One More Hit: Tetris
Back with another one of those block droppin' beats.
My first hit of Tetris was many years ago, with its famous falling blocks sent by the gods of young love. An original DMG-01 Game Boy appeared on the arm of the lounge room sofa at my home. I was as puzzled as a caveman discovering fire. After a flick of its switch, my world changed. It was my first taste of Nintendo, of a handheld, and of the game in its back - Tetris. I played it and immediately decided it really sucked, not the Game Boy, but this slow-moving, basic game. An amazing item had entered my young life, and all it could do was some crummy puzzle game. I abandoned it.
It turned out that the mysterious Game Boy belonged to my older sister’s boyfriend, Dan, who’d left it behind. I’d never know if that was accidental, but even as a kid, I did know that anyone who takes a Game Boy to their girlfriend's house deserves neither Game Boy nor girlfriend. My sister must have thought the same, and her and Dan broke up shortly after. The Game Boy remained as a symbol of a failed teen love. My sister was uninterested; perhaps it was a painful reminder of Dan and his attention-divided affections. I returned to the Game Boy and its game. I quickly learned that Tetris shouldn’t be written off on face value. Soon, that grey brick on the sofa had me hypnotised, I was smashing high scores, humming the Tetris song everywhere I went, and liberating AA batteries from anywhere just to keep the block party going.
As one relationship failed, another blossomed, Tetris and the Game Boy became my precious, and I was ready to go full Gollum if Dan attempted to reclaim. He never did. That fact blew my mind for many years until I had failed connections of my own and needed to write off personal items as collateral damage. We’ve all had to cut loose a favourite hoodie, a phone charger, leftover Chinese food, half a bottle of Absinthe, our dignity, whatever. Sometimes you just don’t go back.
For me, Tetris proved more intense fling than lasting relationship. I’d put in the hours and told myself that I was surely one of the world’s great players. Only possible in this more innocent time, where ideas of gaming grandeur flowed freely, and you couldn’t play online to realise you’re actually ranked 48,672 in the world. The love between boy and Tetris faded, the falling blocks jumbled to the top, and I moved on to other pursuits. Of course, I kept Dan’s Game Boy.
As the years passed, I successfully ignored the dozens of newer Tetris versions released. I also dodged the flogging of the Tetris story in books, documentaries and film, with the exception of the 2023 thriller Tetris, which was rapid-paced and cool. However, I always admired Tetris, not just from the organic introduction to it in my youth, but because in the gaming world, with its focus on the latest tech, Tetris stands as a reminder that the best gaming experiences can be the simplest.
That was my first hit of Tetris; my last hit came through Tetris Effect. A game I arrived at not through a love of descending bricks but through the enjoyment of a different game - Rez on the PS2. Sega’s beautifully-styled cult classic rail-shooter from 2001. The mastermind behind Rez, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, also produced Tetris Effect, fulfilling his long-standing ambition to make Tetris a music-based game.
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First released in 2018 for the PS4 and available across platforms, I played the Switch port of Tetris Effect, which felt right for me. Everyone’s had a crack at Tetris over the years, but for most gamers, Nintendo remains its spiritual champion. The joining of Mizuguchi and Tetris makes total sense, his focus on synaesthesia and sensory experiences has been lengthy and pioneering. He also has experience with his own successful block-based puzzle game series, Lumines. I’m not sure why it took me this long to get around to Tetris Effect, perhaps because Dan hadn’t left a copy on the arm of the sofa.
Once I hit the game pads and began the journey mode of Tetris Effect, it all clicked back into place. There was nostalgia, fresh delights, and I found myself whistling the original Tetris theme again, which I thought I’d long forgotten. But something dormant was awoken, synapses reconnected, and I began to see falling blocks in my dreams again. Tetris Effect isn’t just the name of the game, it’s both a promise and a warning.
