PAX Prime 2014: ‘Tetropolis’ Combines Metroid & Tetris! And Its Awesome!

One of the highlights of my trip was getting a hands on with the most unique Indie game at PAX Prime 2014, Tetropolis.

Now you may be asking yourself, “How on EARTH can NextGen Pants combine two drastically different games?”, well I’m about to tell you!

You play as a discarded Tetromino. You came out into the world destined to be a complete, four square piece. Aspirations of being a T or an L, but alas out of the machine you were missing your last cube. You are quickly discarded, some unseen force deems your garbage. You fall into a pit of other Tertrominos. This is when the cinematic ends and the player takes over.

I quickly got my bearings and moved forward, finding a lone cube piece sitting there. I rolled over and soon the main character was born. Born of two less main characters. This is where the demo and the journey began.

Tetropolis plays like your standard Metroidvania style game. Going through levels, finding power ups and items, and back tracking with said new power ups to get a little bit further. If you can’t figure it out by it’s name, think Metroid and Castlevania.

The levels themselves are actually giant Tetrominos that, if the player reaches a control room, can move and rotate them around in order to solve puzzles, get around obstacles, or reach the levels boss fight.

The controls are very easy to learn. Left stick rolls your Tetromino around like a ball, while the right control stick rotates you in place. A button makes you jump, X uses abilities, and Y transforms you to other shapes you acquire.

The version I played at PAX, you can play too yourself! Head on over to their Kickstarter Page and get the demo RIGHT NOW for free!

The atmosphere was really great, I had a strong Oddworld/dystopian vibe going while I played it. Ominous machinery and propaganda posters adorned the level. The Developers said that there is going to be a strong narrative throughout the game. They said they wanted it to specifically not be in any one language, that the narrative would move forward just on visuals alone. The one thing you can understand in ANY language is Tetris, and they wanted to have that ubiquitous appeal come through with Tetropolis.

I am personally going to back this game, the little that I got to play on the show floor sold me. It was cute and endearing. Balanced complexity and ease of use very well.

Fore more information on Tetropolis head on over to their website HERE.

Donate to their Kickstarter HERE!