The original Tetris Effect is one of the best games ever made, to the point that it was all I played for a few months straight when it originally released; I forewent a heap of other big 2018 releases just so I could keep playing it again, again and again again. That’s the mark of a good fuckin’ game right there! Maybe a perfect game, even…
If the original Tetris Effect had a flaw, though, it was that the experience could be quite isolating. It had a certain aura of loneliness that stood in stark contrast to its uplifting core message that humanity is a single-stacked mass of glowing, breathing blocks that deserve to be together in instrumentality, not held alone and apart. Singing “it’s all connected” is all well and good, but the sound of that voice can ring hollow when it’s bouncing off the walls of your empty living room.
I think Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team may have been aware of this, too - because Connected is all about making the original Effect’s promises into a reality. It’s hard to know when this update was actually conceived of, but announcing it a few months into the original lockdown and delivering it during that harsh 2020 winter feels like a heartfelt gift from Monstars and Resonair to the planet. A puzzle game’s plea for love and mercy at a time when it was most needed.
I feel kinda guilty about ignoring the gift, though. This DLC/v1.5/whatever-it-is primarily focused on multiplayer, and not since Tetris Battle Gaiden have I seen a game actively innovate on what communal Tetris could be. I doubted this would be any different than other Tetris games that had tried and failed to unite players in the past. I checked it out for a bit at launch last year, but kinda left the Connected content by the wayside for a long time. I thought it wouldn’t be my kind of thing; only after watching three Tetris Pros absolutely demolish the Co-Op Journey did I begin to understand what I was missing out on.
The non-competitive multiplayer in this is a total delight, so much so that I beat the whole thing in one sitting with two random online dudes from Brazil and Japan in the middle of a random Sunday morning/Saturday night/Sunday night. We worked together to battle the stars and keep the galaxy’s light alive, all from our respective corners of our world. It was awesome to see three people span continents to co-operate and communicate via the medium of Tetris Ghost Pieces. “Put your S block here!” “Rotate the line!” “Put down your T piece here, and then I’ll put my square on top!” - I heard these people saying these things without ever registering a word. That’s crazy. That’s cool. That’s connected. And arguably it’s all the more powerful when played online with players across the globe.
Tetris Effect: Connected is the change it wants to see in the world. If you liked the original game - or are just a fan of Tetris in general - I highly recommend checking the online content out. Who knows? We might see each other out there, beyond the time.
If the original Tetris Effect had a flaw, though, it was that the experience could be quite isolating. It had a certain aura of loneliness that stood in stark contrast to its uplifting core message that humanity is a single-stacked mass of glowing, breathing blocks that deserve to be together in instrumentality, not held alone and apart. Singing “it’s all connected” is all well and good, but the sound of that voice can ring hollow when it’s bouncing off the walls of your empty living room.
I think Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team may have been aware of this, too - because Connected is all about making the original Effect’s promises into a reality. It’s hard to know when this update was actually conceived of, but announcing it a few months into the original lockdown and delivering it during that harsh 2020 winter feels like a heartfelt gift from Monstars and Resonair to the planet. A puzzle game’s plea for love and mercy at a time when it was most needed.
I feel kinda guilty about ignoring the gift, though. This DLC/v1.5/whatever-it-is primarily focused on multiplayer, and not since Tetris Battle Gaiden have I seen a game actively innovate on what communal Tetris could be. I doubted this would be any different than other Tetris games that had tried and failed to unite players in the past. I checked it out for a bit at launch last year, but kinda left the Connected content by the wayside for a long time. I thought it wouldn’t be my kind of thing; only after watching three Tetris Pros absolutely demolish the Co-Op Journey did I begin to understand what I was missing out on.
The non-competitive multiplayer in this is a total delight, so much so that I beat the whole thing in one sitting with two random online dudes from Brazil and Japan in the middle of a random Sunday morning/Saturday night/Sunday night. We worked together to battle the stars and keep the galaxy’s light alive, all from our respective corners of our world. It was awesome to see three people span continents to co-operate and communicate via the medium of Tetris Ghost Pieces. “Put your S block here!” “Rotate the line!” “Put down your T piece here, and then I’ll put my square on top!” - I heard these people saying these things without ever registering a word. That’s crazy. That’s cool. That’s connected. And arguably it’s all the more powerful when played online with players across the globe.
Tetris Effect: Connected is the change it wants to see in the world. If you liked the original game - or are just a fan of Tetris in general - I highly recommend checking the online content out. Who knows? We might see each other out there, beyond the time.