Tetris is an iconic series and has seen a variety of incarnations. We all know of the Nintendo incarnations on the NES and Game Boy, and there were many other great variations like Tetris The Grand Master and Puyo Puyo Tetris. It is a concept that is surprisingly adaptable and Nintendo and Arika showed that to great effect with Tetris 99, a Battle Royale take on the game that saw you play against 98 other players. But there is something else about Tetris 99 that needs to be mentioned and it involves its roots as an Nintendo Switch Online title
When Xbox Live first launched, Microsoft needed a big game to go with it and convince people to buy the service, which they found in Halo 2. That game drove sales of Xbox Live subscriptions and remained the most popular online game of the original Xbox and was the last title to lose its online capabilities. A game that sells this well, is what is called a Killer App. or Killer Application. A piece of software (or hardware features in some cases) that drive sales of a product. To put this in simpler terms, it is a a system seller, which is something every service or console needs to have in order to succeed.. When Nintendo launched Nintendo Switch Online, they used classic NES games as a bonus, but there was no real incentive to buy just to play online. That was, until Tetris 99.
Tetris 99 quickly became the Killer App for Nintendo Switch Online, much like Tetris was the Killer App for the original Game Boy. But there was a good reason for its success in the long run and that was that the game launched at the height of the Battle Royale game craze, with many online even referring to the game as Tetris Battle Royale. But even outside of Battle Royale style gameplay, the competitive Tetris scene is a very intense one. The scene is extremely passionate and players like Chris Tang have helped raise the profile of Tetris as a competitive game. The result was less of a genre change for Tetris, and more of a game that focused on that competitive scene and gave the best players a chance to go at it.
Nintendo turned to Arika to develop the game, and while they may be more well known in the west for fighting games, they also developed aforementioned Tetris: The Grand Master series of arcade games. These are games meant to challenge players on a new level and with new ideas. They are extremely well regarded and Arika are known as masters of Tetris. As such, while Tetris 99 uses more traditional style of gameplay, its clear that Arika used what they learned in TGM to make an excellent experience. The online experience playing Tetris 99 is nothing short of amazing as well, and watching people stream the game can be just as exhilarating as playing it yourself due to how a match can turn around at a moment’s notice.
The result is an amazingly well designed game, with a very clear audience, and a very competitive online mode and most of all, a very receptive fandom. But what is more important is that the game is free for anyone with a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online. Nintendo may have added paid DLC to the game and a physical cartridge, but the core experience is still there for anyone with an online subscription. The game has helped make Nintendo Switch online that much more appealing and there is no doubt that Tetris 99 is a subscription seller for the reason’s stated above. Sometimes, the best way to sell an online service is to go beyond expectations and that is what Nintendo and Arika have done here. If you have played the game, you are already hooked, and if you haven’t, its time to get a subscription to see for yourself.