Tetris® Ultimate

fun game

Don't. Do. It. i LOVE tetris and have played countless versions over the years. this is one of, if not the worst I've ever bought. i don't think i need to say why, as the other reviews seem to have it covered! just please, don't buy it. try the original or Cultris instead!

All I wanted was to play Tetris on my computer.

Nothing comes easily and if it comes at all, it wont stay that way long. The button mappings are atrocious. If you're going to use a controller, good luck. I've tried four now. I got one working enough to enjoy the game for a single play, launched it again and there's no right, up and down are mapped the same in game, but only down worked in the menu. Escape on the keyboard wouldn't let me quit. I have never been more frustrated by a game in my life. I am embarrassed for anyone who was responsible for this game's production.

Tetris is a simple game. There is no reason for this game to be this complicated and convoluted. It's not playable. I want it to be so badly. It is the worst. It's so bad that I get frustrated thinking about the game when I'm not playing it.

As a person who bought Puyo Puyo Tetris before buying this, I gotta let you know that you have no reason to purchase Tetris Ultimate. The multiplayer scene is 100% dead, due to the aforementioned PPT, the controls manage to feel awkward and unresponsive, the game crashes like crazy, and it doesn't even have button prompts for controllers, and you can't re-map controller controls either. That last part is especially funny, because the buttons for rotation are actually opposite of their usual configuration

If you want to try and get any of the achievements in this game, you're SOL. Getting 100,000 line clears in online matches is legitimately impossible at this point, as I can't find a single game, even after a half hour of waiting.

No reason to purchase this mess. Go buy Puyo Puyo Tetris instead.

I should note; the 3DS version of this game is completely different, and actually kinda good. That might be worth your time!

I honestly dont find much wrong with the game
for 5 dollars its a nice little tetris game to have in your librabry to kill time with



Pros
- its pretty much tetris nothing more nothing less
- runs quite well no stutter or issues with crashes etc
- for sale price of 5 dollars you cant really get upset at the price
- fun and can get addictive if you really get into it
- has nice amount of game modes for single player fun

Cons
- the start up of the splash screen dips to 14 fps for some reason lol, but outside of that i never dropped below 60 fps during gameplay
- music is pretty meh, i just put on my own music while i play
- full price is a rip off, not a bad game but 15 dollars for tetris? yeah no get on sale

Neutral
- need uplay to start up the game, granted its a non issue for me since i play siege and already use uplay and for just tetris it seems silly to get uplay but some people see this as bad or dont care so i just put this in the neutral section since it doesnt affect me negatively or positively

i honestly dont see the reason why this game gets a bad rep, no crashes runs well and for tetris its a decent port i recommend it highly worth it on sale for like 5 dollars if you want to own tetris to kill time with.

Oh man. I am so disappointed. First, this game installes Ubisoft's UPlay, which is their own app store. I'm sorry, but I'm already registered on Steam. I don't want another game store. Second, the "partial" controller support? It's terrible. I have 2 Xbox 360 controllers for PC. Finding where to enable the controller option was not where I expected.

Second, you can only play with 1 controller. If you want to play in local multiplayer with multiple controllers? Only the 1st connected controller works AND IT CONTROLS BOTH PLAYERS!!!! WTF?! So local multiplayer is impossible.

And to add to that, the game crashes CONSTANTLY! I mean, crashes and exits to desktop. I've started the game 3 times since I bought it, and it crashed EVERY SINGLE TIME!

It's absolutely TERRIBLE! And it was released when? 2015?!?! JEEZUS! They couldn't come out with proper fixes in 3 whole years??? Wow. I'm getting a refund. F-k this

I should've listened to the reviews. This game runs terribly on my system, and crashes repeatedly. There's absolutely no excuse for such horrible PC optimization. C'mon, Ubisoft, issue a patch for this otherwise great game. Totally killed the experience for me. Stay away from this version of the game.

Such a fun game ruined in almost every way!

