Author: Jeff Grubb / Source: VentureBeat
In the early part of the 20th century, Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov did a series of experimental movies to determine where viewers draw meaning from a series of images. In these short films, Kuleshov would show a person’s face followed by shots of various actions.
His point was that no one shot or image has meaning on its own. Instead, meaning derives from the interaction and relationship between two sequential shots.Tetris Effect, the new puzzle game from Lumines director Tetsuya Mizuguchi, developer Resonair, and publisher Enhance, Inc., reveals something similar about video games. Out today (November 9) for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR, this falling-block puzzler maintains most of the rules and elements that Russian designer Alexey Pajitnov created for the groundbreaking original in 1984. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Tetris is evidence that it is difficult to improve upon perfection.
And yet, Tetris Effect does exactly that. How does this game make Tetris better? By realizing that games are more than just mechanics. It makes Tetris better by uncovering the meaning between the mechanics, the player, the music, and the visuals.
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It is one of the best games I’ve ever played.
What you’ll like
The effect
Tetris Effect gets its name from the phenomenon where people who play a lot of the game begin seeing the pieces in the world around them and when they close their eyes. But I think that term will take on new meaning once more people get their hands on this version.
In the Tetris Effect’s campaign mode, players go from one level to the next. You’re playing Tetris with a handful of minor tweaks and a couple major changes. But what separates one stage from the next is how they look and sound. And what’s incredible is that each stage ends up feeling different because of what you might consider “superficial” changes. Only you’ll quickly realize that they aren’t superficial at all. Because as the music changes and as the materials of the blocks change from fire to ice and as their sound effects shift from swooshes to clinks, you begin to play different. You are different.
More than anything I’ve ever played, Tetris Effect reveals that games aren’t just mechanics. Animations and sound and lighting are just as important to creating a relationship to a player as “pure gameplay.” Because the mechanics in Tetris Effect never change. You don’t level up or unlock perks. You are just playing Tetris, and yet when everything around the mechanics change, it causes some chemical reaction in your brain that creates a change in you as a player.
It’s almost like Mizuguchi is playing you. And it feels incredible to open yourself to that and to adapt to what the game wants from you.
Pac-Man Championship Edition DX-ified
But this is not exactly…
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