What would happen if you turned Tetris into a platforming puzzle game? If you’ve ever been the least bit curious, then you’re in the right place! TETRA’s Escape tasks you with using numerous Tetra (Tetra seems to be both the singular and plural form) to reach the exit portal on each level. You can climb a single square in height, move left or right, and drop down from blocks, but aside from those basic movements, you’ll have to rely on other Tetra to reach your goal. You’re typically given numerous Tetra to control (swapped between with the right and left buttons on PS4) and most Tetra can change shape into various Tetris shapes. Need a bridge? If you’ve got a Tetra that can morph into a straight piece you’re set! Levels usually have the Tetra in various starting positions, so you may need to use one to get another out to aid in the puzzle. As the levels go on you’ll encounter all sorts of twists and variations on the rules, such as Tetra turning into a single square stone if they fall from too high, shapes that can be undone with a bomb and Tetra that are asleep and must be touched by another Tetra to wake them up.
While the exit portal is your goal, if you’re any kind of a completionist you’ll also want to collect the three stars and trophy on each level. These add extra challenges to each level, especially the trophy as it appears only after you’ve collected all three stars. Often you’ll have to create a special path to get it or leave a Tetra behind to grab it after the other stars are all collected. The stars and trophies don’t do anything in the game aside from grant achievements/trophies, but the added, optional challenge is nice.
The one point that’s a bit shaky with TETRA’s Escape is the difficulty level. While the game does a terrific job of introducing new things one at a time and giving you several levels to learn how to use them, it felt like levels went through a cycle of “really easy, pretty hard, hard, REALLY HARD” after the first dozen levels or so were completed. I wish the game allowed you to use stars to unlock areas instead of having to complete each one in order; as it is I got hung up and had to look up solutions several times whereas otherwise I could’ve gone about my completionist ways and earned my way past the harder levels, giving me the option of trying them again later. This was especially true on the levels with a bunch of Tetra that could be almost any shape – even more so once you’re given the ability to mirror and rotate each shape – since it’s hard to visually line up a bunch of steps. Even one mess-up often means restarting the whole level, and if you’re a true completionist and figure a puzzle out after multiple tries only to find out the trophy is inaccessible with your solution you’ll have to try yet again. I would’ve loved some graphing paper with this game!
I don’t normally mention the grammar in a game, but TETRA’s Escape could’ve used some editing. The writing is easy enough to figure out, like “If Tetra falls more than 3 boxes height” clearly means “If a Tetra falls from a height of more than 3 boxes”; “Musics” in the options with a slider clearly means you can adjust the volume of the music; and “by fire ou fall” in the Statistics menu obviously meant to use “or” instead of “ou”. It just comes off as unprofessional in a finished product is all.
Price rarely affects my review, but at an MSRP of only $5 (even on Switch!), this is a pretty nifty little puzzle game. The sound effects and graphics are cute, and the game had enough new things added throughout the levels that it never felt like I was just doing the same thing. Anyone who likes block puzzles will have an easy time getting their money’s worth out of it, and it makes for a unique game for Tetris fans as well! You might just wanna pick up some graphing paper at the store in preparation.
Tetra’s Escape is available on PS4 (reviewed), Vita, Switch, Xbox One and Steam (Windows).
I received a free copy of this game in exchange for an honest review.