in a battle and your health depletes to a percent, the music shifts to this despairing, frantic tune. The musical score asks "can you succeed this dire circumstance?" Conversely, I believe if your health is high and your enemy's health is low, the music shifts to something swelling and triumphant. "You can win" the music declares.

This is the first time I noticed the music changing based on gameplay. Of course I had already experienced this, probably first in Super Mario World when the bongos join the score when you ride on Yoshi and most recently in Super Mario Wonder when horns join the score with Daisy's wowwie-zowwie elephantification.

Rhythm games add an extra wrinkle to this dynamic, because not only can the gameplay impact the music, but the music can also impact the gameplay. In Guitar Hero, if you screw up a bunch of strums the instrumentation feels empty and amateurish. But the gameplay that decides if you are sounding full and professional is decided itself by the music. You're clicking these buttons at this given time because that is just how Sweet Child of Mine goes.

Traditional game design might reject rhythm games' interplay between music and gameplay because that means that game difficulty (which is also driven by gameplay) is affected by the music. One might think that a game shouldn't become harder because the session drummer decided to solo a monstrous albeit beautiful solo.

Tetris Effect challenges this traditional game design notion by creating something beautiful out of its simple premise. You know Tetris. You've played Tetris. Outside of the music, and the new zone mechanic (more on that later), the gameplay is bog standard Tetris.

But that music really does elevate things. Not only does the music respond to the gameplay (moving a tetrimino plays a jazzy instrument to accompany the tracks, activating the zone mechanic causes you to enter an ambient version of the song, clearing lines and getting tetrises plays a specific chord that can progress the song, etcetera and etcetera), but the gameplay responds to the music. Regular Tetris has the difficulty ramping up after clearing a set number of lines. Sometimes in Tetris Effect, the difficulty drops when the next, slower section of the song starts. Sometimes Tetris Effect jumps up five levels in speed when the song cranks it into high gear. Maybe in description this sounds annoying, but in practice you will bob your head vibing.

The idea of jumping up 5 levels in difficulty, but Tetris Effect has built the zone mechanic into its gameplay to give you a chance to engage that change. When you enter zone, the terriminoes stop falling and instead give you a moment of reprieve. You can plan where to place those pieces instead of just respond as one does when the difficulty is too high. Suddenly a mountain of tetriminoes is reduced to a few blocks and level 12 isn't so hard anymore.

"What if I don't like the music" I hear you ask. The soundtrack is pretty varied so the chance that you don't like anything seems unlikely, but the other thing is the whole medium works together. The gameplay emphasizes the music. The music emphasizes the gameplay. The visuals emphasize the music and the gameplay. Heck, even the controller vibrations help you enter a musical game flow. The songs end up being more than songs.

Tetris Effect makes an argument for this different style of rhythmic gameplay. Is it better than bog standard, beautiful Tetris? I'd say it stands beside it. I'd like to see more musically driven rethinkings stand next to their vanilla counterparts. I guess what I'm trying to say is Puyo Puyo Effect when?

(Review of Tetris Effect: Connected) Easy 5/5. Maybe the best release of Tetris to date, and a fantastic experience in its own right.

• Extremely tight Tetris gameplay. Feels butter smooth and very satisfying.
• Zone mechanic is an elegant addition to the modern Tetris formula. Fun in casual play, interesting to implement in high level play.
• Journey mode's levels have great variety, sound track and visuals are consistently good, some are standout great. The opening and ending songs are bangers.
• The Connected re-release with multiplayer modes pushes this game to another level -- great VS game, and the 3v1 mode is a fantastic time.

It feels kind of weird to recommend a version of a game that probably every human being who has been around for a while and laid hands on a game has played at some point. There is nothing new to be said about Tetris, how it fits into the definition of a ‘video game’ so perfectly, and how addictive it can get. My very first handheld console, back in the very early 90s, was a Tetris machine, and I spent countless hours obsessed with it, to the point of having the now popular ‘Tetris effect’ manifest itself quite clearly - I was seeing brick patterns when I when I went to sleep, when I dreamt, when I woke up. And ironically, it was only the name of the more recent Tetris release that made me give it a second look. Not that I didn’t, and do, love Tetris, but I just figured ‘well, it’s Tetris. I mean how different can it be?’

I was wrong. Tetris Effect is still Tetris of course, but it comes with a fantastic coat of paint that I didn’t think would make me get into it so much. It may not have been my absolute best gaming experience so far this year, but it’s up there close to the best for sure. All the addiction that is intrinsically tied to Tetris is still present, but what is fascinating in this game was how that addictive loop gets enhanced by its audiovisual output. Everything in Tetris Effect looks like an acid trip, an amazing spectacle of colours and backgrounds, at times serene, at times explosive, but always engaging. The music and sounds, or at least their vocal-free parts, are phenomenal.

