Tetris Effect
» System: PS4 » Buy it from: Online, retail » Buy it for: £29.99
Enhance naming its new Tetris game after the phenomenon where people play too much of the iconic puzzler that they start seeing blocks in real life is a masterstroke. Because that’s exactly what’s happened to us, once again, playing the new synesthesia infused Tetris Effect.
Ostensibly its the same Tetris we’ve known for what feels like a millennia, however Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team has drawn on their experience from making Rez, Lumines and Child Of Eden to transform the game into an experience. Each level starts off clean, empty and silent, but as you gradually clear lines of tetrominoes the audiovisual experience builds into a crescendo of sights and sounds. It’s thrilling to experience. However, it can be distracting, and in those times where you feel you’re hanging on by a thread, the last thing you want is a large fish swimming past your playfield – it’ll be a pretty nice fish, though.
Journey mode is the highlight of the entire game. It’s a pretty standard a-to-b gauntlet of levels that portray landscapes from windmills and firework displays to tribal celebrations
and space stations. The unique aspect of this mode, however, is the Zone system. As you build lines you fill a Zone meter, once you’ve got a sufficient amount you can then hit R2 to slow down time; you’ve entered the Zone. Once in the Zone, you still clear lines, but they remain on the screen, and once you’ve run out of meter all the lines you built up trigger at once allowing you to create mad creations like a ‘decahexatris’ or ‘perfectris’ – and even a ‘ultimatris’ if you’re a Tetris god.
In terms of other modes you have your usual suite of marathon and challenge modes you’d come to expect from a modern Tetris game. Which kind of positions Tetris Effect as the most definitive Tetris game you can buy today. We’d say Puyo Puyo Tetris will perhaps offer you a lot more longevity and multiplayer action, but for pure Tetris enthusiasts you can’t get better than this. Add in to the mix that you can play Tetris Effect using Playstation VR and you might not see the light of day for a very, very long time.
Score 90%