Original Release: PlayStudios, 2021, Android/iOS
PlayStudios snags the official mobile Tetris license and implements a rewards program that ties in with its existing MyVegas world
Tetris Mobile (PlayStudios) (Android, PlayStudios, 2021)
Where to Buy: Freemium at the official app stores
How to Emulate: Android Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
PlayStudios’ Tetris is essentially a “get paid to watch ads” app, with incidental games of Tetris in between. The way it plays I would honestly rather just watch the ads and not have to bother with the Tetris.
You wouldn’t normally see Tetris at this site; that’s for a puzzle game site to be named later (or a naughty site depending on the content). It makes it in because it’s part of the PlayStudios umbrella of MyVegas and associated “social casino” games that allow you to earn loyalty points (which turn into real prizes) for free play. All of those have been gambling or bingo titles up to this point, with Tetris the first to branch out into rewarding you for viewing ads while playing rather than trying to spark a gambling addiction and get you to pay for more chips to play with.
Surprisingly, this also appears to be the lone Tetris mobile license available from Tetris Corp or whatever, with PlayStudios wresting it away from former holder N3TWORK in 2021 (who got it from EA several years prior). They have kept the same basic app that N3TWORK introduced in 2020, however, but the additions and changes don’t seem to be welcomed by the broader Tetris fandom. After playing for just a little while I could already see why.
First of all, this is the most loading-ass app I’ve ever seen. It’s not a connection thing, I’ve tried on multiple good connections now including a home wired. It just constantly loads on every transition between anything for sometimes insane times, I assume from a combination of prioritizing retrieving some kind of personalized ads over every other function and spaghetti H1B bargain-basement type code tacked in during the handoff from N3TWORK.
And while it does mention it is ad-supported, you get no idea going in how saturated and intrusive the ads are. There are distracting rotating ad banners at the bottom of the playfield (amusingly, on my tablet they’re also like half cropped off the bottom of the screen to the point of being illegible sometimes). Win or lose a game, you’re watching a video ad between EVERY SINGLE ONE. Fail a challenge level? You can continue for 20 seconds … if you watch an ad! Your second and third “free presents” each day come packed with an unannounced ad. The worst bit is that certain ads, the TikTok one for me, simply crash the app and force you to close and restart it.
So is the Tetris action actually fun? Well, I never tried Tetris with touch controls before this, but it turns out it’s really not a good idea. So many little aspects of the game go by the wayside. You just can’t drop rapidly with precision, like if you want to slide one piece under another at the last second, it’s a gamble that you lose more than half the time. There seems to be trouble differentiating between whether you intend to rotate a piece or move it side-to-side. And when you rapid-drop something it likes to “jump” randomly one square over or another, something I’m not convinced isn’t intentional to make you lose levels and watch more total ads. And forget using a USB controller, I tried that, no support for them. It’s also only available on Android or iOS, no web browser option like some of PlayStudio’s other games.
So why subject myself to all this? Well, my only real interest was in hearing that this was the only PlayStudios game to offer assorted gift cards as a reward option: Amazon, REI, Nintendo E-Shop, some restaurants like Cheesecake Factory (hey it’s resalable, and bitches love Cheesecake Factory), just a few of the better options I’ve seen mentioned on forums. However, I’ve yet to see any of these cards appear … 1-800-Flowers appears to be the only retail option as of this writing. I guess I’ll keep the app installed for now just to check on this over time (since you can connect this to your various other PlayStudios games and share the loyalty points pool, so you could earn at more fun casino games and just spend over here) but after my initial explorations I really don’t have my hopes up.
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