There’s no shortage of Tetris out there. Tetris 99 for a long time was my favorite version of it, and it kept me locked in for months. My highest finish was second place and I only lost that one because my finger slipped. But Tetris Effect rewired my brain in a way I never expected.
I’ve made no secret of my love of music. I even passed that to my daughter. One of her first Christmas gifts a couple years back was a mini piano and I just bought her a drum set this past Christmas. So seeing that Tetris Effect had tied music to the gameplay had me intrigued immediately.
MAKING TETRIS A RHYTHM GAME
At no point would I have expected Tetris to work as well with music as it did. But when you get the creators of Rez and Lumines involved, it’s an obvious slam dunk. Tetsuya Mizuguchi understands how to pair music and gameplay in a pleasing way, and this was no exception.
Make no mistake, Tetris Effect is a rhythm game. Even if the overall goal of clearing lines remains the same. Every Tetromino movement clicks with the music. The way the music builds with each line clear, and the background morphs and moves with the music is hypnotic. Just look at this video and try to pull away from the screen.
And this hypnosis is strengthened by the game’s “zone” mechanic where time slows and you can clear more than the standard 4 lines for a Tetris. And the feeling that comes with hitting that zone is incredible, especially in the dark with a good pair of headphones on.
MASTER BLASTER
My first few games of it resulted in almost immediate panic when I realized the music and the blocks were linked, and I blew some decent runs. But when it all clicked for me, there was an obvious synergy between my button presses and the game. After a while, I started hitting that zone more often and I couldn’t stop playing.
Tetris Effect revived my love of the franchise by combining music and gameplay in a unique way. I still go back to it pretty regularly and I can’t imagine how fun it is in VR. If you haven’t played it yet, I highly recommend it.
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