If the game would receive a good patch to fix the basic issues I would definitely give this a positive review. However it looks like the tech support gave up the instant the game was released.

Bad:
~The controls as mentioned by almost every review are horrible
~The menus/navigation are setup in a way not conducive to what they are for or to get in a qick game.
~The music. The game has been around for ages and in so many formats with lots of good music and they pick most of the bad songs. The settings for sound and music are not that helpfull either.
~Loading issues
~I can live with the Uplay (DRM) but it is still quite irritating

Good:
~If you can get used to the controls and the clunky menus the game is still TETRIS
~The commercial was awesome

!!! ATTENTION EVERYONE WHO WANTS TO BUY THIS GAME TO PLAY WITH FRIENDS !!!

There is only local multiplayer in this game to play with your friends (on the same device). There is no way to properly play with your online friends: only with strangers, of which there seems to be none around. I'm surprised that negative reviews of this game don't highlight this fact in capital letters.

I think the description is misleading and does not make it clear. I'm requesting a refund.

http://www.playstationtrophies.org/forum/tetris-ultimate/255256-online-play.html
http://forums.ubi.com/archive/index.php/t-985959.html

I had to withdrawal my review of Tetris Ultimate to write an updated review on my current thoughts of Tetris Ultimate. As of now, I don't recommend Tetris Ultimate, at all. Not because of other negative reviews say, like the game freezes, you need UPlay, its DRM, will not launch, etc. My reasons for not recommending this game are completely different from what others have been saying about this game.

The simple fact that there are better alternatives in Tetris, like Tetris Friends which is free with cheap microtransactions for example. You can spend the $15 that this game costs and buy yourself a lot of neat stuff through Tetris friends. Like Tetrimino styles, ghost styles, backrounds, win backrounds, sound effects, etc. Also has many game modes, an active community of people who play Tetris Friends, leader boards, etc. More worth it if you are a Tetris Fan.

Another free great alternative that is 100% free is Tetris Online Poland, or TOJ for short. Which you can grab for free by just googling it. It has an online community just like Tetris Friends. Except everything is basically free and the microtransactions have been yanked out. Its an online Tetris viewer that was once Japanese and now translated into English. Which blows away Tetris Ultimate by an Ultimate Landslide.

Issues with this game? Allow me to break this all down for you. My dear consumer.

1) No one plays this online. At all.
2) You absolutely need UPlay to play this game. Because Ubisoft.
3) The game plays incredibly stiff. Moving your Tetrimino's left to right feels bleh, making it a huge problem in higher speed levels.
4) There is absolutely nothing new nor spectacular to warrant this the Ultimate Tetris.
5) Backrounds plays with your eyes. It has all this blue haze in the backround that trips your eyes out. Do not play if you are drunk or high. If your eyes are sensitive to constant motion, you may get sick.
6) The music is an uninspired remix of the original Tetris theme. Really shallow and doesn't put you in that, "Tetris" mood.
7) You need a high speed cable connection to be able to even touch this game. (Not a problem for me, however.)
8) Does indeed crash often with no updates from Ubisoft. Figures.

In conclusion my dear friends. Where should your hard earned $15 go? Go to Tetris Friends website, make an account, buy some diamonds, spend it on some cool stuff, and you have yourself a versatile active community of Tetris friends with a staff that actually cares for its fans. It is also completely free. Or download Tetris Online Poland (TOJ) which is completely free for everything.

Thank you for reading. Avoid purchasing this game as its the Tetris you are sure you haven't been waiting for. Or want.

Yes, you can now rebind the keys, but controls are broken. I'll explain myself:

I connect two Xbox One gamepads. Now:

- If we want to play 3 people locally (one keyboard and two gamepads), player one uses the keyboard but is also controls the player with the first gamepad.

- If we want to play 2 people locally using only gamepads, player one controls both players.

Versus local gameplay only works when you only connect a gamepad, so the first player uses the keyboard and the other the gamepad.

