jaws still clenched, brains still wired, the tetrominos are still dancing in my vision, i need a glass of water

less about the mechanical expression of tetris and far more about the transcendental flow state that can be achieved from playing such systems driven titles, hence its appropriate title. as such it's content to settle for the basic template with little in the way of formal experimentation beyond its visuals and aesthetics but good god are they pulling their weight here, imbuing the experience with elegance and ephemerality. it's this unique concoction that immerses subtly, the endless tides of puzzle pieces washing over me and rejuvenating my soul with each minute spent in the playing field, narrating the story of life itself through descending blocks. impressively, each stage in journey mode seamlessly cycles the player through varying tempos of play before they even realize what's happening; the seasoned players mind quickly grows accustomed to the affair and instantly switches gears in their head, like it's all some locked away second nature. half the game is reconciling with the part of you that is made to operate solely on instinct and thats an experience you cant really get in other mediums and always makes me happy to sit down for a while

Tetris is the perfect video game. If you asked me what the "best video game of all time" was I would without hesitation say Tetris. It's a game so flawless that it's impossible to think of a single thing about it you could modify that wouldn't fundamentally break it, and make it no longer Tetris.

Tetris Effect understands this, and so it doesn't do anything to the gameplay of Tetris. At Tetris Effect's core is the same old game we've been playing since the Game Boy, and instead of iterating on that, it iterates on the most interesting game in the "franchise," Tetris for the Philip CD-i.

The aesthetic of that game are the reason you've probably heard of it, being essentially a progenitor to the 2010s Vaporwave culture with its Windows XP-type aesthetic and phenomenal soundtrack. Tetris Effect understands that the only thing you can successfully add to Tetris without obstructing what makes it work is that aesthetic, and so it goes all in on that, with one of the most visually and sonically enrapturing experiences in video game history. It turns the benign act of playing Tetris into an experience, a life event, something bigger than you and I.

In VR this is especially notable, as you sit in awe of this monolith that is the Tetris board, surrounded by lotus flowers, or massive whales made of light, or entire New York Skylines, all perfectly scored with satisfying sound design and some of the most seamless gameplay-reactive music since DOOM 2016.

Tetris Effect takes the artful perfection of OG Tetris and brings that artfulness to the forefront, with mindblowing results.

It's all connected

Tetris Effect is a puzzle game originally released on the PS4 in 2018 with a multiple PC versions coming out during the year. Tetris has been one of the most iconic puzzle games ever created spanning 37 years since it's initial creation in 1984 in Russia and a game that felt perfect to me. The core gameplay loop of Tetris is simple yet has so much depth that relies on the correct placement of tiles, planning ahead, and the quick reaction and speed needed to perform well in the game at high speeds. Tetris Effect does something different here yet manages to satisfy the two facets of the Tetris audience. The facet of the competitive players recieving modes that recreate old formats that haven't been done in any other tetris game so far and the other facet of the casual tetris player that just play to have fun where I am and what this game does is more than just provide a visual experience but evoke a feeling within you when you play the game.

The gameplay is still the Tetris you love (or hate) with the added elements of music and visuals that manages to invoke synesthesia with the player at certain moments. The music manages to bring a variety of sounds from around the world and carry multiple genres of music and syncs with your gameplay that gets you in a flow state while playing the game. The visuals manages to pop vibrantly and somehow doesn't detract your vision from the gameplay apart from rare cases that are further enhanced that this is intended to be a VR experience and despite not trying this in VR, the whole experience isn't detracted at all and still manages to feel like a unique experience. The game modes here provide a variety of experiences that manages to fulfill every niche of player out there, there are difficult and score modes for the competitive or the player wanting to improve and there are "chill" playlists and "chill" modes that remove the fail-state of the game wishing just to relax with the game's music and visuals while playing the game. The Journey mode which acts as the "story" mode here is a short experience that lets you experience all the levels in a sequential yet short order while introducing a brand new mechanic as well called "Zone". Zone is a great new mechanic that fits the game perfectly. For a definition, as you play the game you start filling a bar called "Zone" and you can use that "Zone" to slow down time and stack line clears to achieve what can be described as "more than a tetris" and the total maximum is 22-23 with players trying to push more in the meantime. What this mechanic also manages to do well which is really a small touch is the sound effects and the visuals when you manage to achieve more than 8 lines where the visuals and sound effects change for that short moment you're in zone albeit a tiny thing, just further enhances the synesthesia this game offers. The multiplayer here was enhanced with a suite of new and unique modes with an "expansion" of sorts called Tetris Effect: Connected that manages to add Zone in a PVP setting that makes for some interesting gameplay to say the least and a new co-op mode called Connected that pits 3 players (human or ai) vs an AI boss that still manages to bring what makes this version of Tetris unique.

