Move over Fortnite, it’s time for Tetris 99

By James
February 14, 2019

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Tetris 99 is the new battle-royale game you didn’t know you needed.

Last night (UK time), Nintendo hosted one of it’s world famous Direct live broadcasts. For those unaware, this is where Nintendo announce loads of new games and forthcoming updates from themselves and third-party publishers. This Direct confirmed the arrival of a new Fire Emblem game for the Nintendo Switch, along with Super Mario Maker 2 and an update for the previously-announced; Yoshi’s Crafted World. What we weren’t all expecting, was for Nintendo to enter the battle-royale genre with a spin only they could pull off, Tetris 99 on the Nintendo Switch.

Tetris 99 sees 99 players from around the world, you being one of them, face-off in one massive game of Game Boy classic Tetris. The last one standing is the winner. You can see all other 98 players’ boards on screen, with yours being front and centre so you can focus on that one but keep an eye on how everyone else is doing. One by one players are eliminated as their tetrominoes (or blocks) fill up the screen so you have keep clearing lines to stay in the game, classic Tetris-style.

Compete against 98 players online and be the last one standing in #TETRIS99, available now as an exclusive offer for #NintendoSwitchOnline members. @tetris_official
Download it here:https://t.co/1DDZETOltw
— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) February 14, 2019

Yes, after the arrival of PUBG, Fornite, Call of Duty: Blackout and most recently Apex Legends, we didn’t think there was too much more to be added to the battle-royale genre but with Tetris 99 (admittedly totally different from any of those shooters), Nintendo have pulled it off.

A modern twist on a classic

In addition to basically playing a standard game of Tetris, albeit against a load of other players, you also have some attacks at your disposal. Each time you clear two or more lines, that sends some lines over to other players. These players can be selected at random or with a quick up or down on the joystick, you can target players that are targeting you or players that are about to be eliminated (KO’d) from the game, to finish them off. You can also select specific individual players if you see they are running into trouble or finding things to easy. In practise though, I was so busy concentrating on stopping my own board from filling up, it’s difficult to find a free second to target someone. I fared better targeting random players or those chucking blocks my way.

The game is already available to download on your Nintendo Switch and it free to all Nintendo Switch Online members. The big question is, when is it coming to smartphones?

Fancy winning yourself a Nintendo Classic Mini console? Enter here.

Favourite Nintendo game of all time? Let us know in the Comments below or on Twitter.

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