Tetris 99

Released on February 13, 2019 for the Nintendo Switch by Nintendo, and developed by Arika, Tetris 99 is a free-to-play modern update of the 1984 classic puzzler, adding a 99-person online battle to the time-tested Tetris formula.

You can tell it to the birds and bees. The best things in life are free...if you own a Nintendo Switch...and subscribe to Nintendo Switch Online.
Nintendo Switch Online didn't have the most ceremonious debut last year. At $19.99 a year, you got access to a bunch of 30+ year-old NES games, and the option to play multiplayer games online...which was free beforehand. Thankfully, several months ago, Nintendo showed just what else their service could offer, by releasing the free to play Tetris 99.

"The best things in life are free/but they'll probly give you STDS/but not Tetris." I think those were the original lyrics.

Anyone who owned the original Nintendo Game Boy remembers Tetris. Along with the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cartridge from the NES, and Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Genesis...and that copy of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past that came with my SNES, Tetris has got to be one of the greatest console pack-in games of all time. I saved up my hard-earned dollars in the1990 to get a Game Boy, thinking I'd be devoting most of my time to Super Mario Land, and while I did play Mario's first Game Boy adventure quite a bit, it was the console pack-in title, Tetris, that stole the show.
I still remember that adrenaline-rush of a Russian theme song playing in the background, as I tried to fit the quickly piling Tetris blocks into the right places, music going more frantic the more lines I made. That basic addictive gameplay is still at the heart of Tetris 99.
Like in the original Tetris, the player is still faced with a blank vertical rectangle playing field. Blocks in several different shapes, from a square, to a long straight line, to a T-shaped one, and normal and backward-Z, fall one at a time from the top of the screen. The blocks can be flipped around as they fall to fit into gaps made by the blocks below. If the player can make a horizontal line with no breaks with the given blocks (the order and selection of the falling blocks is random), the line vanishes. The player can make up to four complete lines at a time (four by satisfyingly fitting the long block into a gap...giggity). Go too long without making lines, and the screen slowly starts to fill with fallen blocks. Once the blocks stack past the top of the screen, it's game over. Extending the length of your game as long as possible, and completing more lines than you've ever before is addictive...yes, Tetris is video game cocaine.

These blocks might as well all be white, and the arena shaped liked a nostril.

Numerous attempts have been made to add to the Tetris formula over the years, some successful...and some less so. Still, nothing has quite touched the original in terms of the addiction factor...until now.
Yes, I just used an "UNTIL NOW" in a review. I think this is the first time. It just felt right.
The goal of Tetris 99 is not for the player to make as many lines as possible--lines aren't even kept track of on the game screen (there's a "stats" screen accessible on the main menu that shows how many you've made, total, among many other stats). The goal of Tetris 99 is to be the last alive in your game of Tetris, while simultaneously attacking and being attacked by the other 98 players.
Attacking is simple. There's a targeting reticle at the top of the screen. At any moment, the player can use the right joystick to select either "K.O.," which targets the players doing the worst, "Attackers," which targets players attacking you, "Badges," which targets players who are doing the best, and "Random"...which is self-explanatory. To fire off attacks, you've got to make multiple lines (four is best, as the more made at once, the more damaging), clear the whole screen (which sends out a devastating attack), or perform the damaging T-Spin, which means completing lines by turning the T-shaped Tetris block in a tight space to make to two lines. The attacks themselves send out "trash," which are rows of blocks underneath the ones already on screen.

You can see the targeting reticle near the top right, and also that I am setting things up this way to make a great comeback, not because I am terrible.

The more players you've K.O.'d, the more powerful your attacks become. You'll want to K.O. as many people as possible, to be strong enough to take out your competitors once you've made it to the top ten. Also, the more people are eliminating, the faster the blocks fall--just like how the more lines you made in the original, the faster the blocks fall--and the music speeds up to follow suit! You can always see how many are left, and your amount of K.O.'s, just right of center on the game screen. Of course, if you're K.O.'ing people left and right, you fall under the crosshairs of those targeting "Badges." That's right, sometimes, the better you're doing, the more people are gunning for you, and the more challenging the game becomes.
All these gameplay elements together make for awe-inspiring, controlled chaos. Adding to this is an  option to at any point switch the block falling for another randomly chosen shape. This means that if you don't like the currently falling block, you can exchange it for one pictured in the top left of your screen. This adds an entirely new level of strategy. You're trying to make multiple lines, you're watching out for attackers (you're shown when someone and who is targeting you), you're deciding who to attack yourself, and you're deciding whether or not you want to switch out the currently falling block, all at once. Talk about multitasking!
Yes, I just used "Talk about multitasking!" in a review. What is Tetris 99 doing to me?

That sounds like something I would have said in 1990. Speaking of 1990, look at this groovy background I unlocked!

Somehow, all of these combined, rapid-fire elements become a cohesive, intuitive, and highly addictive experience. You'll likely get destroyed in your first few games as you get your bearings, but then you'll be getting top-50 finishes in no time, and top-20 shortly after that. However, getting into the top five, and then eventually getting 1st place takes a lot of time effort, skill, dedication, focus, and...luck. After all, with the blocks you're given being selected at random, and the 98 other players whims seemingly being random, as well, you can get knocked out quickly at times due to no fault of your own...of course there are times where everything seems to fall into place in your favor, as well.
However, most of the time, everyone seems to be on the same playing field, and all of the time, unless you have to go to the bathroom, eat, or tend to your family so that they won't abandon you, you're going to immediately want to start a new game as soon as you're defeated. And when you finally win...
It feels like you've climbed the gaming mountaintop. The feeling is so glorious, a better gaming high than I've felt in quite a while...
maybe Tetris is drugs.

Bow before your king!...and take a picture of yourself doing so, as I likely won't remember it happened tomorrow.

Nintendo has not only started to add some new elements to Tetris 99, like the classic Game Boy background (with Game Boy music!) I posted above, which could only be accessed by taking part in a free-to-play weekend competition involving earning points, but they've hosted numerous weekend competitions with prizes, as well, wow this is a really long sentence. They've also added some additional modes for purchase (like a CPU battle-mode), but these can easily be considered extras or bonuses. The main, free-to-play game (free for now!) is where it's at.

SCORE: 9.5/10