Talking about the key mapping, it is console like, so very awkward for PC: you cannot press the key you would like to use for each movement. Instead of that, you have to go forth and back until you select your desired key.

And all these bugs and inconveniences just trying to play with friends in the same computer. I do not know if I can connect to other players online, but with the problems I am having locally, I am almost sure that online play is also full of flaws.

Bought this game for my wife and me - we wanted to play together....
We refunded after 1 hour of trying to get multiplayer to work - we just wanted to play together, ANY mode! It never worked.

Embarresing. This title should say "EARLY ACCESS" because it's not finished yet.

Tldr; DON'T DO IT.

Bought game and found the following:

Space for a dlc shop that is currently empty.
No option to rebind controls.
No support for joysticks.
Limited game modes.

2/10. It looked nice. Played terribly. Refunded after literally 5 minutes.
I'd recommend NullpoMino. Fantastic customization options all in a free download for casual and hardcore players.

This game is a disaster. There have been so many decent Tetris clones that they could've literally just copied all the features and put it in their own game to make it good. Instead, they took features that were even included in the older "official client" of Tetris Friends, and removed them.

The menu graphics are blurry, it looks like it was designed for console then just copied over to PC, most of the multiplayer and achievement features are unintuitive, the game ignores about 20% of your inputs, and there is very little depth to building up your Tetris profile.

I wrote a full review on my website: "Tetris Ultimate for Steam/PC is a disaster"

I have been waiting for this game for almost a year, and wouldn't you know it, the next time I look for its release date it's yesterday! I was so excited! And then I saw the reviews. I figured I'd waited this long so I should still buy it and give it a shot. If it's bad I'll just refund it, right?

I will be submitting my refund request as soon as I finish this review.

First thing I noticed is that I had to initiate uPlay which always reminds me of those people in high school who try to include themselves in everything you and your friends do. And since I never use uPlay, it had to update first, I had to enter the product key for the game, and then wait for it to decide to let me play.

The second thing I noticed is that my controller didn’t work. At all. I didn’t try very hard to fix it (because I’d already lost hope), but nothing I did made it so I could use my controller in any part of the game.

The menu didn’t look bad, but it was a little over the top for a tetris game. It seemed like it was designed for a touch screen. Also the key bindings in the menu were strange. Who uses the letter “O” to accept changed settings?

The gameplay didn’t seem very different from the mobile app I use, though I didn’t play it for long.

Now the music on the other hand was terrible. I thought I was playing tetris, not haunting a victorian era mansion! The only time that kind of music would be appropriate for tetris is if you were playing in a funeral home.

Ubisoft, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you haven’t been flipping the pages on your calendar, but it’s 2015. How is it that you couldn’t make a decent tetris game? All I want is to move around different shaped blocks with catchy music playing in the background. Because of you, Ubisoft, I’m just going to download a ROM of tetris from the days when game developers didn’t have their heads so far up their butts they could make a simple game about falling blocks that didn’t sound like it needed some freaking zoloft.

When free alternatives are superior in every way, you know you messed up.

Check out Harddrop.com for Tetris info and said free alternatives!

pros:
-looks pretty nice
-movement speed and soft drop speed adjustments are present, although could be a bit better
-single player game modes are decent
-multiplayer ruleset was refreshing (messy garbage, no garbage countering - promotes a new and different playstyle, rewards downstacking more)
-controller support (yay?)

cons:
-crashes when starting some game modes (randomly)
-no irs(initial rotate system - allows rotation of next piece during line clear animation/drop animation)
-no ihs(initial hold system - allows holding of next piece during line clear animation/drop animation)
(a combination of the above two results in hesitation and many misdrops)
-no customizable controls (why do you force us to use the default mappings? at least there's controller support...)
-hard to find opponents on multiplayer
-matchmaking with predefined rooms and rules?
-menus are not intuitive to navigate or interact with
-what happened to replays? The 3DS version had a working replay system, with integrated StreetPass and friend replays shown.

