With Mario still stealing hours from Nintendo 3DS owners’ lives, Ubisoft has announced a release date for the next game that promises to suck up your time. And the Tetris Ultimate release date is just around the corner, meaning 3DS owners won’t get much of a break.
On November 11, Tetris Ultimate for 3DS will hit retail stores for $29.99. If you’re just as fine downloading it through the Nintendo eShop rather than picking up a retail disc, Tetris Ultimate for 3DS will only be $19.99.
A version of Tetris Ultimate for Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita and Windows PC is also in the works, though it won’t hit until “this winter,” according to Ubisoft. Winter begins in late September, so that likely means Tetris Ultimate for PS4 and Xbox One will hit sometime in early 2015.
Tetris Ultimate for Nintendo 3DS features six ways to play Tetris, plus a new single-player Challenge mode that will test the skills and determination of the most die-hard Tetris champions. Anywhere from one to four players can face-off in these seven different game modes.
In Battle Ultimate mode, players compete to be the last person playing after using crazy power-ups. Go on the offensive with Carousel and make your opponent’s Matrix shift to the left after each move, or trigger Let it Rain and dump blocks on top of them. Buzz Saw helps you advance by clearing away a number of your lines, especially useful when you’re in a spot of trouble.
In Marathon mode, players must complete level 15 and rack up as many points as they can, while in Endless mode the challenge is to keep clearing lines until your stamina runs out. In Ultra mode, players race to score as many points as possible before their three minutes runs out, while the Sprint mode is also a race against time as players try to clear 40 lines as quickly as they can.
Battle mode is a traditional head-to-head challenge in which players try to knock out one to four challengers, while the aptly named Challenge mode technically includes four mode variants:
- Master – The Tetriminos drop instantly and appear at the bottom
- Rotation Lock – The orientations of the Tetriminos are random and you cannot rotate them
- Escalation – As the game levels up, you’ll have to clear more lines
- Invisible – The Tetriminos become invisible as they drop to the bottom
When the Tetris Ultimate release date for Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita and PC rolls around, those same modes will be intact. Those versions of the game will only be available as digital downloads, not retail boxed copies.