Tetris: Your New BFF

Tetris Friends is the most intense 2 minutes of your life. Every time you play. When you jump into a 6-player Tetris battle, your nerves go haywire, preparing yourself for the next 2 minutes of insanity. Because you know, you know that this one match could make or break your stats. 

Oh! The rankings! The leaderboards! How deceptively simple. . .but so, so satisfying. You see, when you open up Tetris Friends, you may never want to leave. Using a created profile, you immediately drop into the mode of your choice, be it the menagerie of single-player options, or the battle-royal of multiplayer. But really, Battle 6P is where its at. As you hit Start, the game is on, instantaneously; no loading; no waiting; you’re in. And then all heck breaks lose. 2 minutes of pure twitch threaten to drown you if you dare blink, if you dare eat a chip. There’s no time for pausing, no time I tell you. The other 5 players are giving it their all, and you’d better step up your game.

But in that last 10 seconds, when players are rushing like mad hatters to clear as many lines as possible, to get that last KO in that very last instant of remaining time, thats when you can hear the birds singing, the harps playing, waiting for you to claim your stars. Winning Tetris Friends is the very definition of satisfying. Aside from the golden chalice, you also earn gold stars, increasing your rank per every five, and pushing up your skill stats. I’ll be honest: I’m hooked. Check out my stats to see for yourself (and they’re pretty darn good too).

Being an “Authentic Tetris Game,” Tetris Friends truly brings the best of the series to life. For one, the website is free. And when you don’t even have to check your email to register, you know the website wants you in. After that, all hope is lost. Modes like 2P Battle, Sprint, and Ultra offer a diverse array of Tetris antics, each catered towards whatever mood you might be in at the time. They might as well rename the site Tetris Friend because that’s what the site will be soon enough. And I haven’t even mentioned the brilliance of the Tetris gameplay itself, which is freaking perfect. Streamlined, easy to read, it brings Tetris to the 21st century without sacrificing the classic vibe. Even the sound effects, music, and announcer are enjoyable. You may also purchase different skins (with in-site currency, earned by playing the game) for your Tetriminos, though the default look is best. Don’t like the default controls, though? That’s fine, you can totally customize them however you please. And I did. It’s a little detail that pushes the game from good to exemplary.

But Tetris Friends has its flaws as well :(. In upper level 6-player Battle (I’m rank 13) players start getting serious, and the game gets hard, perhaps even unfair. To whom your lines get sent when you clear them is determined by a target that switches from one player to the next every three seconds or so. By this point in the game, players are smart enough to wait to drop their Tetris on the right player, since what you’re aiming for is KOs. Every time you cause a player to top out of the grid by feeding them lines, you earn a KO. Whoever has the most KOs, or in the case of a tie, the most lines cleared, takes 1st place. But with 6 players, Tetris skills of each sharpened like the edge of a samurai sword, kill-steals are rampant. You’d be surprised how often your KO gets robbed by someone dropping a Tetris on the same person literally miliseconds before you.

Additionally, games can be frustrating when you make a stupid mistake, or lag does so for you, and you end up in 6th place when you know you’re better than that. Not making mistakes is a big deal. Also, earning 6th place in 6P Battle, or second in 2P Battle, means you lose a star of your rank. You have to be consistently good to stay ahead.

But all of the above-mentioned flaws could be considered negligable; they’re part of the game and usually the fault of the player. What doesn’t make sense, though, is the lack of friend or rival support on part of the site. In no way can you befriend or track other players with whom you’ve played. Worse, it is impossible to meet up with and play specific people, including real-life friends. Why the website lacks this feature confounds me, and I think its addition would go a long ways towards improving the social community aspects of the game, an improvement on lonelily comparing scores. Also, the game lacks Square mode from Tetris Worlds, which is personally my favorite mode and one for which I’d love to find some competition.

Why are you still here?