Tetris 99

Genre: Falling Block Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Competitive (Local) (Requires DLC), 2-8 Competitive (Wireless Local) (Requires DLC), 99 Competitive (Online)

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Review:

I previously reviewed Tetris 99 and while I didn’t hate the game, I found it to be terribly overrated… so much so, in fact, that I gave the game a nomination for Most Overrated game and Most Disappointing game in my eShopperReviews 2019 Game Awards. However, a part of the reason for this opinion came from features this game lacks… or lacked, as it were. That has now changed somewhat due to multiple updates and paid DLC released for the game. Now, I’m not a big fan of releasing essential features via paid DLC, but since the core game is free (provided you have a Nintendo Switch Online membership, which you’d need to play the game’s core online content anyway), I suppose I can’t fault Nintendo for releasing standalone content with a one-time $9.99 payment.

So, before getting to the review proper, I’ll say that I’m including some content from my prior review of the game, because my opinions on that content haven’t changed. I will also be noting which features here require the DLC, so you can make the decision yourself whether that content is worth the cost.

Okay, enough prefacing! On to the re-review!

Tetris 99 is… well, Tetris, the definitive Falling Block Puzzle Game that pretty much every Falling Block Puzzle Game released after it owes its existence to. However, this version of the game comes with a twist – it is designed around the concept that the player is facing off against not only the computer or one competitor, but 99 other competitors, much in the same style as a battle royale-style game or the short-lived Xbox 360 trivia game 1 vs 100.

This game is available for free if you own a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online, so those who do have a subscription may as well download it. You can also get a retail version of the game that contains the game, all of the content from the game’s $10 DLC, and a one-year subscription to Nintendo Switch Online for $30 (which works out to roughly the same price as the subscription and DLC on their own).

In terms of presentation, Tetris 99 looks decent, with a clean modern presentation and energetic music. Players only have access to one skin at the game’s outset, but can unlock additional skins (along with matching sound effects and music) by completing daily goals or attending limited-time events that Nintendo hosts every once in a while. While it’s nice that there are (at the time of this writing) 15 skins to collect, it would have been nice if players could choose more than one at the start, or at least mix-and-match the visuals and music of those skins they had already unlocked.

As for the gameplay… well, how good are you at Tetris? Are you decent? Do you enjoy it but kinda’ suck at it? Are you pretty good but not a pro-level player? Then if you are playing the game’s main Tetris 99 mode, you will lose. You will lose and lose and lose.

I’m in that last group – I’m pretty good, but by no means a pro player, and I found that after playing for hours I would consistently find myself surviving in a match until the last ten players or so, at which time the blocks were falling so fast that everyone was forced to make a ton of matches and I simply couldn’t keep up with the combination of speed and attacks.

What’s worse, I didn’t see any reasonable way for me to improve my standing. There are ways to change which players you target (those with “badges”, those who are targeting you, those who have taken out a lot of other players, or random – the default), but largely it seems that winning means that you have to be really, really, really good at Tetris.

The problem here is matchmaking. I felt like the game wasn’t making any effort to pair players with others of comparable skill levels, instead just tossing them in randomized lobbies. To the game’s credit, it does this quickly and smoothly, but what does it matter when I know there’s always going to be a handful of players in every lobby who trounce me?

I should note that there seems to be an option here to have password-protected private matches online, but I don’t see any way to create these matches, only to join them (provided you have a password), so I’m not really sure what this is here for.

The paid DLC does at least provide players with some more options and gameplay modes where they’re not doomed to fail. Team Battle allows players to anonymously choose one of four team colors at the start of the match, and changes the option for where to send your attack blocks so you can attack a specific opposing team, with the goal now being not just for you to win, but your team. In theory, this should mitigate the poor matchmaking I experienced in the Tetris 99 mode, but in practice, it feels far too uneven – frequently one team would start at a much larger size than the other teams, giving them a big advantage at the outset. And while theoretically that would make the team in question a bigger target, in practice this hardly seemed to matter as in my experience the biggest team ended up winning far more frequently anyway.

Another mode DLC adds is local multiplayer mode, something that’s such a staple it’s kinda’ strange it wasn’t included in the core game. The game supports two players on the same console or eight players using local wireless play, although the game requires players to play against a room of 99 players with the other player slots taken up by bots. This is disappointing if you just want to throw down with friends, although you can set the bot difficulty so low that you and your friends will likely outlive them anyway. It’s also disappointing if you and your friend or friends want to play against others online. What’s more, this causes one other problem for those playing on the same screen – the game’s need to show all of those bots means that it aligns both players’ Tetris fields vertically, which causes them to be tiny onscreen and difficult to make out at times.

The third mode the DLC adds is CPU Battle, which is basically the same game as described above, but with all-bot opponents. I suppose this is one surefire way to ensure victory, as you can set the bot difficulty low… but such a victory feels really hollow, and in the end, this mode is probably best left for training or offline play.

The final mode the DLC adds is Marathon mode, the classic mode where players play completely solo, with the goal of either completing 150 lines or 999 lines, with the latter for all intents and purposes being an endless mode for most players as they’ll likely lose well before reaching that goal. Unfortunately, even here I found the game lacking options – your score is apparently only saved if you complete the mode, making the 999 lines variant worthless for those who can’t beat the mode and are just looking to beat their prior scores. Also, these scores are squirreled away in a menu screen you have to search for off of the main menu, and you can’t compare your scores with other players on your Nintendo Switch or any sort of leaderboard. The same goes for all the other game modes, by the way.

Everything considered, even with the added DLC content, I still find Tetris 99 to be overrated and disappointing. Make no mistake, the DLC absolutely improves the game and adds multiple modes and options that the base game was sadly lacking, but even then, my complaints about the main game remain the same, and seemingly every addition to the game is fundamentally flawed or missing some vital component. Players looking for a classic Falling Block Puzzle Game may still find Tetris 99 to be worth a look, and if you have a Nintendo Switch Online membership you might as well snag the free download. However, unless you are an expert Tetris player, you’re likely to find the free version of the game to be an endless parade of defeat. Keep that in mind when firing the game up.

tl;dr – Tetris 99 is a Falling Block Puzzle game that takes the original Tetris and has players fighting it out to be the top player out of a field of 99 competitors, and it’s free to play for anyone with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription. Unfortunately, matchmaking is so terrible that most players will never win a match. The $10 DLC definitely improves the game, but even then all of the added content seems to be flawed in some way or another. There are some good ideas here, and there is some fun to be had for those who can put up with those flaws, but regardless of whether you play the free version or get the DLC, Tetris 99 is still a disappointment.

Grade: C+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2019 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Most Overrated, Most Disappointing

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