I probably missed a few points somewhere, but that's what I think of the game. If you want to have a bit of fun playing the single-player game modes and don't mind the game crashing a few times before you get it to work, then spend the $15 on the game. If not, don't. In my opinion, and quite ironically, The 3DS version, which is the first version of TU that was made, is the best version in terms of gameplay, although it's unfortunate that the online play was kinda bad.

This is such a shame.... Such a shame that in this day and age, we can't get a working, updated version of Tetris. After the fiasco of the next gen console releases and total lack of support for fixing them for just under a year now, I don't know why I'm surprised.

No, I cannot recommend this to anyone as it stands now. The game keep crashing, you can't remap your controls, very clunky user interface. I'd like to give an opionion about actual gameplay, but I can't due to the constant crashes. From what I can tell, seems to be a direct port of the console versions, slow play and slow line clear delay.

I'm going to give it some time to see if Ubi does anything about these issues, but I'm holding no hope going by their previous track record for the console games.

Very happy that I can get a refund through Steam for this as it's the ONLY reason I decided to purchase and try it. Was hoping to finally get a decent game with decent multiplayer, but I guess I'll have to just keep on waiting.

Okay finally arrived better late then never. I have played only about an hour and dabbled in most of the game types (Except the ones that crashed) and here's what I think.

Lets start positive because there are some good things. It looks great. I like the aesthetics it is probably one of the better looking versions of Tetris there is. People who prefer the really really minimalist designs in some of the unofficial variants like Lockjaw or Nullpolimo might not like it but I do, especially when you compare it to last gen which i really did not like. There are also a good number of game modes so every kind of player will find something they are after, whether its Marathon, Sprint or Battle. Okay thats all I got for god things so lets move on.

My criticisms are divided in 2 minds, one as an aspiring game designer and one as a Tetris fanatic.

I really dislike the approach to TU's Menu design. It looks good, and animates well. But its not intuitive and clutters the screen with a lot of information most of which is hard to direct around at first. Especially since there is no real tutorial. Or I should say there is one but its placed in a spot that no first time player is gonna find. And when you do get to it you are faced with an encyclopedia of text. If you were trying to follow the instructions you would have to constantly flop back to that menu.

I could understand if the dev team wanted to not have the players go through menu after menu but I would of rather something simpler. A starting menu that says "Online, Solo, Settings, Profile" which then opens up into something else. instead of an overwhelming amount of text as soon as you hit start.

On the subject of clicking things. I'm not sure why they decided to make somethings clickable and somethings not. Everything in the footer requires key presses and somethings require clicks. You have to be a little more consistent than that. Its like trying to play an FPS in an options menu. Also who thought it was a good idea to make the two keys to press "O" for confirm and "Backspace" for exit. Those keys are in the middle of nowhere and doesn't relate to any of the keys during play.

And now we come to some issues with the gameplay.

Something happens the faster you want to play and it comes from your expectation compared to what happens. 2 things that are really critical is line clear speed and when you are allowed to rotate the incoming piece. The longer that delay is between what you want to do next and when the game allows you to do it Is very important especially the faster you want to play. Very important for sprint players.

I am not that quick of a player, relatively speaking compared to the really really hardcore players, but even I am getting irritated with the delay. When you know what to place next, and when you know you hit the button to rotate, but the game lets you down by not keeping up with you. Its very frustrating aspect.

The decision to allow sensitivity was good. Maybe not to the degree I'd like, something finer than a 1-10 scale would of been nice, but a lot of variants don't have it so fine. The decision to Lock the Controls and the Piece orientation on the other hand is baffling to me. I had no idea they did this because I thought it was a given before it came out. I play with the numpad because it means I can rotate both ways with just my right hand. Thats how I play thats whats comftable for me. I also don't like using the space bar for drop, I prefer a smaller key and one next to my hold like "z" because i prefer using my index finger instead of my thumb.

these specific issues for everyone to play a certain way makes me think Tetris Ultimate had a very clear goal in mind and I'm not one that likes it.

