Easy to see as an absolute opposite of Tetris (and descendants) by design. The usual squared and stiff pieces here are rounded fruits that will never stop moving, not only after you drop them but as long as anything is moving along on the board. The same can be said about how both types of games manage time. The ever increasing urge to make decisions in Tetris is not explicitly here, you can take all the time in the world to decide every single move, and yet it is a game where time is fundamental. Instead of dropping pieces of fruit fast because the system forces you to, you make the drops fast (or not) because the board can and will go out of control thanks to the living chain reaction of every collision.

It could be argued that by not taking the, by now quite trite, increasing speed pressure, Suika Game isn’t that good at building tension as the game goes on. Yet, the compromise on a spatial and physical game that can never be erased, only temporarily reduced, is enough to make every cherry count until the very end. There is the notable exception of being able to mix together two watermelons consistently, though humanity is still not there to behold such a level of refinement, addiction or both.