I don't have any real problems with this game in all honesty, some of the songs didn't hit me emotionally as hard as others and I wish this game was more widely available but it's coming with a Steam release soon so that will alleviate that issue. I suppose the matchmaking could be better as trying to solo queue for Connected can be pretty awkward at times.

Tetris Effect is the phenomena when players play Tetris to the extent where they see imagery of the game and imagining blocks from the game in the real world sometimes falling or rotating. Synesthesia is essentially specific information meant for one of your senses manages to stimulate multiple senses at once. Hearing colors and tasting sounds are examples. Tetris Effect the game manages to achieve all of the good feelings in me I didn't really think I still had in me. I managed to feel nostalgic, the vibrant color of celebration along with the core message of the game that is essentially the tagline of this game.

We're all connected.

You make all these small choices, and the consequences stack up. Each is contingent on what came before. Each carries that contingency forward to the next piece. There on screen you see a well of contingency, the past made visible. The pleasure of wiping it away, line by line, is the pleasure of wiping away your past, the perfect setups and the little mistakes both. This is perhaps the ultimate fantasy of Tetris: that you can wipe away the contingency of the past, deepen your well, give yourself more time.

Tetris itself isn’t timeless. It won’t be played forever. It’s not the perfect game. What a boring idea about videogames, and art. Tetris Effect’s actual achievement is its felt relevance in 2018. That it met our grim current context with old school optimism and a hard puzzle heart. Warmth and pressure. What we need and what we know. Would it have resonated like this five years ago? Will it still five years from now?

Which is not to say Tetris Effect doesn’t stumble in the present. It’s a little too neat. It could have been weirder, wilder, cheesier. Placing Native American riders and Balinese rituals alongside dolphins, hot air balloons, and crystalline pop epiphanies, as if everything can be equally thematized, is a real mistake. And the VR mode throws off the balance of concentration and sensory overload necessary for long plunges into the effect.

It’s in fact the effect of its title that excites me most going forward. More subject, less object. Or at least a more openly subjectified object. I want to see more effects explored, not just the ecstatic and hypnotic and sublime. I want even more unexpected effect modes that don’t add ‘value’ but play out variations on a theme. Videogames as musical fugues that induce psychological fugue states. I’m not talking reskins or remakes or reboots but delirious remixes and deliberate transformations. Not for all time, but for now. Right here. This moment.

There are two wolves inside you

One goes absolutely nuts as the audiovisual downpour waters your soul, lifting you off your feet as transcendental music guides you through the rhythm, rewarding your play with only more heavy sensations to feel. The expertly crafted experience moves through your heart in beats that feel second nature.

The other wolf is hyperfocusing on each block as the difficulty ramps up to where you're trying really REALLY hard to keep up because they may or may not suck at tetris god the last level took me more than an hour on normal I'm REALLY bad.

Oh and both wolves are gay and really deeply love each other and intermix a lot :3

Por mais que eu acredite, como muitos outros, que Tetris é um jogo fundamentalmente perfeito, o jogo nunca foi exatamente uma experiência visual deslumbrante. Não tem nada de errado com ele, é só que o foco do jogo nunca foi esse. Visual é talvez o aspecto mais importante de Tetris Effect, transformando o clássico em uma nova experiência cheia de vida, com visuais, música e efeitos que complementam cada um de seus 35 temas. Pessoalmente, achei que, embora bem bonitos, os visuais não adicionam muito à experiência quanto eu pensei, apesar de que esse deve ser o caso quando se joga por VR. O que me prendeu no jogo foi a mecânica de Zone, que faz você jogar com outros olhos, procurando oportunidades para pontuar que não existiam no jogo antigo. É uma grande adição ao clássico gameplay dos jogos antigos, que embora adultera com o santo e sagrado clockwork perfeito do original, é interessante o bastante para te prender por um tempo. Se você tem um interesse mínimo por tetris vai gostar desse jogo, ainda mais se tiver acesso à VR.