Tetris Effect review — Video games get their Kuleshov effect

In the early part of the 20th century, Soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov did a series of experimental movies to determine where viewers draw meaning from a series of images. In these short films, Kuleshov would show a person’s face followed by shots of various actions. His point was that no one shot or image has meaning on its own. Instead, meaning derives from the interaction and relationship between two sequential shots.

Tetris Effect, the new puzzle game from Lumines director Tetsuya Mizuguchi, developer Resonair, and publisher Enhance, Inc., reveals something similar about video games. Out today (November 9) for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR, this falling-block puzzler maintains most of the rules and elements that Russian designer Alexey Pajitnov created for the groundbreaking original in 1984. Nearly a quarter of a century later, Tetris is evidence that it is difficult to improve upon perfection.