Tetris: The Grand Master is a series of really hard Tetris games developed for arcades by Japanese company Arika – and it looks like they're finally coming to home consoles.
The news broke following a tweet from Arika vice-president Ichiro Mihara, who stated that the official announcement of the ports was supposed to be today, but it "had to be withheld for reasons beyond our control". So basically, the delay of the announcement is the announcement.
Mihara adds that Arika has been considering an all-new Grand Master entry, but adds that the licensor – The Tetris Company, we'd assume – "has made it conditional on the success of these ports".
Inspired by Sega's arcade version of Tetris as well as the fan-made Shimizu Tetris, Arika's series has a focus on obtaining a high score via a special ranking system. The first game was released in Japanese arcades in 1998 and was followed by Tetris: The Absolute - The Grand Master 2 in October 2000 and Tetris: The Grand Master 3 - Terror‑Instinct in March 2005. The only console version so far is a spin-off for the Xbox 360, Tetris: The Grand Master Ace.
The most recent entry, Tetris: The Grand Master 4 - The Masters of Round, was announced in 2009 but was formally cancelled the following year. It would later resurface in 2015 as The Grand Master 2015, due to the lack of a licencing deal; it was location-tested in Japan and North America but never officially released.
While platforms haven't been announced, we'd imagine Switch will be included. Nintendo's system isn't short of Tetris these days, with Tetris 99, Tetris Effect, Puyo Puyo Tetris (and its sequel) all already available on the platform.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 39
This is like the fifth Tetris game we're probably getting on the Switch, and I still intend to play all of them.
The Tetris Master games are absolutely brutal, that video with the Invisible Tetris round blew my mind as a kid!
The Switch has almost more Tetris than Mario games.
Tetris Effect is the game dreams are made of.... there is no going back after that one to any of these others. All puzzle games should have such appeal, it would the genre much credit over looking like a bunch of Win95 flash games.
I love tetris but I can't spot a T spin opportunity to save my daaaaam life so I'm out.
Nice! I've always wanted to try my hand at Grand Master. I'm at the point where I can almost always play through Tetris Effect's Expert mode without dying, so I'd love to be able to play the toughest modern Tetris out there. I really need to learn the T-spin meta, though. I'm still a right-side gap Tetris player.
No T-Spins here, either. I'm always happy enough to get a simple Tetris.
Tetris Effect and Puyo Puyo Tetris are the two main ones played in our household. Tetris DX on the GBC was my favourite for a long time, but I think one of those two is now my new favourite..
.. But which!?!
I'm so confused as to why there are so many Tetris games on the market at once.
Tetris Grand Master! I've been wanting a console port of this beautifully horrific game for a very long time.
F that. I’m bad at regular tetris. I know I won’t be playing the Dark Souls version.
Add me on to the list of people who only gets T-spins by accident.
Anyway, Tetris Effect and Tetris 99 is all the Tetris I should ever need unless there's a really compelling twist on the concept.
That's a lot of Tetris. ⬜
Time to throw this on the pile then, lol. I have every Tetris title on Switch (including Tetris Diamond, a Japan exclusive port of a flip phone version of Tetris that was [presumably] also Japan exclusive), and I’d very much like to keep it that way.
That's a lot of Tetris but Puyo Puyo still is in the lead on having more games on Switch right behind Sonic (which will have it 4th version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on Switch soon).
I can't recall for sure but was Arika made of former Capcom employees?
They sure know the Capcom way of naming games!
@JRJalapeno You can't wait for life to give you opportunities, you have to make them...
@MH4 Wait... what!?
So I can play this on XBox as well as Super Puzzle Fighter?
I've never wanted anything more in my entire life.
@TryToBeHopeful I know, right?? I randomly saw it in a video one day and was shocked. It was only about 500¥, so I got a 1000¥ code from PlayAsia and gave it a whirl. As you’d expect of an emulated version of a flip phone version of Tetris, it’s a little clunky, but it works! It’s a really neat piece of history.
I would be leaving a comment here, but due to circumstances out of my control, my comment is being delayed.
@Mando44646 Because you just can't beat Tetris.
Why does everyone forget tricky towers exists. Even more Tetris
@Grim Tricky Towers isn’t Tetris though. It’s dropping blocks, but with different goals.
So which version is it?
Yeah I know this is supposed to be one of the best versions but we've already had Tetris Effect recently, so releasing this off the back of Tetris Effect makes you wonder what the Tetris Company is thinking (I know they're not making the game themselves, just licensing out the rights to external developers, but still)
EDIT: My bad I should have read the article in full, so this is not at all confirmed for Switch or anything.
@Wyatt006 I too, was about to leave a comment, but the people responsible for writing the comment have been sacked.
@SamirMalik Sure you can:
https://youtu.be/l_KY_EwZEVA
@TheAwesomeBowser I really only play Tetris 99 for online, then if i want something more solid probably Puyo Puyo Tetris or Tetris Effect, other than that, don't see much value in buying others, I'd go for the free mobile version, but the new one just sucks
@MH4 Kinda wanted to ask, what's your name stand for? Monster Hunter 4?
@Edwirichuu I've tried a bunch of iterations on Tetris on mobile, and they all control horribly. Which isn't really surprising, but I just can't enjoy playing them.
I play Tetris 99 occasionally, Puyo Puyo Tetris for local multiplayer and Tetris Effect for audiovisual experience. Master mode in Tetris Effect is also so much fun!
Didn’t the guy who made these games tell people to stop emulating them even though they are japan exclusive?
Now just imagine if more versions of Tetris were added onto the NSO NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis libraries.....
@Edwirichuu Lol nah, I’m not really a Monster Hunter guy. It’s short for “MasterHand4444” which is a name I made as a young teen because I love Smash Bros. and I love the number four 😂 The shortened version has stuck with me all these years; a little late to change it now!
We are getting spoiled rotten for Tetris, aren't we.
Yay. Gimme more Tetris. That's never a bad thing.
@Specter_of-the_OLED How do ya figure? Puyo Puyo Tetris series aside as those obviously count for both, Tetris has two others - Tetris 99 and Tetris Effect, to Puyo only having Puyo Puyo Champions.
Looking forward to these.
I love Tetris but I like it to relax and I'm not quite good enough for something like this...I think I'll stick with the occasional rank 1 in Tetris 99 as my Tetris challenge.
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