Tetris Effect (2018)

Tetris Effect Connected (Nintendo Switch)

Opening Act: 9/10

For Tetris effect, most players will jump directly into the main mode called “Journey” mode, which brings the player to a cool-looking gaseous nebula in space populated with nodes indicating various Tetris boards that can be experienced across time and space. Only one board is selectable in the beginning called “The Deep”. Players immediately jump in and will learn that as they play the Tetris game and eliminate rows, special effects involving sea life in the deep ocean background come to life. Energetic music and sound effects also help set the mood… Maybe you will really feel like you are playing Tetris in the deep ocean, either way it is a pretty unique experience. After beating the board the player is immediately thrust onto the next step of the Journey mode. The next board has an entirely different feel and look along with a different musical vibe.

Gameplay Loop: 9/10

For Journey mode in particular, the gameplay loop is to play Tetris, eliminating rows, gaining score, and increasing your stage speed… all the while enjoying the interesting background effects and music present. After eliminating enough rows, the player is zoomed to a new environment, with new graphical effects, music, and vibe, and keeps playing their same Tetris session until they reach the end of the Stage. Each stage has 3 to 5 sections of a Journey to move through. If you fill your Tetris board and lose, you can restart at whatever section of the Journey you were on, but your score does reset down to zero.

Also for those literally playing the game to experience the “Journey” and not looking for that much of a challenge, you can set “Beginner” mode for an easier experience. Overall, the gameplay is pretty addictive too, and that is nothing new for Tetris series.

Hand and Eye Strain: 8/10

For hands, Tetris overall has very simple and friendly controls as the game loop constantly requires rotating tetraminos and pressing down, so only requires a few buttons and doesn’t strain the hands reaching for shoulder buttons or requiring button combos or anything demanding for your fingers.

For Eyes, the cool backgrounds can be considered “eye candy” with high resolution graphics and cool effects. Some backgrounds are dim and eye friendly while the tetramino pieces are easy to see. Some settings have tetraminos that change shape or have graphical effects making them hard to follow, or have backgrounds that are distracting and flashy and could strain the players eyes. However, those distracting pieces and distracting backgrounds are an intentional part of the challenge/experience itself. If players find some board they don’t like the look of good news is that players with Effect mode can choose graphical settings they like best, (at least after the unlock the setting by beating the board).

Gameplay Mechanics: 9/10

In Journey mode, each Tetris “stage” has a series of 3 to 5ish nodes. Each node has unique music and background effects (sometimes 2 musics and background effects). When you start a stage from the 1st Node you’ll typically eliminate 36 rows and then be zipped to the next node (no change to your tetramino positions), and this will continue until you beat every node. For a stage with 5 nodes, then it means to beat the whole stage without wiping out, you would need to eliminate 36x5=180 rows without wiping out! In addition, most of the nodes will have built in speed changes. After eliminating 12 rows for example you might be taken to speed 9 until you eliminate a few more rows, slowing down the game again.

These built in challenges make it a bit tricky to finish every node in the stage, so you might have to continue from the middle of the stage just to get to the end. You may find yourself restarting at node 1 to try to beat the stage without wiping and get a higher score , or clicking on one of your favorite nodes to replay.

Overall, the gameplay is immersive and addictive. I recommend playing with the sound up and/or engage with headphones. Even if the sounds seem distracting at first, go with it. It does add to the immersive experience.

Sound: 8 /10:

In Journey Mode, the main sounds to pay attention to are the soundtracks which are matched to the graphical theme of the board, as well as special sound effects for eliminating rows. In addition, the music tracks overall can change, and the pace can change along with the speed of the Tetris match.

In Effect Mode, we can see how the sound was designed and is an integrated part of the game. There are “chill”, “exciting”, and other kinds of music vibes across the soundtrack, and these can be customized and selected when playing Effect Mode.

Overall the team that designed the game viewed ability to adjust sound accompanying the game as an integral part of the game play, and it’s well-executed. In Journey mode you will experience the different soundtracks and stages the game has to offer and unlock tracks. In Effect mode you will be able to customize your favorite part of the experience for the session you are looking for.

Overall Experience: 7/10 = Highly Recommended (Fun)

For all the versions of Tetris I have played I do feel that Journey mode is a unique, interesting and Fun experience, which takes plain-old-Tetris, and makes is more exciting and Fun. It’s like playing the Gameboy classic from the 80s, but with the modern graphical effects that do augment the experience. This cartridge is one I’ll probably keep taking when traveling / stuck on an airplane or train since it’s easy to pick up and play for a few minutes.

Version comparison: In the recent past, I also played “Tetris Forever”, which offers a series of retro Tetris ports and modes from the 80s and 90s. I want to point out though that this game though: “Tetris Effect” is far-and-away the best overall choice out of the two if you are looking for a fun, modern, Tetris experience that has higher replayability and customization options.

Rating notes (this pertains primarily to the overall rating):

1. The game doesn’t function
5. You may like it better than me
6. Recommended (Worth the time)
7. Highly Recommended (Fun)
8. Must-play (Fun plus unique)
9. Game-changing for the genre/Legendary/Enshrined
10. It feels like the 1st play through of A favorite game…

Tetris Effect was most likely developed by a group of stoners taking extremely large doses of LSD and acid who played Tetris on some random Friday night and that was the inspiration for this game.

