i was utterly stunned to look back at 2001's Tetris Worlds (a console-only game) and see how badly it was reviewed -- when Worlds was the first shot at what become the truly modern Tetris Guideline we enjoy (?) today. the GBA version was the 2nd worst game of the year according to Gamespot -- and the GBA version retains the highest metascore for any version of the game to this day. Special criticism was directed at the implementation of lock delay, which allows you to move pieces after they hit the bottom of the board with unlimited rotations and moves. Though no longer allowing infinite adjustments, modern classics like Tetris Effect and Tetris 99 have a similarly generous implementation of lock delay. Worlds was also among the first games with SRS, a rotation system for pieces that's the modern universal standard. I bring this up because Tetris Kiwamemichi is an ultra-processed/ultra-refined re-take on Worlds, sharing the rotation system and mechanical characteristics (save for infinite lock delay) as well as many of the same modes (Hot-Line and Cascade/Sticky from Worlds were cribbed directly here). Graphically and sonically it's an enormous step up, with some clever nods back toward the more hardcore Grandmaster series and fine sub-modes. Kiwamemichi is such a polished, brilliant pearl that i was stunned by my indifference to it. It's great, it really is! But perhaps because it's so modern, perhaps even because it's guideline, i struggled to care! It's just... Tetris! Crystalline, dense, closed-hearted tetris. is my frustration an echo of those critics who took such umbrage at Worlds? in hopes that i will one day understand my feelings better and offer mercy to the game, i give Kiwamemichi the 8/10 i know, somewhere in my heart, it deserves