There is a subseries of the Tetris franchise that is particularly well-known in Japan, known as Tetris: The Grand Master. Developed by Arika (the same people behind Endless Ocean Luminous and the Street Fighter EX series), the main appeal of this nearly thirty year old sub-franchise is the fact it was once the main Tetris title available on Japanese arcade parlors. It has some additional modes and whatnot, but its appeal has always been the fact it was the go-to arcade version of the most famous puzzler of all time.

Well, yes, it’s a Tetris game. It looks just like one should.

The series laid dormant for more than twenty years, only for it to finally make a comeback with its fourth iteration, Tetris: The Grand Master 4 – Absolute Eye, in 2024. At first, it was just a PC exclusive, the first one in the series not to be released on arcade machines, losing a bit of what made it special in the first place. And now, a few years later, the same port is finally available on Nintendo Switch. You know, the one console definitely not lacking in Tetris games at this point in time.

Tetris: The Grand Master 4 – Absolute Eye is interesting if all you want is a pretty standard, straight to the point Tetris game with modern rulesets. If Tetris Forever, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Tetris 99 or Tetris Effect are too different from the core concept of the original puzzle in your opinion, there is some appeal in grabbing this uninnovative, but highly competent take on the formula. There are plenty of modes included in this package, some of them being a Marathon mode which starts off in the absolute highest difficulty from the getgo, or one with gigantic tetrominoes, but at the end of the day, it’s just classic Tetris.

Look, I’m struggling with screenshots here. What else can I showcase?

There is nothing here that even makes you realize that this subseries started off as an arcade game. Not even the one competitive mode against the CPU or another player, which has the standard formula of dropping extra lines onto the enemy’s side in case you perform combos, makes Tetris: The Grand Master 4 – Absolute Eye stand out. That being said, in no moment was I thinking this was a bad game. Far from it, it’s still Tetris. If you stick to the series’ rulesets, mandatory physics and controls, you might not strike gold, but you’ll still be able to come up with a competent product that works well on a portable like the Switch.

I guess there’s this mode with giant tetrominoes… but at the end of the day, it’s just Tetris in tighter spaces.

I will always welcome another Tetris game, so I can’t say I didn’t have a good time playing Tetris: The Grand Master 4 – Absolute Eye. Despite being a total unoriginal game, the kind of Tetris game you’ve played a billion times ever since you were born, it retains all of the mechanics and rulesets that make Tetris so appealing in the first place. Even if it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it’s impossible to call it a bad game. It’s highly competent and worth checking out if you’re a die-hard fan of the franchise, but at this point in time, you must own two or three different Tetris games for your Switch, at the very least.

Tetris: The Grand Master 4 – Absolute Eye is available now on PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Switch.

A copy of Tetris: The Grand Master 4 – Absolute Eye was provided by the publisher.