Other games might show you something amazing, but Enhance Games wants to make experiences where “something amazing” consists of a visual aesthetic that’s perfectly in tune with each game’s mechanics, sound effects, music and haptics. Each release - sometimes with later remixes or sequels, or ports to virtual reality - explored the challenge of connecting with the player by merging play with music, the rumbling of the controller and visual effects. It can make you feel something without necessarily having to say something.īut it’s an expertly crafted trick, honed over the course of producer Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s other games: Rez, Lumines and Child of Eden. Dazzling lights and pulsating vibrations and soothing music combine for an experience that’s more than the sum of its parts. I recognize the game offers an elaborate, possibly emotionally manipulative trick. If you want to see the very best of the best for your platform(s) of choice, check out Polygon Essentials. When we award a game the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the title is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive or fun - and worth fitting into your schedule.

Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games. Firework displays burst forth each time you clear a line or two or three or four. The music throbs in time with the movement of play, with every twist or drop of a piece adding to the song. The Journey ventures from the deep sea, where blue whales and schools of fish made of glittering particles orbit the Tetris play field, to deserts to deep space and beyond.

Co-developers Monstars and Resonair set rounds of Tetris against a variety of gorgeous backdrops, songs and sound effects. Tetris Effect’s emotional trek weaves through a campaign known as the Journey. While the original versions of the game inspired stress or excitement due to its clever and elegant design, the presentation was usually unemotional.īut what if Tetris could make you … feel blissful? Tetris Effect, named for the phenomenon in which repetitive tasks infest our dreams and memories, takes the game’s original concepts and adds joy, connection and audiovisual euphoria. You lose if the shapes reach the top of the screen. Blocky shapes drip down a dark column and must be flipped and arranged into complete horizontal rows that are then removed from play. Tetris, for the past three and a half decades, has been a game about a cold, uncaring rain of puzzle pieces.

Tetris syndrome