Tetris Effect

Taking a trip into Tetsuya Mizuguchis latest audiovisual concept album

- 

The development codename for Tetris Effect is Trip, an entirely accurate shorthand for Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s latest exploration of synaesthesia. It’s also one that could feasibly be applied to just about every game he’s ever made.

As elevator pitches go, ‘Miz does Tetris’ is just about perfect – yet it only tells half the story. At a surface level, yes, this is Lumines with Tetris blocks, Rez Infinite’s optional, yet essential VR mode, and Area X’s dizzying particles. Yet that is not the whole story; what is most surprising about Tetris Effect is how, well, surprising it is. If you’re reading Edge, chances are you’ve played some Tetris over the years. Not like this you haven’t.

Tetris Effect is designed to mess with you. The headline mode, Journey, is an album-like excursion through different sonic and visual palettes. Clear 36 lines, and the stage ends, a brief flourish of sound and particles heralding the arrival of the next song. So far, you might think, so