Do you know that one scene from Ratatouille where Remy is combining foods and feeling this musicality in the tasting process? Imagine if it was a video game and you were playing tetris.

Tetris Effect takes two universalities, playing tetris and listening to music, and creates an entrancing experience that I can only compare to straight up jorking it. It's structured with little worlds which are levels that go on through different themes and music and backgrounds. Each level has it's on sound and visual design and they are all really good, it's actually really fun speculating how the song will turn out through the sound effects in the beginning.

The Zone feature is absolutely incredible when you can pull it off, but it can really mess you up. It was a last resort for me at times but the effect it has on your game table is very enchanting sometimes, and it can help relieve stress whenever the pieces are just hurling at you, there are of course scores for each area which I did NOT do good on, but I overall really liked this experience and I would love to play Rez.

Maybe if I were higher or played in VR I would be able to achieve harmony with the worldmind through factory-pressed 2010s EDM and themed lightshows. I'm sure multiplayer transforms the experience substantially, but I generally don't come to Tetris for a multiplayer experience, and so all I am left holding is a cynical attempt to present the perfect simplicity of Tetris as a kind of digital godhead, or a series of aesthetic entreaties to enter a flow state that are paradoxically incredibly distracting. Four stars for the game, two for the radical positivity Soundcloud kid gift tissue it's wrapped in.

Be so for real I glazed Puyo Puyo Tetris for the last 7 years but oh my GOD how did I never play this until now?!?!? This is what white women must feel their first time riding Soarin at Disney World, 2015 mainstage EDM visiuals blast over the most tightly controlled and satisfying tetris gameplay, and the MUSIC WOW OH MY GOD ITS SO NUTS!!!!! This channels Bejeweled 3's zen type ideas (by this i mean B3's Bubbly Dreamy Zen Garden UI, SFX, and Music) This shit a spirit bomb dawg I feel like im giving goku power by playin this game

9/10 Please bottle me in an Empire of the Sun music video for the rest of time.

Here's my Steam review, verbatim:

I've marked this review as "recommend to other players", but don't let that fool you into thinking that I think this is a satisfying entry in the Tetris series. It is satisfactory at best, but at worst it is a deeply underwhelming experience. Also note that I haven't used the VR mode, which may dazzle me so much that I completely change my mind, but to be honest I sort of doubt it.

This game is by no means a bad game. It has a decent main campaign (if you can even call it that), and a passable selection of side modes. People who just want to play some Tetris will find that this game scratches that itch, and hardcore Tetris fans... Well, you've already bought it.

The issue is the fundamental selling point of the game. It's sort of an immersive VFX showcase with Tetris plopped into it, and I think that that works perfectly well--It's certainly exciting first time around--but it fails to introduce anything seriously dramatic or brilliant visually. Do not expect an experience like Disney's Fantasia. You're more looking at a VFX student showreel with middling 2000s pop music.

The audiovisual experience is, to put it nicely, thematically trite. It's a lot of stereotypical stuff nicked from a bunch of different cultures without ever seriously engaging with them on a deeper level. The entire game feels like if the Beatles went through their psychedelic era but displaced by a couple of decades. I found myself thinking the word "Oscarbait" from time to time, and I think that term is actually decently accurate; at least to the idea of it being a very milquetoast and surface level gesture towards introspection and soulfulness.

You know, there's some really interesting stuff to say about Russia and its history with mysticism, religion and spirituality. It would be really great if a Tetris game about those themes could actually bother engaging with its own source material and origins. Maybe people like me would actually risk learning something new about stuff that we don't usually see portrayed in media. Hey, and where the hell is A-Type? Onion domes? Hello? Tetris already had culture in it that I really appreciated, you know.

I don't know which Tetris game added this feature, and I'm going to assume that it's this one, but I am not a fan of the letter-grade ranking system, at least for the side modes. My goal in Tetris is to beat my own high score, not to be told to beat someone else's ideas about what my high score should be looking like. Did anyone ask for this?

If you're going to commit to having one place to consistently come back to for your live-service Tetris experience, you could do better. If you want one place to come back to now and then just to try beating your own high score, then you could do better. Tetris DS has some fun side-modes, and Tetris NES is always there, and always a lot of consistent fun.

There is no end in sight for us
Nothing could measure
The kind of strength inside our hearts
It's all connected
We're all together in this love
Don't you forget it

Tetris Effect is one of those games that will always make for a good gaming session. There is no stress involved with Tetris and Tetris Effect is no different. The different types of stages add lots of different ways to play, some better than others, but all of which will lead to a great time. The Tetris formula is also perfected with this game’s new gimmick known as “Zone” which allows you to slow down time momentarily to keep a streak going. It is absurdly difficult to master but not impossible much like the main game of Tetris itself. Combine all of these with the pretty, post modern psychedelic visuals and the many different types of game modes ranging from traditional Tetris gameplay to new “Effect” modes like purify which tasks the player with trying to clear different Tetriminos as quickly as possible and you have for what may be the best Tetris game that has ever released. Definitely up there with other games in the franchise like the Nintendo themed Tetris DS and the challenging but rewarding Puyo Pop Tetris. Give this one a purchase and check it out.

Rating: S
Genre(s): Casual single player experience, puzzle