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.