If you are a casual player who doesn't play tetris often, maybe occasionally a long time ago. The game is fine. There are bugs here and there (3 of the game modes crashed on startup for me in the first 20mins) but its manageable, and if you are able to navigate the god awful tetris party up system, its okay.

The problem is I don't think its worth it to get it on PC. because if you are playing causally, 4 controllers will work, 4 keyboards won't.
More pressing is I don't think its worth your $15USD. You can get the same things from other outlets that let you satisfy that craving and then move on... and get back to Fallout 4 or something. If you hadn't already bought the game on your XBone or PS4, theres no reason to get this version.

If you are like me and you are a Hardcore player. This game is missing far to many options and crashes to many times to be taken seriously for your time. If you are a marathon player you would rather play TGM, if you are a multiplayer player you would rather play Top or Cultris. If you are a sprint player you would rather play Nullpol or Lockjaw. Most of them cater what you are after, better. and most of them are Free to play as well.

The only reason you would play Tetris Ultimate is if you hadn't tried any others.

Controller support for the Xbox One controller with the recently released wireless adapter for Win 10 is completely broken, it simulates that you're holding left on the stick permanently, making the game unplayable if you plan on using a controller.

Final final edit: don't waste time reading my review of Tetris Ultimate. If you're interested in Tetris on Steam, search for 'Puyo Puyo Tetris' instead. No problem, you're welcome.

188 of 220 people found this review helpful prior to final edit of September 3rd 2017

The game does NOT allow you to remap keys in the options menu.
I do not recommend this game.
(edit) A patch has been released that tackles this problem

The game also suffers from crashes..
(edit) The game still suffered from crashes, tested on two Win 10 systems. But I've actually been able to play without crashes on both systems after
- Running steam and Uplay as administrator and verifying the integrity of the game cache
- On one system, I also had to run the game on Win 7 compatibility mode (I've no idea why this worked)
This doesn't mean that you'll be able to run it without crashes

(edit) First impression:
There are too many small annoyances (menu, audio and visual) that has nothing to do with gameplay/game modes itself. Navigating through menus feels unintuitive. The method of remapping key bindings looks amateurish. There are some unnecessary, annoying visual effects during gameplay that can't be completely turned off. So overall, it just leaves a bad taste. This game has several game modes in addition to the standard marathon, sprint and battle, but there is nothing special, exciting or worth mentioning about them.
Online multiplayer is practically dead, and there doesn't seem to be a way to invite someone for a 1v1 match.
This game was released 1,5 years on pc after its first public announcement. However it feels (or is?) rushed, lacks proper support from Ubisoft, seems to have been a low priority money grab project, and it is clearly a lazy, unoptimized port from console to pc.

If you consider it nothing more, nothing less than a simple single player tetris game, then you could enjoy it casually on a rainy day. However, I would definitely [b]not recommend this pc version of Tetris to anyone.[/b]

PS The best thing about Tetris Ultimate is its commercial.

Bought the 3DS version, but I didn't like playing with a DPad.
Had a PS4 arcadestick lying around, so I bought the PS4 version, but I didn't like playing with bugs and a developer that is not willing to patch these.
Bought the Steam version, but I don't like it, because:

- unskipable logos/intros
- laggy logos/intros
- laggy menu
- half-ass support for my arcadesticks (which work fine with everything else), left/right is up/down, buttons don't work *
- no option to set custom controls *
- adware popping up random when exiting the game

And probably more, but I don't wanna spend more time with this than I already did. At least not until the last 3 points have been fixed.

If you wanna play a good version of Tetris, try Tetris DS or stick with the 3DS version of T.U.

* semi-fixable with Joy2Key or XPadder, but will add inputlag, rendering the game even more unplayable