THE LONG GAME
Tetris Effect
A progress report on the games we just can’t quit
Developer Monstars, Resonair, Stage Games Publisher Enhance Games Format Xbox One, Xbox Series Release Out now
Somehow it’s been two years since Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s exquisite, synaesthesia-powered take on Tetris arrived with us, having seemingly been beamed down from another planet with the sole purpose of making our own a brighter, more empathetic place. (If it failed in that regard, then that’s simply because not enough people played it.) Surely, with due deference to the Game Boy edition, the finest update of Alexey Pajitnov’s classic puzzler to date, in VR it was the most enveloping Tetris had ever been, a heartfelt hymn to humanity and the natural world that celebrated the ties that bind all things. Yet its spirit of togetherness was undermined slightly by its focus on solo play: in seeking to connect us with the universe, it didn’t do much to help us bond with our fellow man. Enter Tetris Effect: Connected, with a suite of multiplayer modes to support that emotional Journey.