The ‘just one more go’ curse is more present than ever here, and I can’t remember the last time I had such a hard time putting a game down. The difficulty in Journey Mode is incredibly well balanced, and one thing I particularly enjoyed was how noticeable the learning curve felt. Certain challenges, especially towards later states, seemed almost insurmountable at times, but the more I played, the more I realised I could do it, provided I kept trying. Even on Medium, the last stage - Metamorphosis - is a delightfully challenging experience (at least to me) that gave me great pleasure to overcome. And sure enough, the moment I overcame it, I immediately started replaying the mode in an attempt to beat my previous score.

Tetris Effect is Tetris on steroids of the most enjoyable kind. It’s a game that even my wife, an unmistakable non-gamer, got addicted to. I really didn’t click with the vocal parts of the soundtrack, like at all (they weren't bad, just very far from my cup of tea), but everything else about this was just great to experience. An awesome updated version of an undisputed classic. 8.5/10

Rez Infinity is not the only Mizuguchi game launched for PS5/PSVR2 today. I finally played Tetris Effect: Connected and it was as wonderful as everybody told me. Lots of game modes, amazing EDM and trippy visuals. It really got me into the game even if I played without a VR set.

You can read my full review in spanish on GamerFocus.

This is also a really intense games. My heart was pounding when I finished stages on speed 13. I really think the people that play this on Expert are not humans. There's no way anyone can have reflexes this fast. right?

Vähemmänkin kyyninen voisi miettiä, ettei Tetris-pelistä saa enää hirveästi innovaatioita tai uusia elämyksiä irti. Tetris Effect todistaa toisin. Se tekee pelivanhuksesta synestesiaa mukailevan audiovisuaalisen pläjäyksen, joka tuntuu ajoittain jopa tunteelliselta kokemukselta. Käsittämättömän kuuloista, tiedän.

Pelin pääfokus on tarinamoodissa, jossa pelataan juurikin eri visuaaleja ja musiikkia sisältäviä "synestesia-tasoja" läpi järjestyksessä. Tässä pelaajan avuksi on tuotu ajanpysäytys-spessu, joka antaa hengähdys taukoa hektisimpiin Tetris-hetkiin. Ja siinä oikeastaan koko moodi onkin tiivistettynä. Kuulostaa vähältä, mutta kaikki toimii vain niin hiton nätisti ja hyvin, että peliä on ilo pelata. Visut ovat nättejä, musiikit läpsivät, pelaaminen on hauskaa.

Pelkästään tarinamoodin avulla peli ei ehkä pomppaisi Tetris-pelien kovimpaan kärkeen (Puyo Puyo Tetris on kova vastus). Tetris Effect kuitenkin tarjoaa buffet-pöydällisen erilaisia haaste- ja moninpelimoodeja, joihin itsekin pitää vielä enemmän tutustua, kunhan moninpelisessioita saa tässä järkättyä. Erityisesti kolmen pelaajan co-op bossitappelut kuulostavat Tetris-pelissä erittäin kutkuttavalta. Niitä odotellessa.

This was the first thing I installed after I took out the 3 month game pass trial because I first of all wanted to know if it would run on my computer, and second I was quite sure I would be able to have all the fun I was ever going to have with this in under 3 months.

After finishing the main campaign in about half a week of intense tetris play, and actuallying experiencing the non ® Tetris Effect every day I was playing it, I am now not so sure I will be able to extract all of the fun in this game in 3 months.

To back up, I (and I think a significant number of people) first heard about this game when I saw Nick Robinson's youtube video where a Tetris expert plays Tetris Effect, and ever since then I was extremely curious to play it. The visuals and sound in the video looked incredible and I almost immediately looked up the soundtrack after I watched the video, only to find that there was no soundtrack available and all the music I had heard was made specifically for the game. Ever since then the soundtrack especially has been something that was on my radar to find, but even surprisingly long after the game had been released I couldn't find it.

To further back up, I don't think I have ever played tetris properly before this game, I have always been aware of the game, and probably toyed with it once or twice, but it just never looked fun to me. And I don't have any memories of ever being into it. So going in I was kind of expecting to like the visuals and love the music but I wasn't really sure what I was going to think of the Tetris.

To my complete surprise, it only took the first stage before I was hooked on the actual Tetris gameplay, the combination of the rhythm of the music and clearing lines and the sounds and the visuals and the promise of many many more of these scenes is basically felt like wireheadding myself with dopamine. I basically could not stop playing.

I should also say I was not expecting anywhere near as many stages as there were when I first opened up the main screen. I thought there would maybe be a couple but as I played through the game not only was each stage just as well crafted as the last, the music was too, and even the speed ramps controlling the gameplay felt well timed. I am just shocked at how much craft and effort clearly went into the design of each stage, I think even if I hadn't been that into the Tetris gameplay, I would still, I think, be motivated enough to get to the final stage just to experience the combination of visual and music that come with each stage.

The music almost requires its own review because it is so central to the game and also so good. It's hard to even separate the music from the game, there are some people I would like to recommend the soundtrack to (because it is finally out now!) but it feels as though this would be an injustice to the music. Part of what makes the music so fun is that when you're playing the game, it feels like you're taking part in creating the music. It's not to say you can't listen to the music by itself, I have and it's still great. Just that, the music feels so tied to the actual game you are almost experiencing a completely different album in game vs on spotify.

