Tetris 99
14th February 2019, 1:31 AM
So, Nintendo both announced and released this surprise free-with-your-Switch-$20-subscription game in the Direct yesterday. It's basically a Tetris Battle Royale game, as 99 people play Tetris at the same time, trying to balance playing the game as usual on the one hand and controlling who they send lines to when they clear lines in their playfield on the other. I am not the biggest Tetris fan around -- it's never been one of my favorite puzzle games, and I never have put a lot of time into playing Tetris games, just some here and there -- but I would agree that it is a great game. Not the best game, but great, sure.
Despite that though, Tetris 99 is quite addictive and really good! The targeting system adds a complex strategic layer to Tetris, and the core gameplay is simple but great, just as expected from Tetris. There is only one mode, with a simple background, your play window in the center, and the 98 other players in small windows lined up on both sides, and one song, the classic one from the Game Boy version of Tetris, but the game is plenty addictive despite that. The music does change, for one; once the game reaches the top 50 the music amps up, as does the game speed. I'm not that good at Tetris so the best I've done so far is 12th, but it's a really fun game despite that. It does keep track of some of your stats, such as games played, games won, T-spins done, and a bunch more things, and you have a level that goes up as you play, but there isn't really anything here beyond 99 player Tetris. It's fortunate then that the core game is great enough to stand up on its own. I wonder if they will add to this, though; for now it's entirely free with no paid component other than needing to have that Nintendo Online subscription to play, but it looks like a thing that could be added to if Nintendo and developer Arika want. On the one hand more modes would be great, but on the other hand you need a really large player base to keep filling up 99-player matches, and that's easy right now but probably will drop off over time, so maybe they don't want to add much to this in terms of modes.
Regardless, though, Tetris 99 is really cool and a nice surprise. And yeah, it's pretty good as well, try it out. It can be hard to stop playing though...
Despite that though, Tetris 99 is quite addictive and really good! The targeting system adds a complex strategic layer to Tetris, and the core gameplay is simple but great, just as expected from Tetris. There is only one mode, with a simple background, your play window in the center, and the 98 other players in small windows lined up on both sides, and one song, the classic one from the Game Boy version of Tetris, but the game is plenty addictive despite that. The music does change, for one; once the game reaches the top 50 the music amps up, as does the game speed. I'm not that good at Tetris so the best I've done so far is 12th, but it's a really fun game despite that. It does keep track of some of your stats, such as games played, games won, T-spins done, and a bunch more things, and you have a level that goes up as you play, but there isn't really anything here beyond 99 player Tetris. It's fortunate then that the core game is great enough to stand up on its own. I wonder if they will add to this, though; for now it's entirely free with no paid component other than needing to have that Nintendo Online subscription to play, but it looks like a thing that could be added to if Nintendo and developer Arika want. On the one hand more modes would be great, but on the other hand you need a really large player base to keep filling up 99-player matches, and that's easy right now but probably will drop off over time, so maybe they don't want to add much to this in terms of modes.
Regardless, though, Tetris 99 is really cool and a nice surprise. And yeah, it's pretty good as well, try it out. It can be hard to stop playing though...
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