Pros:

• It's Tetris. Addiction incarnate.
• Dynamic music. The music gets crazier as your game gets more intense. When you turn pieces and drop them it'll create beats. Also the main song with the female English singer is amazing.
• Visuals. When you're not too focused on where you are putting your pieces, you should look around. Sometimes you'll be in a forest, zooming through a city, surrounded by fireworks, fish, you name it. Quite amazing
• Costs $20

The cons:

• The PSVR takes forever to use
• Hurts your eyes if you play too long
• No multiplayer
• Not using PS Move controllers was a lost opportunity

Verdict: Even non Tetris enthusiasts will be wowed. One of the best PSVR exclusives (also on Steam).

This ended up being a bit of a tricky game to rate for me. Is it an amazing game that everyone here has got to experience? Definitely. Is it going to be my go-to for Tetris though? Well... I think if you want to play Tetris, you don't play this game. You play The Tetris Effect for the sake of experiencing The Tetris Effect.

This is probably the trippiest game I've ever played (and hopefully ever will play, lol). I can't imagine how wild this would be with VR. I'd probably just explode. There is so much happening on the screen, so many lights and sparkles and energy and zen and whooshing through space. And all the while, the music is going along with your progress with the Tetris level--and even with the rotating of your blocks. The wow factor is at full force here. But I gotta say, after a while it does get a bit tiring. It was enough to make me consider giving this a lower star rating, because I don't really want to O.D. every time I want to play a simple game of Tetris.

But playing a simple game of Tetris is decidedly not the point of The Tetris Effect. If solid puzzle gameplay is what you're after, go for Puyo Puyo Tetris or Tetris 99. If you want to be hypnotized into an enlightened state full of crazy ART (raises hands out dramatically), then be sure to pick up The Tetris Effect.

Sometimes I play a video game and I just feel so elated that I'm fortunate enough to be able to play them. I finally got around to playing through Tetris Effect tonight via PSVR and it made me so happy. The way the music and the visuals, along with the gameplay (as simple as it is), come together actually made me shed a tear of joy.

Tetris Effect makes me hopeful. If humans can make something so moving, surely we can do better for ourselves and for each other.

🎵🎵 I'm yours forever There is no end in sight for us Nothing could measure The kind of strength inside our hearts 🎵🎵

I know this is a cheesy sentiment but I had to share my joy.

I've only cursed uncontrollably while playing That Dragon, Cancer—a game that so filled me with pain it spilled out as anger.

Today, I add a second game: I got 88 out of 90 lines on Metamorphosis (the last level) before losing and a flurry of profanity flowed from my mouth, first about the game, then about me, then about the game again. Taking off the PSVR headset, I realized the immersion not only enhanced the victories, but the failures as well.

To get some closure and feel like I made progress, I played through Metamorphosis on Beginner and experienced the ending. I made a few more attempts on Normal before bed tonight, but I'm not sure it'll be good for me to keep trying. I may play in 2D and see if a bit of distance changes the experience.

My profanity aside, this is a truly remarkable game.

Last night, I got 82 out of 90 lines on the final level. I’ve never been so disgusted with myself and then the game and then myself again.

I didn’t throw anything, but I can now understand how dangerous ragequitting will be in the age of VR.

I keep thinking I’ll just quit, but when I sit on the stage select screen and see how far I’ve come—literally, the first stage is way in the distance—I can’t give up. I got 82, right? How much harder will 8 lines be?

I finally hit a stage I thought would end my Tetris career. Hula Soul goes from a tranquil Hawaiian beach in the evening to an incredibly stressful race to just make the tetrominos go at least near the place you wanted them to go.

In the early stages of Tetris Effect, I was frustrated by the controls, but after a bit, I forgot all about them. In Hula Soul, in a rush to move a piece, I would accidentally tap the up button and suddenly the piece would slam into place—never where I wanted it. This happened so many times I ended up changing my grip on the DualShock so my thumb couldn’t reach the up button.

After setting the stage aside for a night, I picked it up in the morning and finished it after a handful of attempts. The win felt more like luck than skill, where the other stages have felt more like skill than luck.

One thing I’d love to see is a an option to restart the level in the menu. The fastest way I can see to do it is repeatedly tap the up button to fail the level, but it just feels wrong to intentionally fail so badly.

I played another session of Tetris Effect in VR and I now understand the hype. In the first two groups of stages, I made it through a couple of stages on the first go, but quickly failed the following level. I was enjoying the experience, but wouldn't have described it as transcendent.

The third group of stages started with a level in the desert that evolved into something other-worldly and thanks to my slightly improved Tetris skills, I was finally able to take a look around and enjoy the scenery. The audio was terrific and the visuals were out-of-this-world. Once I completed it, I felt connected to the game in a way I hadn't before. I ended up barreling through the rest of the stages in the group—each a delightful experience in its own right—and just sat for a while in the results screen as I came back to real life.

I have no experience with hallucinogenics, but if they’d make me feel like Tetris Effect does, I can see why people like them.

The first lesson I had to learn from Tetris Effect was how bad I am at Tetris. I’ve always admired the game, but never actually played it for longer than 10 minutes every few years. So far, I’ve made it through the first three stages and feel like a better gamer for it.

Playing it in VR is pretty intense, though I am reminded of how few pixels there are on the PSVR screens. I was a little worried I’d lose sight of the tetrominos with all the effects, but the effects do a pretty good job of staying in the background, save for a big ol’ triangle in stage 2 that freaked me out.

I’ll be playing this until I can longer beat the stages. I’ve heard the later stages get pretty difficult, so I’ll bow out before I feel the need to ragequit—I’m not sure how well the PSVR headset would take being thrown to the ground.