So yeah, I loved the campaign, I learned how to play tetris, and was blown away by the Effect part of Tetris Effect.

And I thought that would be it...

Until I realised I better try the multiplayer thing before my game pass subscription runs out, and yeah I pretty much got addicted to that straight away. At first I started with the regular score multiplayer which was fine but when I discovered the zone multiplayer, that's when things totally went off the tracks.

There is something so addictive about that mode which is I think partly due to the fact that even terrible Tetris players like me still have a chance of winning and it can often feel so close that you always just want to play one more game and make less dumb mistakes and then an entire day has gone by and you are wondering whether you should reevaluate your life choices or... play more Tetris. And that's pretty much the multiplayer.

In short: Tetris is actually fun!?

Finished Journey Mode on Normal difficulty.

Giant Bomb's GOTY hype about this game is why I finally caved and spent $18 on Tetris. And I think I overpaid.

At its core, it's honestly a good Tetris game. But there are so many other, cheaper Tetris games available with comparable gameplay (including Tetris DS, which I own and actually prefer over Tetris Effect).

I haven't really been in the Tetris "scene" much, but notable differences between this and the old school NES & Gameboy versions are:

• You can hold any piece for later, then swap it in if the game gives you a crummy piece (or if you're ready to use that held line piece for a Tetris).
• Once the piece hits bottom, you have a couple seconds where you can still nudge and rotate it.
• There's a "Zone" meter that, when activated, makes it so any completed lines don't disappear while you're "in the zone". Once you drain the zone meter, every line you completed while in the Zone then gets counted, making it so you can actually clear far more than just four lines at once.

Really, the entire niche for this particular Tetris is the trippy visuals (based on the brief congratulatory text message when you finish Journey Mode, I think they really do expect you to be tripping balls while playing this game) and the music.

The visuals are neat, but it's hard to really appreciate them when you're trying to play Tetris (and at times, those pieces fall ridiculously fast!). Sometimes those visuals, which also include restyling the actual playfield for each stage, can make it hard to concentrate on the actual gameplay. At any time, you can zoom into and rotate the playfield at will. Where I think these controls and the overall visuals would really shine is in VR, but unfortunately I don't have a headset.

I've read plenty of reviews where people gush about the music, and how it made them feel the most emotional they've ever felt during a videogame and other such nonsense. Personally, I really dislike the saccharine "everybody loves everyone, yay nature" soundtrack. But I can also appreciate how impressive it is how they're able to make the music sync to what you're actually doing in the game. Because of this, some of my favorite tracks were the ones that were more sound-effect-based (like a later one that seemed to be entirely based off sounds from a moon landing).

My advice: listen to a few minutes of a YouTube playthrough. If you don't like that particular kind of pop music, you're probably not going to enjoy this game's soundtrack. And when the soundtrack is such a big piece of what sets this Tetris apart from the others, that might be reason enough to not buy it.

PROS

• A world-class audiovisual experience, especially in VR with a good set of headphones
• Outstanding soundtrack that pulls from the gamut of electronic music history
• A feature-complete and largely customizable implementation of the Tetris system
• Snappy, responsive controls
• Creative extra modes provide a multitude of ways to get your fix

CONS

• It's weird that there's not even a single multiplayer mode

Is Tetris the greatest game of all time? I find it hard to come up with a game that even comes close, at least in terms of replayability. Consider this is a game that came out 35 years ago this year, and within the last year, there have been two new versions of the game that make it feels just as vibrant and brilliant as it ever has. Tetris Effect proves that almost four decades after its release, Tetris is still potentially the most addictive and impossible to put down game ever made. Hell, the game Tetris Effect is even named after an actual phenomenon where people can't quit seeing Tetris blocks, even after they've stopped playing the game.

There might not be a better choice to "update" Tetris for the 21st century than Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who with Lumines, made the closest thing to a Tetris successor. The combination of the original's impossible-to-improve gameplay and Mizuguchi's interest in visuals and music is a match made in heaven. Tetris Effect isn't a music game per se, but the way you make your own music through playing Tetris Effect makes it equally rewarding and fun to play around with your own personal pacing in how you play.

I would like to point out that I was not able to play Tetris Effect on the VR helmet - which I hear is remarkably brilliant - and I wasn't able to play online, so I can't comment on those aspects. But I will say, I wish Tetris Effect was a bit longer and maybe had a few more challenges. For those like me who have come back to Tetris over and over for their entire lives, this is a game that can be completed in one sitting. But as is the case with Tetris, one sitting just won't be enough.

There's something so wonderful about playing a series that has been around your entire life, playing the newest version, and finding what you originally adored still intact, while new improvements are only making the series better. I felt this way when I played Super Mario Odyssey and I felt that way playing Tetris Effect. Tetris is the little game that keeps on surprising me and challenging me, and Tetris Effect is a worthy continuation of the greatest puzzle game ever made.