Tetris Effect retains the puzzle game essence of Tetris but injects a heavy dose of rhythm game DNA. Does it work? Absolutely. The music and visuals are elegant and subtle at the beginning of a level when you’re claiming those first lines, but as the speed of the falling blocks increases, so does the overall intensity. That synaesthetic intensity can be experienced to varying degrees depending on your setup. I often played just with the TV speakers, but surround sound or good headphones assist with greater immersion.
Visually, it looks great just on the TV, but there are VR options depending on your platform. I haven’t indulged in this area as I don’t have the gear and also possess an irrational fear of being sack-tapped while wearing a headset.
I thought before playing Tetris Effect that the focus on intense moving imagery might be distracting if I just wanted to play a little Tetris, but it’s not like that. Any distraction is more challenging than outright annoying. The combination of music, sound effects, vibrations, and visuals joins old with new in a unified sensory experience. After just one gaming session, I couldn’t get enough of its block droppin’ beats.
In journey mode, the game mechanics haven’t been messed with. Tetrominoes (yes, they’re meant to be called that) can be rotated both ways, quick dropped, and one can be held to the side. There’s also a temporary time-stop mechanic, which doesn’t feel cheaty and becomes strategic as the levels become more difficult. Overall, there’s a respect for the classic gameplay with a notable resistance to any major new gimmicks.
The music can feel generic and cliché on occasion, but also soaring and motivating. This is a journey to enjoy in its entirety. The difficulty of each individually-named level varies significantly, some you’ll sweep through the first time, and wish they’d lasted longer, while others take a serious beating. Each level requires the player to complete 36 lines, which sounds easy, but the game has complete control over the speed level of the blocks. It’s like being on a treadmill and instead of setting your own speed and incline, you choose some funky virtual trail and let the machine terrorise you.
Tetris Effect has different game modes and online play options, but for me, it was all about journey mode and progressing as the developers intended. I hit on some levels that needed a few turns to pass and a couple that needed a repeat session to move on, I’m looking at you, Ritual Passion. Frustrating in parts, but rage-quitting never threatened, as it’s just too zen. The normal difficulty setting was just right for a returning player who didn’t want to rush through. There are various ways to use combos and maximise your scoring, but for time-constrained gamers, it’ll be about just steadily moving through.
As a single-player gaming experience, Tetris Effect is an epic way to reconnect with an old friend. The history is there for most retro gamers, and that’s been respected and celebrated. It also has something to offer fans of rhythm games, rhythm shooters and just those who spent too long staring at the Windows Media Player Visualizer. You freaks are out there.
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There’s always a degree of risk in remixing a much-loved classic with newer tech capability, and there are a few examples of it going wrong with Tetris, like Tetris Worlds in 2002. Deep down, Tetris Effect doesn’t offer anything completely new, even an EDM Tetris soundtrack has been done before with The New Tetris on N64. What’s exceptional isn’t the concept but the detail and creativity achieved within it. It’s also about the connection between game and gamer, and its smart awareness that some players will be discovering Tetris for the first time, while others laboured away on an OG Game Boy 30 years ago. This is a very strong entry, but just one entry, in the legacy of Tetris, a lifelong game series that can be abandoned for decades by gamers and then returned to engage with once again.
My own Tetris journey began with an abandoned Game Boy, and so many of us will have a Tetris origin story of how we came to this puzzle game icon. For this gaming legacy, Tetris Effect isn’t the last hit. Now, I’m tempted to keep the block party going again, not with AA batteries this time, but by investing in a PSVR2 setup and a protective cup. Tetris Effect - it’s worth the risk.
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You've now got me curious about Tetris Effect, especially if it's available on Switch which seems like a more natural home for it. I will take a look, thanks for the recommendation
Beautiful tribute to a beautiful game. I also remember thinking I was good at Tetris before online leaderboards. It was really hammered in when the Facebook game Tetris Battle took off in my high school. Nothing says “you suck at Tetris” like being demolished by Michael Tamkee during free period.