Does the noble art of gaming get any more retro than Tetris? Of course it does, but I'd argue that Tetris is the only game of that age with persists to the modern day largely unchanged from it's original premise. I mean, think about the features that have been added over the years; there's been the ability to quick drop pieces when you don't want to wait, sometimes you have the chance to save a piece if you want to keep it for later... And that's it. 36 years and only quality of life changes have come to this game that's still a popular and a beloved piece of gaming lore and history, that's got to be one of the most enduring concepts of all gaming time. Move aside Pong, get outta here Asteroids, be gone Space Invaders, it's all about Tetris in today's day and age. But with all that present and clear in mind, why would anyone sign up for this new 'Tetris Effect' in the light of so many free alternatives online. (You can even find Google's free Tetris game from a few years back if you look for it.) Well let's take a look at this new 'Tetris Effect Connected' in order to find out.
Firstly, however, I would like to get everyone up to date about something you likely subconsciously knew but never really thought about; Did you know Tetris is an IP? Of course it is, you must think, but with how much the game gets around one would be forgiven for thinking that it's free domain. It absolutely is not. In fact all of those old-school games are brands and no-one really considers what that means. Pong is an IP that I'm not entirely sure has even been tested, it's so basic and overused that I think there'd be a hell of a time for the owner to prove that they've tried to defend their license. Asteroids is a worthless IP that literally no one wants hold of nowadays. And Space Invaders is an old arcade game which, apparently, is now in the hands of Square Enix, of all people. (Now that's an IP trail that I'd be really interested to follow.) Only Pacman really makes sense as a brand because it prominently features an iconic, if criminally underused, mascot. (Okay, he made it into Smash, I suppose that's the pinnacle of all mascots, no? Keep dreaming, Kaplan, OW's never joining the fight.)
Okay then, so who holds the rights to- The Tetris Company. That's right, these guys literally pulled a Pokemon and called their licencee 'The Tetris Company'- the balls on these guys, huh. In fact, it might be more appropriate to say that Pokemon ripped on them because, that's right, TTC has been around since 1996, two years before The Pokemon Company. (My entire world was just turned on it's head.) Theirs was an organisation started by the original creator of Tetris and- the man responsible for making Japan's first major turn based RPG? We have Henk Rogers to blame for the entire JRPG genre? Who'd a thunk? Either way, these fellows came together in order to crack down on the plethora of derivatives that were spawning off of the Tetris brand and secure distribution rights for the good of the franchise. So what does the good of the franchise look like today? Well for a good many years it looked like Electronic Arts, and if you've ever played Tetris on your phone for the past decade then there's a good chance that's the version you've played.
But such is the issue with IP's, because as soon as it moves suddenly every version of that game becomes defunct. I'm pretty sure there's more killed-off copies of Tetris then there are actual licenced Tetris games in existence. (Actually, that's not the hardest brag right now considering there's only two, currently.) Tetris was wrestled out of the steel grip of EA in 2018 in order to launch a brand new title, Tetris Effect, which is named after a real phenomenon where one plays so much Tetris that it begins to take over their subconscious. (Which, in consideration, isn't the most serious and terrible occurrence in the world. I use to dream in Minecraft blocks now and then, and there ain't too much wrong we with me as consequence.) Tetris Effect took the classic concept and decided to seep it in visually pleasing effects, melodious tunes and enough quality of life content to make Tetris a staple game in one's library. So what exactly can Tetris Effect Connected add onto that? What even is Tetris Effect Connected? Good questions.
Well the trailer for Tetris Effect Connected, which debuted during the Xbox conference, was quite unhelpful in clearing up even the most basic of these queries. The trailer showed off Alexey Pajitnov for it's first screen (the original creator) but apart from that it was all unremarkable. Just a bunch of diverse faces sitting down to play Tetris like it's the most hardcore gaming experience they've ever sat down for and not like their favourite Battle Royale just got hit with an update and so they're playing this to pass the time. (I know I'm being a bit of an ass here, but I can't stand this pretentious 'I'm changing the world' style trailers.) To their credit the trailer came attached with a song, I mean I think it's derivative trash but at least they hired a song writer and someone who somewhat resembles a musician. (Although it might have just been a voice box with Emily Warren programmed in, I couldn't quite tell.) Either way, it wasn't a patch on that accursed earworm from the Bugsnax trailer, so better luck next time.
As far as what this actually means for the game, I'm unsure. Aside from the apparent fact that multiplayer is coming to Tetris and- wait, didn't we do this already? That's right, last year Tetris 99 released which pit 99 players against each other to see who could last the longest, with aggressive actions involved such as sending completed lines into the stage of your competitors. Surely when compared to that, anything Tetris Effect Connected can pull off will be a let down, no? Also, a minimal point but I just it might be important to point out that Tetris Effect Connected it not, as it might seem, a sequel to Tetris Effect. Despite the fact that this was shown off during an Xbox event wherein Microsoft have been desperately trying to hammer home how much effort they're putting into bringing games to their console, this game is merely a free update that's sending this title into the next gen. (I feel a little misled, I'm not gonna lie.)
I cannot, for the life of me, find any concrete information about what Connected brings to the game which was special enough for a whole new trailer. The trailer boasts about having 'an optimised singleplayer' but honestly, that is one of the most nothing boasts I think I've ever read in a marketing slide. 'Optimised' is meaningless, what did you optimise? Is the game-time faster? Does it run better? Are the graphics less intensive? What the hell do you mean!? What I can confirm exists, however, is the multiplayer mode which appears to be taking the basic premise of Tetris 99 and transposing it to co-op play. That is to say, four folk (cross play across all of Microsoft's platforms) working together to make lines to send them against AI enemies who do the same against them. It's a chill and cute twist upon that classic Tetris formulae but, again, not exactly brag worthy. Ghost of Tsushima just dropped an entire multiplayer mode out of the blue without any real fanfare, they didn't need to hog the Sony press stage in order to announce this. Does that make this trailer indicative of Microsoft's lack of new titles then? I'd say so. They just lost Halo for launch day and now they've got to advertise games that folk already own at their own trade show. (That's rough, buddy)
But alas, I feel as though I've been ripping into Tetris fans and that's not why I wanted to write this. I just wanted to wrap my head about the unnecessarily confusing world of modern day Tetris and maybe glean some insight into the marketing process while I'm at it. Therefore I shall reiterate, if you're a Tetris fan who hasn't checked out Tetris Effect then I absolute recommend you to at least look the game up, it has a lot of really cool features to it that really bring the concept into the modern age in a unique manner; and, of course, the game's out today no matter what this recent Connected trailer might have you believe. Good game, odd trailer.
No comments:
Post a Comment