Gaming

‘Tetris 99’ Is the Only Good Battle Royale Game


If you want to experience the joy of a Tetris battle royale game but haven’t gotten a chance to play Tetris 99 through Nintendo Switch Online soon you’ll have another chance. Tetris Royale is basically the same 100-player competitive block-dropping bonanza but coming to mobile iOS and Android devices. And it’s releasing this summer! Mario Royale next, please.

For the past few months the free Tetris 99 has been one of the best reasons to actually pay money for Nintendo Switch Online. However, if you want the joy of competing against a hundred other Tetris players without the stress of those players being real people, you can now pay $10 for a new offline mode that pits you against CPU bots instead. It’s also a good way to keep your skills sharp when you’re disconnected. And if you’re looking to test those sharp skills there’s yet another prize tournament coming up in just a few days, this time with a retro Game Boy Tetris skin.

Apex Legends wasn’t the only free battle royale game to drop out of nowhere this month. At the most recent Nintendo Direct we learned about Tetris 99, a new spin on the classic perfect puzzle game that has you battling 99 other online players on Nintendo Switch. It’s not only good, it’s not only great, it’s not only the best battle royale, it’s the only good battle royale. Here’s why.

I can beat it.

But there’s more to it than that.

I just don’t like battle royale games. When I first tried PlayersUnknown’s Battlegrounds two years ago and immediately bounced off of it I naively thought it was issues specific to that game I disliked, not the genre as a whole. I really should’ve known better though because I did compare it to Dota 2, and Dota isn’t the problem. MOBAs as a whole are.

I admit that later battle royale games appealed to me slightly more than PUBG did. While I don’t care about building in Fortnite I appreciate the game’s distinct identity and can’t help but admire its massive popularity. Blackout mode in Call of Duty Black Ops 4 brings the speed, polish, and great gun-feel I felt was sorely lacking in competitors. And I love the diverse (both in abilities and appearances) characters of the recent Apex Legends. I just don’t want to coordinate with a squad.

But even as the genre evolves core aspects of its, however intelligent, design just keep annoying me. Ideally battle royales are these tense slow builds of gathering weapons, searching for the enemy, avoiding the walls literally closing in on you, and culling the weak before the inevitable final confrontation. But more often than not I’m either completely bored running and waiting around doing basically nothing or getting caught in a random frantic firefight and dying at 56th or 15th place having learned no lesson.

And perhaps worst of all, because battle royales are today’s prime example of long-lasting games as service with huge audiences, even though I’m not interested, as a games enthusiast I have to listen to other people talk about them basically forever. People can like what they like, that’s fine. But at least right now this one particular zeitgeist is sucking obnoxious amounts of air out of the discourse.

So imagine how pleased I am that not only is Tetris 99 as good as it is but also other people seem to be digging it as well. It sounds so simple, almost like a parody of the battle royale craze. Take standard multiplayer Tetris, where clearing more lines sends garbage blocks to opponents, and expand it to 100 players that all compete until there’s one left standing.

But Tetris 99 keeps what I find intriguing about the battle royale formula while jettisoning the junk. There are macro strategies to consider, like choosing who to send garbage to such as players in the lead or players already on the verge of death. The idea that you don’t need to win but just outlast everyone also elegantly adds to the sublime stress already intrinsic to Tetris. Even the gradual speed increase serves as its own kind of shrinking ring.

The only difference is that playing Tetris is still fun even by yourself. The battle royale format here is a great context for gameplay that’s already enjoyable. It’s a battle royale that’s addictive without long stretches of boredom. And you can improve without relying on stumbling across other players. Really, Tetris 99 suggests to me that the future of making fun and interesting battle royale game ideas requires moving away from the competitive shooter genre entirely.

Much like how Fortnite and Apex Legends are free partially to help grow the userbase of their publishers’ own digital platforms, Tetris 99 is only “free” in that Nintendo is using it to entice you into paying for the Switch’s recent shaky online subscription plan. But you know what, $20 per year for the only good battle royale isn’t too bad.

For more on Tetris watch us talk about why it’s a game to play before you die and read about Tetris Effect, last year’s beautiful Tetris innovation.





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