Platform: PS4 (with PSVR)
Forget everything you know about Tetris. While this re-imagining of the timeless classic retains the series' addictive Tetromino-dropping gameplay, it shares little else with the title first enjoyed on the Game Boy's monochromatic screen. A brilliant, absorbing blend of sights, sounds, and the immersion-ratcheting effects of virtual reality (though it can also be played without PlayStation VR), Tetris Effect builds something entirely fresh off the franchise's familiar foundation.
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Its hypnotic music and audio effects, as well as its eye candy-coated visuals and animations, deserve much of the credit for turning a seemingly simple puzzle game into a sense-stinging transcendent experience. But the bar is raised further by the fact you're often triggering – and at least altering – the aforementioned presentational elements with your actions. Get into the groove, and you might forget – for a few seconds, anyway – there's a real world beyond the virtual one pulsing inside your headset.
It significantly tweaks the franchise's gameplay template.
Beyond its endlessly engaging audiovisual design, and its varied, interactive stages – from beneath the sea to the surface of the moon – Tetris Effect significantly tweaks the franchise's tried-and-true gameplay template. A number of new mechanics and systems make for a deeper, more nuanced experience that often increase the challenge, but also balance it with brand new strategic options. Most notably, players can temporarily pause the game's lightning-quick pace with Zone, a powerful resource that's accrued by clearing lines just like you did back in the day.
Tetris Effect shines brightest during its Journey campaign, but it also packs a ton of replay into additional, challenge-specific modes. If you're a Tetris fanatic craving a fresh way to experience your favorite game, a PSVR owner looking to justify your pricey hardware purchase, or even a complete newcomer to the puzzle-game genre, Tetris Effect should fit into your library as perfectly as that final, line-obliterating block.