Tetris Effect: Connected Multiplayer Is Best When You Get Into the Rhythm

Tetris Effect is available on more platforms, so you should go ahead and play the game again. Right now. It’s the best Tetris game out there and you’ll love it.

Wait, I have to say more? That isn’t enough? Well, okay.

I suppose you’re probably wondering why you should go back to Tetris Effect again. It being good is a great reason, but it might not be enough. Well, the fact that it is now Tetris Effect: Connected on the Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Windows 10 PC helps. (Especially since people who have Xbox Game Pass can play it for free.) But the big change is multiplayer. It offers the opportunity to play casually or competitively, with some modes even allowing a single person to team up with AI allies against AI bosses. It’s a lot.

Connected is the mode from which the whole game takes its name and it brings asymmetric multiplayer to the puzzles. One player, be it an actual person or an AI, is a boss. The other three are ordinary players who occasionally find their fields will, well, connect. When they do, they can quickly build up lines to send junk blocks over to the boss and push them toward the edge. Though, while they wait for that moment to come, the boss could use special attacks that mess with your current tower of tetrominoes or send abnormal or gigantic tetromino into your lineup.

It’s fine! It’s fun, even. I’m unsure if it had something to do with cross-gen complications or internet issues, since I was using an Xbox One connecting to a router a room away and my partner used an Xbox Series X, but the game would hang and lag during the Connected segments. While the AI companion and my ally’s blocks dropped without issue, mine seemed to be holding everything up. But, it only happened when our three screens came together as one. Otherwise, things were fine.

Zone Battle is the first of the directly competitive modes, and it is the traditional multiplayer experience. Each person’s well appears on a side of the screen, and the lines you clear show up at the bottom of your opponent’s field pushing them closer to doom. It can also mean going against the very nature of the game, going against that elusive “Tetris,” as you attempt to create a layer of chunk diverse enough to keep your foe from giving you that very same Tetris back.

I’d argue that the normal Score Attack is Tetris Effect: Connected’s best multiplayer mode. This is when someone’s true prowess comes through, as each person attempts to push their limits to earn the highest score possible. The speed gradually increases the longer you play. While someone else is there also playing, you are your own worst enemy. Their success doesn’t negatively affect you in any way. It’s the purest experience and shows everything each person has learned.

The beat is the only hard drop in Tetris Effect: Connected’s Classic Score Attack. It has the best multiplayer music. This remix is amazing. As for the gameplay, it is a harsh reminder of what life is like without hard drops, holds and shadows. It makes you unlearn everything Tetris Effect: Connected taught you in this throwback mode. While it is like being pushed into a cold pool on an 80 degree day, it manages to be as welcome and inviting once you do adjust and begin swimming. You need to rely on your skills and forgo modern convenience. (Roughing it is fun!)

Tetris Effect is the best. Tetris Effect: Connected is also the best. This is a fantastic puzzle game no matter where you play it. Just the temporary Xbox and Windows 10-exclusive Tetris Effect: Connected multiplayer modes mean it will have a slight edge in one area for a brief time. (But then, on the other hand, people who can play it in VR also have their advantage.) We now have a very well-rounded experience in front of us, and everyone who owns it or subscribes to Xbox Game Pass benefits.

Tetris Effect: Connected is available for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Windows 10 PCs. The multiplayer elements will come to the PlayStation 4 and PC in Summer 2021.