Tetris 99 Coming to the Mobile Platform

Alright, we know we’ve been pretty heavy on the Tetris news lately, but trust us when we say that, for the past few weeks, the popular franchise has simply been the gift that keeps on giving. Nevertheless, we promise we’ll keep it short this time around.

The game about dropping blocks in an orderly fashion is on its 35th anniversary, which is a nice number for the franchise to reinvent itself. And what better way to make a comeback than by adding battle royale mechanics?

The battle royale genre is arguably the most popular type of multiplayer games of the decade, with bangers such as PUBG and Fortnite taking the PC world by storm. However, if we were asked to guess which game would adopt these mechanics around 7 months ago, Tetris would’ve been our last guess. In fact, Tetris wouldn’t have even crossed our minds in the slightest. While it’s true that the game has a multiplayer component in some iterations, a battle royale approach is miles away from the core charm of the franchise.

Nevertheless, the folks at the Tetris Company and Nintendo definitely made it work as Tetris 99 is a huge hit. The Switch exclusive title has around 3 million downloads at the moment of writing. While the number of downloads pales in comparison to the 500 million+ total sales that the franchise has made since its inception in 1984, it’s a very decent number of downloads for a standalone game. Even today, you can boot up Tetris 99 and find a match in less than 5 seconds, which is a testament to the game’s quality.

For reference, other entries in the battle royale genre come and go, with blunders like The Culling 2 releasing and dying out in less than 24 hours. This means that, while the genre is very popular, its games don’t survive by riding the coattails of the others and must innovate or add their own unique spin if they want to make it in this highly-competitive market.

As you may glean by the past few articles, we’re among those loyal users that religiously play Tetris 99 on a daily basis. However, while the Switch is a prime console for games like these, which you can pick up and play at any time, portability is a prime feature for enjoying Tetris. Moreover, while the Switch is small and can be played on the go as a handheld, it’s still much too large to take on more formal settings such as work. This means that you’ll likely enjoy the game at home or when hanging out with your buddies.

Fortunately, for the loyal Tetris 99 players that want to practice on the go, the game is reportedly coming out for mobile devices.

Dubbed “Tetris Royale,” this is a collaboration project between The Tetris Company and N3TWORK and based on the aforementioned popular Tetris 99 game. Royale is coming out later this year for Android and iOS devices. This announcement was made alongside another reveal that both companies were engaging in a multi-year partnership, hinting at the fact that many other games might come in the future.

Sadly, there are still no news nor previews available for the game, but judging from the original, the mobile version will include its eponymous battle royale game mode. While the specifics still elude us, we know that it’ll also include solo play, some multiplayer game modes, and several challenges to keep the players regularly coming back for more. And seeing as it’s a mobile game, there are surely going to be certain cosmetic items or powerups available as in-game purchases.

In terms of release date, the collaborating companies stated that the game will come out at some time in late 2019. You can keep on top of the latest developments in this project by following both N3TWORK and The Tetris Company on Twitter. Regardless, while we’re probably going silent on this topic for the time being, you can bet that we’ll also keep an eye out for any new developments on this project.