Blocks fall from the sky, you can turn them and move them right and left as they fall, and the goal is to use those blocks to form unbroken lines at the bottom of the screen. It plays just like the Tetris you know and remember.

Tetris 99 turns the classic puzzler’s competitive multiplayer mode into a full-fledged battle royale game, with up to 99 different online players competing directly against each other. If you always thought Tetris would be better as a brutal war of attrition, pitting you against dozens of other players to see who can emerge from the block-strewn battlefield as the sole victor, well, Nintendo has good news for you. It’s been a good year for games so far, and here are the 20 works most responsible for that. The best games aren’t just “fun” but have something to say, as well, even if that something is as simple as “hey, build a Mario already, for crying out loud.”Ģ019 is only half over but it’s already been full of games that meet both criteria, the tactile physical thrills we hope to encounter with a controller in our hand, and the intellectual and emotional resonance that makes a game stick with us long after we put that controller down. But we’ve all got to do something to stay stable in this world we live in, and the power of games isn’t just the escapism they provide but the ability they have to influence our moral and philosophical thinking. We’re not advocating that anybody do that, of course-it’s not healthy or smart, and such resignation would represent a clear victory for the forces of fear that Marianne Williamson promises to defeat with love.

If you want to avert your eyes to the outside world, double lock your mind and focus on anything but modern day life, videogames can be your friend.

Thanks, videogames: we really needed you this year.

Best games of 2017 so fat